Golf
Nelly Korda shot a final-round 69 at Riviera Country Club to outlast a pack of accomplished chasers climbing up the leaderboard on Sunday. Ashley Landis / Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — The putt that will play on repeat from Nelly Korda’s U.S. Women’s Open victory swirled dangerously around the rim of the 18th cup and induced all of Riviera Country Club with a momentary panic attack.
But the putt that landed Korda her fourth major title came one hole earlier. It measured 9 feet, 2 inches, breaking severely from left to right. It marked one of the few instances all day that Korda brought in her caddie, Jason McDede, for a consultation. And it was the kind of putt that Korda recognized instantly.
This one was a must-make.
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“That putt is the reason why I’m here,” Korda said in her post-round news conference, referencing her eventual birdie on No. 17. “I threw out a double fist pump on that hole because I knew what it meant.”
GET IN THERE!!
Nelly Korda finds every bit of the cup to win the U.S. Women’s Open!@Ally pic.twitter.com/3Sz0jIz5XM
— U.S. Women’s Open (@uswomensopen) June 7, 2026
Korda described her tournament-winning moment while sitting next to the Harton S. Semple Trophy, the piece of hardware she’s been dreaming about since teeing up in her first U.S. Women’s Open at age 14. But she couldn’t have imagined her victory looking like this.
Korda did not win this championship by hitting it the straightest or demonstrating her most flawless golf. The No. 1 player in the world pulled out the most important victory of her career by scrambling to clean up unforced errors, battling her own golf swing and wading through a relatable pool of self-doubt. With the win, Korda, 27, became the youngest player to reach four major championships since Mickey Wright in 1960 and the first American player to win the first two majors of the season since Pat Bradley in 1986.
Korda shot a 2-under 69 on Sunday to win by one shot.
The U.S. Women’s Open has historically eluded Korda. She finished runner-up last year at Erin Hills, and the year before, at Lancaster, she carded a 10 on a single hole and missed the cut.
Korda wanted this one so badly that it consumed her — even up until the final moments of her eventual victory.
“Even mid-round, I was like, ‘Well, will I ever win it?’” she said.
“Every year, I never played well,” she continued. “I was always over par or I made a mess of a hole at Lancaster, and I just felt like that dream was almost kind of like slipping away. But it was still keeping me very much so motivated.”
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But instead of submitting to those very human doubts, Korda took the championship one shot at a time, as the cliche says. She needed to, because the shots weren’t always materializing like the ones that she drew up in her mind.
Korda came out of the gates Thursday with a 2-over 73 that could have been a much larger number. Her driver, typically the strongest club in her bag, was shooting out to the right, making it impossible to hold Riviera’s minuscule, undulating greens with her approach shots. Pars were difficult to come by, let alone birdies. It was a surprising start considering Korda’s recent record. She entered this week with three wins already this season, including her third major championship victory in April at the Chevron. In seven tournaments, Korda finished outside the top two only once — a T-8 finish at her previous event.
So on Thursday evening, Korda’s sister, Jessica — a six-time LPGA Tour winner currently taking maternity leave from the game — studied her swing on the driving range.
She noticed something: Korda’s grip had shifted to a weaker position, and to straighten out her tee shots, she’d benefit from strengthening it. The only problem? A grip change is one of the most difficult adjustments for any golfer to make, and Korda was presented with the tip during the middle of a major championship.
The elder Korda sister could barely sleep at night knowing that she advised such a precarious mid-tournament tweak for the world No. 1.
“It is so uncomfortable. I think the hardest thing in the game of golf is to change your grip,” she said. “I was fiddling with it so much, even on the range, my sister was like, ‘I just saw you regrip your grip four times before you hit that one shot.’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, because it feels awful. … I don’t recommend it. I do not recommend changing your grip during a major championship.”
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That Korda was able to go on and post back-to-back rounds of 67 with her new grip is a testament to her extreme athleticism. She launched herself back into the tournament with those Friday and Saturday rounds, finding herself tied at the top at 6-under heading into the final round. Sunday was her first appearance in the U.S. Women’s Open final pairing. Now Korda can say she is one-for-one.
Korda’s win came as a hungry pack of accomplished players sought to chase her down from behind. Charley Hull shot a final-round 67 — with an eagle at the first and a near-ace — to put the pressure on Korda early. Mexico’s Gaby López made four birdies in her final nine holes to tie Hull for the clubhouse lead. And three-time major champion Chun In-gee grabbed a solo lead at one point, adding the dangerous threat of U.S. Women’s Open experience, before a rocky finish. Korda’s birdie on the 17th hole finally separated her from that bunched leaderboard.
“She made it on the 71st hole. A very big putt,” said Petr Korda, Korda’s father, the former world No. 2 Czech tennis player. “And you know, the other girls, they just couldn’t do it.”
Korda said she won the championship with her “B” game, and the numbers prove it. Korda hit only 42 of 72 greens in regulation at Riviera. Seventeen players bested her in that statistical category. But Korda’s short game saved her all week: She got up-and-down 24 of the 30 times she missed the green, often choosing to chip even if she was just a few feet from the putting surface.
“Every up-and-down was very crucial,” Korda said. “I would not be sitting here if it wasn’t for my lovely wedge and my lovely putter.”
Even if Korda hit a 2-foot, 10-inch putt so far offline it nearly missed the cup on her 72nd hole, her victory was career-defining in the resilience that it required from every angle. The four-day grind that Korda just completed will feel that much sweeter when she remembers what it took to get there.
“I’m just extremely proud of my fight this week,” she said, “and the dream of that little girl that you get to check off your bucket list.”
Heart palpitations and all, Korda is a U.S. Women’s Open champion at last.
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