Nelly Korda Wins The U.S. Women's Open
Final round 69 is enough to hold off Hull, Lopez, Chun and Kim for her second consecutive major win and first USGA title. Full coverage including a mini-Champions, Cutmakers and (Point) Missers.
-8: Winning score of Nelly Korda
72.162: Round 4 scoring average (par 71)
73.349: Cumulative scoring
67: Low final round by Charley Hull, Parjaree Anannarukarn
6,708: Final round yardage
70: Sunday’s high temperature under sunny skies, strong SE breezes
History will say the par clincher measured 2 feet, 10 inches.
But with all due respect to the advanced metrics provided by the PGA Tour’s brilliant ShotLink system, Nelly Korda’s winning putt in the 81st United States Women’s Open traveled another 10 inches after wrapping around most of the cup’s 13.35-inch circumference. When it finally dropped, the 27-year-old recorded a second consecutive major victory. But this one came in a championship the red-white-and-blue-blooded Bradenton, Florida native wanted the most.
“A nice ice cream swirl to cap off the day,” Korda said through a mix of tears and laughs. “Why did I leave myself such a long putt?”
The 27-year-old posted a final round 69 armed with less than her best. But in a befitting, if more congenial version of steadiness reminiscent of Riviera’s first USGA champion, Korda maintained Hogan-like calm in the face of charges by a fantastic cast of characters named Charley Hull, Gaby Lopez, Ingee Chun, and Sei Young Kim.
“When I entered the back nine, all [caddie Jason McDede] and I were talking about was one shot at a time,” Korda said. “Not getting too ahead of myself. Not looking at the leaderboard, seeing what other people were doing. It was just a shot at a time.”
Over four days, one component of Korda’s game kept her hanging around enough to ultimately lift the Harton Semple Trophy: a short game performance for the ages.
The driving that plagued Korda in the opening rounds became machine-like on the weekend thanks to a grip change suggestion from her sister Jessica.
“It’s the hardest thing in the game of golf is to change your grip,” Korda 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 do not recommend changing your grip during a major championship.”
Nelly’s final round iron play lacked the crisp sound heard during Saturday’s 67. On a kikuyu golf course with hard greens measuring 13 on the Stimpmeter, the approach struggles meant Korda’s chipping and putting would make the difference in holding off runners-up Hull and Lopez.
“My most stressful part of the golf course [was] on Thursday,” Korda said. “I just kept hitting these drives out right, out right, and out right, and I kept telling J, I can’t compete on this golf course if I’m not in the fairway. Like you cannot stop it on these greens. Am I just going to continuously just depend on my short game? Which I did throughout the whole week"? I did depend on my short game.”
As calm as she looked, Korda was not expecting the stress of losing her confidence overnight.
“The most stressful thing was, I had no idea what happened from Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday to Thursday, where I was drawing it beautifully, hitting it pure, and then all of a sudden, like I was just sending it 20 yards right of my target.”
By Sunday, it was the incredible play and persistence of her peers that created the most stress. There were multiple four-way ties throughout the sunny, windy final round. But none more tense than when Korda stepped up to her second shot for a go at the par-5 17th.
A roar from the packed crowd around the famous amphitheater 18th green filtered down Santa Monica Canyon when Gaby Lopez made a 15-footer for birdie to join Charley Hull (65-67 weekend) in the clubhouse lead at seven-under-par.
Following a 285-yard drive on the penultimate hole, Korda’s approach fell in line with many of her other less-than-crisp final-round approaches. She advanced the 223-yard shot only 205 yards. But she missed this one short and left of a pin cut 19 paces into the green and only three paces over the pronounced tier. Korda wedged to nine feet and faced a deciding downhill putt. It’s a strange one because it doesn’t break as much to the right as it looks or as Riviera’s natural tilt toward the Pacific would dictate. But Korda had been sinking three-footers all day on the “poa” greens that her male counterparts whine about. The steady hands and smooth stroke came through again for her third birdie.
“What I’ve been doing with my putting is just really looking at my intermediate target right in front of the ball where I want to roll it over and I knew that I needed to make it,” Korda said. “I knew it was going to be a really fast putt so I needed to put decent pace on it with how much I was playing it left-to-right.
“And I don’t really throw out fist pumps too often, but I did this weekend. I threw out a couple fist pumps here and there and I threw out a double fist pump on that hole because I knew what it meant.”
Korda went to the famed 18th one stroke ahead. She uncorked a 288-yard drive down the middle, but again came up surprisingly short. She would need two putts from 34’8” to win the major she’s wanted most.
“I wish that putt was closer (laughing),” Korda said. “It makes it really cool to walk up to see the iconic golf, the clubhouse and everyone sitting around cheering me on. I had to honestly, a couple times, tell myself, okay, stay in the moment, stay in the moment, because I was dreaming, I was dreaming of hoisting the trophy a little too early. And I kept reverting back, I’m like the job’s not done, the job’s not done, yeah.”
After a pre-victory lap, the putt dropped, and the stoic Korda’s jaw dropped.
“That 14-year-old girl that stepped on the range at Sebonack in 2013, I mean, her dream has just come true sitting next to this trophy right now,” Korda said. “This week was definitely a grind. I don’t even feel like I had my B game (laughing). I was just grinding out there. And that’s what I guess major championships are all about, right? It doesn’t matter if you have your B or C game, you have to be there mentally.”
Korda’s on-course growth into an uber-steady presence is one of the more incredible career evolutions in the long history of the game. Always a fast player, Korda could get easily annoyed at slow-playing partners and rounds. She often pulled the trigger on shots too quickly. Fast forward a few years, and the quiet energy she exudes never goes full Hogan at the expense of remaining in touch with the course and crowds who adore her graceful presence.
“L.A. definitely showed up and it was a lot of fun to play in front of amazing crowds,” Korda said. “It’s amazing to see how much our Tour has grown in that standpoint of dads, parents, coming out with their little kids. I mean, that’s kind of what makes what we get to do so much sweeter.
“And getting those fist pumps and people being kind of in my shoes, I was in their shoes growing up too. Like, someone inspired me to pick up the game of golf. I looked up to a bunch of different athletes. For me to hold that spot for these little girls, these little boys, means the world to me, and I hope that they get to hoist that trophy one day, too.”
Nelly Korda By The Numbers
73-67-67-69: Korda’s four rounds
276: Nelly Korda’s winning total
276: Ben Hogan’s winning total in the 1948 U.S. Open at Riviera
7: Stroke deficit after the first round, tying the largest ever to go on and win (Park, 2017), Mallon, 2004, Berning, 1972, Mann, 1965).
2: Major titles, four LPGA Tour wins in 2026
39 of 56: Fairways hit (T18)
263.5: Avg yards of all drives (11th)
270.3: Avg. yards on measuring holes (11th)
42 of 72: Greens in regulation (32)
39’11: Proximity average of
24 of 30: Scrambling (1st)
107: Total putts
253’4”: Putts made (3.560: Strokes gained putting)
Champions
Nelly Korda. The patient calm and refusal to get annoyed as the younger Nelly might have? So satisfying to witness. And connecting with fans despite the spotlight and favorite status? What a performance befitting of Hogan’s Alley. The golf world is officially on Grand Slam watch.
Charley Hull. Whatta character, whatta swing, and whatta third round 65 that kept going Sunday with a 67. But Charley. The Malibu hate? Here’s guessing if you stayed in a house on Broad Beach you might think a tad differently about The Bu.
Gaby Lopez. Look out: she just birdied the last hole at Riviera to join the clubhouse lead of the U.S. Women’s Open. A brilliant performance that started with early trips to Riviera, scouting out its intricacies. But it’s another thing to translate the studying into an A performance.