Tuesday At The 81st U.S. Women's Open
Nelly speaks, Tee Times announced, Quotable, course previews, dreamy golf swings and an even dreamier forecast.
The first women’s major winner of 2026 arrived at Riviera looking rested and sounding ready to improve on last year’s best-ever U.S. Women’s Open finish.
“I’m just a lot more comfortable in my skin,” Nelly Korda said on Tuesday. “I know what I want to do when I come out. There’s a process. There’s structure. There’s not like looking around thinking, oh, should I do this? Should I do a little bit more? I just come out here with a plan and I execute it.”
Korda reveals she does not do much advance homework on venues.
“I just try to play the golf course and kind of figure it out on my own,” she said while noting caddie Jason McDede and coach Jamie Mulligan have done plenty of Riviera homework to answer her questions.
“I was just asking [Mulligan] some questions, but sometimes too much information isn’t really good,” Korda said after revealing she had played Riviera only once prior to Monday’s 18-hole practice round and a nine-hole session on Tuesday.
“I played out here once in 2024, but they had the temporary greens on the par-3s,” she said of permanent alternate greens still employed even though Riviera is a lightly-played billionaire’s club.
Korda already seems to know what she’ll be doing on the short par-4 10th, where she will start Thursday morning at 7:29 a.m. alongside Hyo Joo Kim and Hannah Green.
“It just depends on what time of day I play and what wind I’m getting. I know in the afternoon it will probably be more into off the right. If they push up the tee box, I’ll be a little bit more aggressive. But if they push the tee box, if the tee box is back, I’m just going to kind of lay it up, try to use the left side of the fairway so I can have a better angle into the green.”
In 11 U.S. Women’s Open appearances, Korda has a T10, T8 and three missed cuts to go along with last year’s best-ever T2 at Erin Hills. That performance ended up one of the lone highlights in a peculiar 2025 season, where her scoring average (69.44) was slightly better than her seven-win 2024 (69.44).
“Last year was just a weird year of kind of not necessarily playing my best, but also when I did, not getting the bounces or just missing by a centimeter here and there,” the 27-year-old said. “But I also learned a lot about myself. It made me hungrier to be in those positions.”
As for the USA soccer jersey featuring number 13?
“It’s my favorite number. One, my parents [birthdays] are 13 days apart. Our second major was my 13th win. It’s just always been a lot of people think Friday the 13th or 13 has been an unlucky number, but I’ve always loved the number 13.
“I know that the World Cup is starting next week, right? So there’s no better place to be patriotic than the U.S. Women’s Open.”
As for how much soccer she watches?
“If I’m being honest, not much, no, but I will.”
Tee Times
The USGA announced groupings for rounds one and two (viewable here).
First tee’s notable groups on Thursday:
12:52 p.m. / 7:07 a.m. - Carlota Ciganda, Spain; Aki Iwai, Japan; Jennifer Kupcho, Westminster, Colo.
1:03 p.m. / 7:18 a.m. - Charley Hull, England; Jeeno Thitikul, Thailand; Patty Tavatanakit, Thailand
1:14 p.m. / 7:29 a.m. - Lydia Ko, New Zealand; Mao Saigo, Japan; Lauren Coughlin, Charlottesville, Va.
1:25 p.m. / 7:40 a.m. - Brooke Henderson, Canada; Celine Boutier, France; Rio Takeda, Japan
Tenth tee’s notable Thursday groups:
7:07 a.m. / 12:52 p.m. - Maja Stark, Sweden; Megha Ganne, Holmdel, N.J.; Miyu Yamashita, Japan
7:18 a.m. / 1:03 p.m. - Minjee Lee, Australia; Lottie Woad, England; Nasa Hataoka, Japan
7:29 a.m. / 1:14 p.m. - Nelly Korda, Bradenton, Fla.; Hyo Joo Kim, Republic of Korea; Hannah Green, Australia
7:40 a.m. / 1:25 p.m. - Angel Yin, Arcadia, Calif.; Gaby Lopez, Mexico; Ruoning Yin, People’s Republic of China
7:51 a.m. / 1:36 p.m. - Sei Young Kim, Republic of Korea; Linn Grant, Sweden; Andrea Lee, Hermosa Beach, Calif.
12:41 p.m. / 6:56 AM - Minsol Kim, Republic of Korea; Lilia Vu, Fountain Valley, Calif.; Nanna Koerstz Madsen, Denmark
12:52 p.m. / 7:07 AM - Yuka Saso, Japan; Jeongeun Lee6, Republic of Korea; (a) Kiara Romero, San Jose, Calif.
Quotable
Maja Stark on returning the U.S. Women’s Open trophy. “I did kind of want to let it go because it’s weird. It’s like I had it sitting in my room and I just saw it every day, and I’m like, oh, this is cool, but I just want to move on -- like I want the challenge again. It’s kind of weird, you know. It was fun to have it, but it’s more fun to play for it than to have it, I guess.
Lydia Ko on Riviera. “It doesn’t suit one type of player, which is the type of golf course that I really like. Yeah, it’s obviously very hard. It’s, I think, a true example of a course being difficult without having crazy bunkering and crazy greens. Yeah, it’s a solid course. I wish I’d almost seen more of the Genesis Invitational and see how Jacob Bridgeman won and the players in the past. But at the end of the day, I think when you play solid golf, any type of golf course, it doesn’t get you that far away. Hopefully I’ll be able to do that.”
The Course
Here’s the first of a few video looks, starting with the tight mow club selection dilemma…
A look at the alternate fairway eighth from the right side…
