Despite late surges from Charley Hull, and Gaby Lopez, Nelly Korda continued her run of dominance by capturing the 81st edition of the U.S. Women’s Open on Sunday at Riviera.
It was the 4th Major championship of Korda’s career, and second consecutive major on the 2026 LPGA calendar. Her final round of two under par (69) was enough to give her a 1 shot victory over the field, though her day was not without its drama. The 27 year old needed to finish off a 2.5 foot putt on 18 to seal the win, but had a nerve wracking moment when her ball caught the left edge and nearly lipped out. In the end her ball would fall into the cup and avoid a 3-way playoff, much to the delight of crowd.
“I didn’t feel my best on the back nine,” Korda said. “I had a lot of emotions swirling in my stomach, [but] it’s a dream come true. I’ve dreamt about this moment since I was a little girl.”
It was a rough start to the tournament for the American born golfer, who found herself 7 shots back after the opening round. The windy conditions at Riviera played havoc with some of the competitors over the weekend, but Korda was able to claw her way back into contention by the end of the 3rd round.
With 3 birdies and a bogey on Sunday, Korda was about as steady as they come in her final round, leaving little room for error for the rest of the field as they tried to keep pace with the multiple-time Major winner. Sunday’s leaderboard was a logjam of players, as 7 competitors were within two strokes of the lead heading into the final round.
“This week was definitely a grind,” Korda said. “I don’t even feel like I had my B game. 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.”
For her efforts, Korda will take home $2.5M of the $12.5M purse.
It’s been a dominant run of golf played by Korda to start the 2026 LPGA schedule. Across 8 starts, the Bradenton, FL native has won 4 tournaments, giving her a 50% win rate. Of the other 4, she’s finished 2nd three times, and tied for 8th once. All in all, Korda has yet to finish outside a top 10 in any event she’s taken part in thus far, and has won both Major Championships on the schedule to date.
Up next for the LPGA stars is the Meijer LPGA Classic held at the Blythefield Country Club in Belmont, MI. That will serve as a tune up event for many ahead of the next Major tournament which will take place from June 25-28th. Korda will look to add the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship to her run of victories in two weeks time.
Photo: AJGAGolf. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.