PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — Gaby Lopez stood over a 16-foot uphill putt on the 18th green at Riviera Country Club on Sunday, knowing exactly what it meant. A birdie would put her back in a share of the lead at the U.S. Women’s Open with one hole played ahead of her. She hit it pure, center of the cup, and the crowd erupted.
“I just told myself, just get it there,” the 32-year-old Mexican said afterward. “What’s for you will not pass you, and I did a perfect stroke with that amount of pressure. I feel that that’s exactly what I can take away — I can still have control of my emotions under that amount of pressure on the last hole of a major championship.”
It was not enough to win. Nelly Korda birdied the 17th moments later, parred the last with a putt that barely stayed in the cup, and claimed the title by one shot. Lopez and England’s Charley Hull finished tied for second at seven under par. But for Lopez, the result was something more than a near-miss. It was confirmation.
“I feel amazing, honestly,” she said. “Finishing off with that putt on 18, with all of the crowd in front of me, that was very, very special.”
A Strategy Vindicated
Lopez arrived at Riviera as a player who had deliberately reconfigured her season around a single ambition: winning a major. The Mexico City native, who has three LPGA Tour titles to her name but no major, cut her tournament schedule significantly in 2026, concentrating her preparation on the five events she covets most.
“This year I changed my schedule and I’ve been focusing more on majors,” she said earlier in the week. “I’m barely playing any other events towards the middle of the season. That’s something that I didn’t do before. I feel that getting more rest, getting more time to prep exactly what the golf courses are needing, and that’s helping me a lot.”
The approach paid its most visible dividend yet at Riviera, a course that Lopez embraced as something close to home ground. She stayed minutes from the club in the house of a member, practiced the layout extensively before the tournament week, and connected with the ground staff in a way she made no effort to conceal.
“It feels like Mexico,” she said of Riviera’s kikuyu and poa grass. “This is exactly the kind of grass that I grew up in.” The familiarity was evident in her scorecard: rounds of 68-71-70-68 for a seven-under total that kept her in contention across all four days and placed her inside the final group’s conversation entering Sunday’s back nine.
The Biggest Putt of Her Career
The sequence that defined Lopez’s week came late in the final round. She had fought off the nerves of a bunched leaderboard — seven players began the day within two shots of the lead — and reached the 18th green needing a birdie to apply maximum pressure on Korda, who was still playing behind her. The putt was 16 feet, uphill, right to left, with the entire weight of her major ambitions behind it.
She made it without hesitation. She had been leaving uphill putts short all week; she had told herself, simply, to get it there. The ball found the center of the cup, and Lopez had briefly held a share of the lead at the U.S. Women’s Open — a position she had never occupied at a major before.
Korda’s birdie at 17 ended that arithmetic, but Lopez’s putt will endure as the defining image of her week: a player who has spent a career searching for the proof that the grandest stages suit her, finally finding it.
What Comes Next
Lopez and Hall of Famer Lorena Ochoa remain the only Mexican women to have won on the LPGA Tour. Lopez’s runner-up finish at Riviera does not add to that tally — but it resets the terms of the conversation around her major prospects entirely. She has three career LPGA victories, a best major result now of second place, and a season structured explicitly to give her the best chance of adding a first major title before the year ends.
The KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, the Evian Championship, and the AIG Women’s Open remain on the 2026 schedule. Lopez plans to focus on each in turn, rested and prepared, as she has been all season.
“Finishing off with that putt on 18, with all of the crowd in front of me — that was very, very special,” she said again on Sunday, as if still processing what had happened. There was no heartbreak in her voice. There was conviction. She knows now, with the evidence of Riviera behind her, that she can win a major championship. The calendar still has time to prove it.
