PACIFIC PALISADES, California — The putt barely went in. It caught the left edge of the cup, toured the entire circumference of the hole, and dropped — just — as Nelly Korda’s hand flew to her mouth and her face registered something between terror and disbelief. In that moment, the 81st U.S. Women’s Open was hers.
Korda, the world No. 1, closed with a two-under 69 on Sunday at Riviera Country Club to finish at eight-under 276, winning by a single stroke over England’s Charley Hull and Mexico’s Gaby Lopez. It was her first U.S. Women’s Open title, her fourth major overall, and the clearest possible argument that 2026 belongs to her in a way no season has before.
The 27-year-old had not had her best stuff all week. She described her grip as “funky” — a grip her sister, fellow LPGA Tour player Jessica Korda, had spent days trying to persuade her to adjust. Nelly resisted, arguing it did not feel right. By the back nine on Sunday, the grip was still imperfect, the ball-striking still unreliable. What saved her was the putter, and more than that, the decision she had made before she teed off: whatever happens, happens.
She birdied the first and sixth holes, held a one-shot lead until she bogeyed the seventh, and then made nine consecutive pars. Nine holes in which a final-round leaderboard that had 13 players within four shots of the lead compressed, stretched, and compressed again. Hull played her way into contention from well back in the field, birdieing the 17th to reach seven under. Lopez made birdie at the last to join the pack. For a few minutes on a breezy afternoon in Pacific Palisades, four players were tied atop the U.S. Women’s Open with one hole to play.
Then came the 17th for Korda. The par-5, and a nine-foot birdie putt that she drained without apparent hesitation. She moved to eight under and, for the first time all day, owned the lead by herself.
“I didn’t feel my best on the back nine,” Korda said afterward. “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.”
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She walked to the 18th tee needing only a par. She drove the ball 288 yards uphill, hit her approach from 149 yards to 35 feet, and lagged to just under three feet. The putt, as Korda later put it with a laugh, went “ice cream swirl” — lipping around the edge before dropping in. She covered her mouth. The gallery erupted. Riviera had its champion.
The U.S. Open had been the one major that kept resisting her. She had missed cuts, shot a 10 on a par-3 at Lancaster Country Club in 2024, and arrived at Riviera having never led the championship entering a final round. The course itself — a century-old club in Pacific Palisades that had never before hosted a USGA women’s championship — seemed to suit her at last.
Korda said she first came to the U.S. Open as a 14-year-old at Sebonack Golf Club in 2013. That girl, she told the gallery with tears running down her face, had her dream come true on Sunday afternoon. “That 14-year-old girl that stepped on the range at Sebonack in 2013,” she said, “her dream has just come true sitting next to this trophy right now.”
The win makes Korda the first player since South Korea’s Inbee Park in 2013 to win the first two women’s majors of the same season, Golf Channel reported. She had already claimed the Chevron Championship in April at Memorial Park in Houston. At 27, she is also the youngest American to hold four major titles since Mickey Wright in 1960 — a comparison that places her in the company of the sport’s most decorated names.
For Hull, it was a fifth runner-up finish at a major, a number that speaks equally to her quality and her misfortune in the sport’s biggest events. She played the final two rounds at ten under with scores of 65 and 67. “It was quite windy and I hit the ball fantastic, so fair play to Nelly Korda for back-to-back,” Hull said, as reported by Golf Channel. Lopez, hunting her first major, made birdie at 18 and briefly threatened a playoff, but Korda’s birdie at 17 had already cleared the field.
Jessica Korda’s role was not incidental. She had spent days before and during the tournament pushing her sister toward the grip change. “I was very nervous. I didn’t sleep very much,” she told Golf Digest. “Every day just going back and being like, ‘do it a little more.’ And her kind of arguing back with me that it doesn’t feel good.” Whether the grip actually held under final-round pressure — Nelly’s own account suggests it still did not feel entirely right — is the one thing the victory left unanswered.
Korda had written positive notes on Post-it stickers and fixed them to her bathroom mirror at the start of 2026. Sunday’s note read simply: whatever happens, happens. Just give it your all. The year has yielded four wins and three second-place finishes in eight starts — a record that makes the Korda of 2025, when she went winless for the first time as a professional, look like the aberration it probably was.
She needs two more points in the LPGA Hall of Fame standings to reach the 20 required for induction, Golf Digest reported. The Chevron Championship and U.S. Women’s Open together gave her four. Still ahead: the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, the Evian Championship, and the AIG Women’s British Open.
The $12.5 million purse at Riviera was the largest in the history of women’s major golf. Korda’s winner’s check was $2.5 million. The sport has debated visibility and prize parity for years. On Sunday afternoon at a course that has largely been reserved for men, one player settled a different kind of argument.
