She nearly gave it away on the last hole. She won anyway.
Nelly Korda captured the 81st U.S. Women’s Open on June 7 at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, California, claiming her fourth major title and completing back-to-back majors in 2026. The win came down to one of the more dramatic final putts in recent memory.
Korda made a 9-foot birdie on the par-5 17th to take a one-shot lead into the 72nd hole. She hit her second shot from 149 yards to 35 feet, lagged to two-and-a-half feet, and then watched her par putt catch the left edge and tour the rim of the cup before finally falling in. She covered her mouth with her hand and laughed.
“It’s even sweeter, especially with that ice cream swirl on the last hole,” Korda said. “I’ve dreamt about this moment since I was a little girl.”
“I feel like I’m in a dream,” she added on the 18th green, tears in her eyes. “Gosh, I just can’t even explain how much this means to me. Thank you all for coming out and cheering me on. It really brings tears to my eyes.”
It was her first U.S. Women’s Open title after years of chasing it. Her best previous finish was a tie for second at Erin Hills in 2025. In 2024, she made a 10 on the par-3 12th hole at Lancaster and missed the cut. She joked about it on Instagram afterward: “Well, that was a 10/10.”
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Korda entered Sunday co-leading with Sei Young Kim. She birdied the first and sixth holes, dropped one at the seventh, then made nine straight pars before her clutch birdie at 17 broke a four-way tie with Gaby Lopez, Charley Hull, and In Gee Chun.
Hull fired a 65 on Saturday, the low round of the tournament, to put herself in contention. She and Lopez both applied pressure on the back nine, but Korda was the only player among the top seven finishers to make it through the back nine without a bogey.
“I didn’t feel my best on the back nine,” Korda said. “I had a lot of emotions kind of swirling in my stomach. I just really love competing and I love being in this position, sometimes having a big lead going into Sunday, or being tied for the lead and having to absolutely grind it out.”
Korda opened with a 73, losing strokes with her approach play. She headed to the range after her opening round and was joined by her sister, six-time LPGA winner Jessica Korda, who suggested a grip change.
“I hit it really good Monday through Wednesday, so I have honestly no idea where this came from,” Korda said of her opening round struggles. She took her sister’s advice and rode the adjustment through the weekend.
“I think the grip change is one of the hardest things to do,” Korda said. “The trust level is definitely high with Jessica. I know I can always count on her.”
The U.S. Women’s Open was Korda’s second major of 2026 and her fourth win of the season. In April, she wire-to-wire dominated the Chevron Championship at Memorial Park in Houston, winning by five shots at 18-under. Her 36-hole total of 130 was the lowest in LPGA major history.
She came into 2026 having gone winless in 2025, after one of the great LPGA seasons in modern history. In 2024, Korda won seven tournaments including five consecutive, tying the LPGA record set by Nancy Lopez in 1978 and matched by Annika Sorenstam. The Chevron win in April put her back at world No. 1, and the U.S. Women’s Open cemented her position.
“I always felt like I emphasize the Women’s Open so much, that’s where my dream started of playing on the LPGA,” Korda said. “Every year I never played well. I was always over-par or I made a mess of a hole, and I just felt like that dream was almost kind of slipping away. But it was still keeping me very much motivated.”
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She has now won three of the five major titles: the 2021 Women’s PGA Championship, the Chevron Championship (2024 and 2026), and the U.S. Women’s Open. The Amundi Evian Championship and the AIG Women’s Open remain.
“That 14-year-old girl that stepped on the range at Sebonack in 2013, her dream has just come true sitting next to this trophy right now,” Korda said.
The U.S. Women’s Open paid out from a record $12.5 million purse. Korda’s winner’s share came to $2.5 million, the largest check in women’s major championship history.
