Andy DevaneyHaeran Ryu won The Amundi Evian Championship after a playoff with Brooke Henderson, birdieing the 72nd hole to stay alive before making another birdie at the first extra hole to secure her second consecutive major championship victory.
There are comfortable ways to win a major, theoretically. This was not one of them.
Ryu had already dismantled the scoring conventions with a third-round 60, the lowest 18-hole score recorded in a major championship on the LPGA Tour. Yet on the final day, with Henderson producing the golfing equivalent of a fireworks factory catching light, the Korean required every remaining ounce of patience and nerve.
Her reward was a fifth LPGA Tour title, a second major and the first two-win season of her career. More significantly, it came only 13 days after she won the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in her previous start.
That is not so much a purple patch as an occupation of the entire paint chart.
Henderson turns the final round into theatre
Henderson began her charge with the sort of scorecard that requires a second look and possibly independent verification.
The Canadian shot a seven-under-par 64 for the second successive day. Her final round contained three eagles, one of them an ace, before she produced another eagle at the 72nd hole to force the playoff.
She made six eagles during the week, the most recorded by a player in any LPGA Tour tournament. A conventional collection of pars and birdies was apparently considered far too pedestrian.
Henderson eventually finished level with Ryu on 19 under par, but her birdie attempt at the first playoff hole did not fall. Ryu’s did.
It was a brutal conclusion for Henderson, although second place followed a third-place finish in her previous appearance and continued a season in which she has made the cut in every major championship.
“Yeah, played awesome today, which is really exciting. To finish second in a major and third couple week ago, definitely game is in a really good spot. Obviously very exciting to get into the playoff. Wish I had played a little bit better, but Haeran has been playing great. Congrats to her. I am happy how I played. Lots of birdies and eagles, which is really fun.”
Fun for Henderson, certainly. Slightly less restful for everyone attempting to remain ahead of her.
Ryu absorbs the pressure
Ryu’s final round was considerably quieter than the 60 she had signed for a day earlier. She made one birdie and one bogey, completing an even-par round that left the door sufficiently open for Henderson to arrive at speed.
Yet major championships are not awarded for aesthetic consistency. They are awarded to the player who survives the week, the pressure and, occasionally, an opponent making eagles as though they are available on subscription.
Ryu reached the 72nd hole needing a birdie and made it. When the playoff began, she did so again.
“Yeah, it’s so tough, so hard. Yesterday my score is 11-under par. It’s so amazing score. But today just even, one bogey and one birdie and that’s it. This is golf. It’s too different. So that’s why it is so can enjoy golf, but this is stressful for the players. So, yeah, but I don’t have over par during this week, so, yeah, it works and then I’m so happy.”
The contrast between Saturday and Sunday was stark. One round placed Ryu in the record books; the next demanded restraint, resilience and the ability to avoid becoming distracted by the chaos elsewhere.
She did not shoot over par in any round and finished with a 265 total, her lowest career score in a major championship.
Aki Iwai misses the playoff by inches
The contest almost became a three-player affair.
Aki Iwai recovered impressively after making a double bogey on her third hole. She played the remainder of the final round without another bogey and covered those closing holes in four under par, signing for a two-under 69.
A birdie at the 72nd hole would have taken her into the playoff alongside Ryu and Henderson. The putt stayed out, leaving Iwai alone in third.
It was nevertheless her best result and lowest score in a major championship, achieved after refusing to allow one early mistake to infect the remainder of her afternoon.
In a final round filled with eagles, records and improbable recoveries, Iwai’s controlled response was rather less theatrical but no less revealing.
Ryu joins an elite Korean major-winning group
Ryu became the first player from the Republic of Korea to win The Amundi Evian Championship since Jin Young Ko in 2019.
She is also the first Korean player since Ko that year to win two majors in the same season. Since the Evian was elevated to major championship status in 2013, only Ko, Inbee Park and Ryu have achieved that feat.
Park won three majors in 2013 and two more in 2015. Ryu has now entered similarly distinguished territory, with victories arriving in consecutive starts and separated by just 13 days.
That equals the shortest gap between women’s major championship victories. Meg Mallon also won the US Women’s Open and Mazda LPGA Championship 13 days apart.
Ryu’s victory lifts an already impressive season. She has made 11 cuts in 12 starts, won twice and recorded eight top-10 finishes. Her only missed cut came at the Aramco Championship.
The 24-year-old’s wider record now stands at five LPGA Tour victories, two majors and 32 career top-10 finishes. She was the Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year in 2023, represented the Republic of Korea at the 2025 Hanwha LIFEPLUS International Crown and previously won five times on the KLPGA between 2019 and 2022.
A record-breaking week at Evian
Ryu’s third-round 60 was the statistical centrepiece of the championship.
It established a new LPGA Tour record for the lowest round in a major and helped her reach 194 through 54 holes, matching In Gee Chun’s tournament mark from 2016.
Her winning total of 265 did not quite disturb Chun’s 72-hole record of 263, but records rarely provide a complete description of a championship.
The more telling detail was Ryu’s response when the final round became uncomfortable. She had gone from historic scoring to a Sunday on which progress was scarce and Henderson was manufacturing miracles behind her.
Ryu still found the two birdies that mattered most.
Farah O’Keefe takes low-amateur honours
Farah O’Keefe finished tied for 35th to claim low-amateur honours by one stroke over Yunseo Yang.
O’Keefe closed with a 69 in her first appearance at The Amundi Evian Championship. It was her second low-amateur finish in a major this season after earning the same distinction at The Chevron Championship.
She has now finished inside the top 40 in each of her past three major starts, adding this result to a tie for 34th at the US Women’s Open and a tie for 38th at The Chevron Championship.
The made cut also moved her to 17 points on the LPGA Elite Amateur Pathway.
Two major titles and no time to exhale
Ryu’s 60 will live comfortably in the record books. The playoff birdie may live longer in the memory.
It came after a final round in which her scoring momentum disappeared, Henderson attacked the course with almost indecent enthusiasm and Iwai came within one putt of joining the argument.
Ryu did not require another avalanche of birdies. She needed one at the final hole and one more when there were only two players left.
Major championships often turn on such narrow margins. Haeran Ryu has now crossed that margin twice in 13 days, which is a splendid way to make the extraordinary look suspiciously like a habit.
