Andy DevaneyThe U.S. Women’s Open has arrived at Sunday with exactly the sort of leaderboard a major championship deserves: Nelly Korda and Sei Young Kim tied at six-under, Jennifer Kupcho and In Gee Chun lurking one shot back, and Charley Hull close enough to make everyone’s breathing sound a little more expensive.
Korda Finds A Late Spark On Moving Day
Korda’s third-round 67 was not so much a round of golf as a controlled argument with the course. She made three birdies in her final three holes, which is a splendid way of making a difficult day appear politely manageable.
It was also her 17th round of 67 or lower in major championships since 2018, tying Minjee Lee for the most such rounds over the last 10 years. More importantly for the immediate business of Sunday, it was the first time Korda has posted consecutive rounds in the 60s at a U.S. Women’s Open.
That matters. The U.S. Women’s Open tends not to hand out trophies to players who merely drift into contention. It asks questions. Then it asks them again, only louder.
Korda is now in the final tee time on Sunday for the 30th time since 2017. This will also be the fourth time she has played in the final group of a major championship, matching Minjee Lee for the highest total over the last decade.
The World No. 1 has been here before, of course. She led heading into Sunday at The Chevron Championship this season, and this is already the sixth time in 2026 she has been either leading, co-leading or sitting second after 54 holes. Some players visit pressure. Korda appears to have forwarding mail there.
Sei Young Kim Refuses To Be Decorative
Alongside her is Sei Young Kim, who made five birdies in the third round, including back-to-back gains at the fifth and sixth. Kim is not a convenient co-leader. She is a major champion with 13 LPGA Tour victories and enough competitive scar tissue to know that Sunday is not a place for polite optimism.
Kim has held a third-round lead in a major twice before, at the 2020 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and the 2015 Chevron Championship. She won the former. At the U.S. Women’s Open, however, this is new territory: she had never previously held a post-round lead in this championship.
Her 2026 season has been less spectacular than Korda’s, but not without substance. She has made seven cuts in 10 starts, collected three top-10 finishes, and finished tied second at the JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro. If Korda is the obvious headline act, Kim is the sort of supporting role who may walk off with the whole production.
A Rare Major-Champion Congestion At The Top
This leaderboard has pedigree in every direction. For the first time in 30 years at the U.S. Women’s Open, every player among the top three and ties after 54 holes is already a major champion. The last instance came in 1996 at Pine Needles.
One shot behind Korda and Kim sit Jennifer Kupcho and In Gee Chun at five-under. Kupcho, winner of The Chevron Championship in 2022, made two birdies in her final three holes to get into red figures. Chun, meanwhile, is the only past U.S. Women’s Open champion inside the top 10 heading into Sunday.
Chun’s résumé has a peculiar efficiency to it: four LPGA Tour wins, three of them major championships. That is not a career record so much as a statement of intent. Some players like trophies. Chun appears to prefer the ones that weigh more.
Kupcho, meanwhile, sounded almost startled by how much the venue has drawn her in.
“I don’t know. For me, I just really like the golf course. It feels like — I know I’ve said it in past interviews, that it feels like home, but I really feel comfortable. I love playing this golf course.
Like I don’t say that about many golf courses. I said that walking up 18 to my caddie and I said, wow, this is such a cool place. Like I love this place. And he’s like, I’ve never heard you say that before. So, I don’t know, I just feel comfortable and I love it.”
There is often a great deal hidden inside a player saying she feels comfortable. It can mean the sightlines suit her eye. It can mean the grass behaves. It can mean the course allows instinct to creep in before self-doubt reaches for the steering wheel. At a U.S. Women’s Open, that is no small advantage.
Charley Hull Produces The Round Of The Week
Charley Hull’s Saturday 65 was the lowest round of the week and the lowest major championship round of her career, coming in her 210th career major round. That is not merely a good day’s work. That is a flare launched into the Sunday sky.
Hull sits three shots off the lead at tied eighth. She has not yet won a major, which only adds to the intrigue. Hull rarely gives the impression of being overly concerned with theatre, but she produces plenty of it all the same. A final-round charge from three back is hardly fanciful, particularly at a championship where eight of the last 11 winners have had to overcome a 54-hole deficit.
Defending champion Maja Stark also moved in the right direction, shooting three-under on Saturday to sit tied 11th. Recent history is not especially kind to defending champions here, with Jeongeun Lee6’s tied sixth in 2020 standing as the best finish by a U.S. Women’s Open title-holder over the last 10 years.
The Stakes For Korda Are Enormous
If Korda wins, the ramifications are considerable. She would earn her 19th LPGA Tour victory, her fourth win of the 2026 season, and a fourth major championship title. It would also leave her needing only The Amundi Evian Championship or the AIG Women’s Open to complete the Career Grand Slam.
There is Hall of Fame arithmetic involved too. A victory would give Korda two points towards the LPGA Hall of Fame, taking her to 25. The qualification mark is 27.
She would become the third player actively ranked No. 1 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings to win the U.S. Women’s Open, after Annika Sorenstam in 2006 and Inbee Park in 2013. She would also become the fourth player to win multiple majors while actively ranked World No. 1, joining Inbee Park, Yani Tseng and Lorena Ochoa.
The historical list keeps going. Korda would be the first player to win the first two majors of a season since Inbee Park in 2013, and the first American to do so since Pat Bradley in 1986.
She would also be the first player since Park in 2013 to win The Chevron Championship and the U.S. Women’s Open in the same season, and the first American since Betsy King in 1990.
That is a lot to carry in a golf bag, even one with very expensive stitching.
Korda, though, framed her season less as a march towards records and more as an exercise in sanity preservation.
“Definitely, I think I’ve just had — I’ve tried to have a mindset shift. Sometimes it’s easier than — one week it’s a lot easier than others, but I’ve tried to have the attitude of instead of saying, you know, I’m screwed in this position, oh, here we go again, I’m just going to embrace the challenges and I’m not going to walk off the golf course, I’m just going to figure it out.
That’s kind of been my attitude this year is like no matter what it throws at me, if I’m just going to get a silly bounce here or there I’ll end up in a divot like I’ll figure it out. And that’s kind of been the attitude I’ve tried to change to, because I think the worst thing that you can be, but which I am still, is a perfectionist in this sport.
It does drive you nuts when you constantly miss a divot or you’re in a divot by a centimetre here and there, or you hit a great putt and it just lips out. Like those frustrations throughout the round can really build when it’s all kind of not going your way.
So I’m just going to take on the challenges head on and know that I’m doing my best out there, I’ve prepared the best that I possibly can and I’m just going to try and play free golf.”
Free golf, in a major, is a lovely phrase. It is also slightly absurd, like saying one intends to relax while juggling crockery on a staircase. But Korda has made a habit this season of turning hard things into manageable ones.
Kim Has Her Own History In Reach
Kim’s possible victory carries its own weight. She would earn her 14th LPGA Tour title and second major championship. She would also become the 12th player from the Republic of Korea to win the U.S. Women’s Open, and the first since A Lim Kim in 2020.
A Kim victory would also make her the 37th player from the Republic of Korea to win a women’s major championship, and the first since Amy Yang captured the 2024 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.
Her career record stacks up neatly against Korda’s in one striking category. Korda has 82 career LPGA Tour top-10 finishes; Kim has 83. That does not make them identical players, but it does remind us this is no mismatch. Korda brings form, ranking and force. Kim brings experience, patience and enough birdie-making history to ruin anyone’s Sunday plans.
A Sunday Built For Proper Major Nerves
The broader championship numbers suggest nobody should begin polishing anything yet. In eight of the last 11 U.S. Women’s Opens, the champion has come from behind after 54 holes. That is less a statistic than a warning label.
The scoring records remain formidable: Helen Alfredsson holds the 18-hole mark of 63 from 1994, as well as the 36-hole record of 132. Minjee Lee owns the 54-hole record of 200 and the 72-hole record of 271 from 2022. This year’s story, though, is not about numbers falling over themselves. It is about quality compressing at the top.
Korda and Kim lead. Kupcho and Chun stalk. Hull hovers. Stark has not vanished. Sunday has champions, contenders, history, and just enough danger to keep everyone from behaving sensibly.
That is precisely how a U.S. Women’s Open should arrive at its final round: not neatly wrapped, but bristling, awkward, and gloriously undecided.
