Andy DevaneyNelly Korda won the U.S. Women’s Open with the sort of final round that does not so much sparkle as snarl, closing with a 69 to beat Charley Hull and Gaby Lopez by one shot and collect the 19th LPGA Tour victory of a career that is starting to look increasingly architectural.
This was not champagne golf. It was spade work. Korda finished at eight-under par, made three birdies and a bogey on Sunday, and found the decisive nudge on the 17th, where champions tend to look less like artists and more like locksmiths. One hole, one birdie, one trophy door opened.
It was her second major championship of the 2026 season, her fourth win overall this year, and her fourth major title. Somewhere in the distance, the LPGA Hall of Fame probably shifted slightly in its chair.
Korda Grinds Her Way Into Another Major
Korda arrived as Rolex Rankings No. 1, which is both a compliment and a burden. Being the best player in the world is lovely, provided everyone stops reminding you of it for five consecutive minutes.
She did what the very best do. She won without being remotely convinced she had her best stuff.
“I really don’t have any. I mean, that 14 year old girl that stepped on the range at Sebonack in 2013, I mean, her dream has just come true sitting next to this trophy right now. It’s really hard to put into words. This week was definitely a grind. I don’t even feel like I had my B game (laughing).
I was just grinding out there. And that’s what I guess major championships are all about, right? It doesn’t matter if you have your B or C game, you have to be there mentally. And I have a great support system off the golf course, on the golf course, and I literally would not be standing here without millions of pep talks I just got on the golf course from Jay.”
There it is. Not the polished trophy-room version, but the truth: major championship golf is often less about who produces perfection and more about who refuses to disintegrate first.
Korda finished first in the field in strokes gained total at 4.01, which tells the statistical tale neatly enough. The more human version is simpler: when the week got sticky, she kept moving.
A Win Loaded With History
This was Korda’s 12th start at the U.S. Women’s Open presented by Ally. She had finished runner-up in 2025 and became the first player to win the championship the following year since JoAnne Carner in 1976.
The victory also made her the first four-time major champion on the LPGA Tour of the 2020s. She became the third player actively ranked No. 1 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings to win the U.S. Women’s Open, joining Annika Sorenstam in 2006 and Inbee Park in 2013.
That is fairly tidy company. If women’s golf had a royal enclosure, they would all be inside it, probably making the rest of the room feel underdressed.
Korda also became 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. Add in the Chevron Championship and U.S. Women’s Open double, and the list narrows again: she is the first player to claim both in the same season since Park in 2013, and the first American since Betsy King in 1990.
For those keeping score at home, and Korda certainly appears to be forcing everyone to do so, she is now the youngest American player to win four major championships since Mickey Wright in 1960.
The Hall Of Fame Chase Gets Very Real
The win earned Korda two points toward the LPGA Hall of Fame, taking her total to 25. The threshold is 27.
That is not a whisper any more. It is a drumbeat.
With 19 LPGA Tour wins, four major championships, 83 career official LPGA Tour top-10 finishes and $21.4 million in official career earnings, Korda’s résumé is no longer developing. It is hardening into granite.
She still needs a win at The Amundi Evian Championship or the AIG Women’s Open to complete the Career Grand Slam. Given the current direction of travel, that detail feels less like fantasy and more like unfinished paperwork.
Charley Hull Charges, Again
Charley Hull finished tied second at seven-under, alongside Gaby Lopez, after producing one of the rounds of the day. Her 67 featured an eagle and five birdies, and she led the field in strokes gained off the tee on Sunday at +1.96.
Hull does not so much play golf as negotiate with chaos. When it works, it is glorious. When it almost works, as it did here, it leaves everyone slightly breathless and faintly annoyed that there was not one more hole.
This was her fifth runner-up finish in a major championship without a victory, one shy of Ayako Okamoto’s LPGA record of six. Hull has now finished T2 or second at the 2025 AIG Women’s Open, 2023 U.S. Women’s Open, 2023 AIG Women’s Open and 2016 Chevron Championship.
That is a brutal little collection. Admirable, lucrative, and about as comforting as a waterproof teabag.
“It definitely gives me a lot of confidence. I feel like I haven’t played that very many professional events and last year in the Women’s Open I made the cut and then played really bad on the Saturday round and then Sunday I played really good and I think that Sunday round when I shot like 67 it kind of showed me that I can compete with these girls. So I kind of came out here this week with a lot of confidence, just knowing that anything could happen and tried to just give it my best effort.”
Hull will know that major championships are not generally sympathetic creatures. They do not award interest on near-misses. But this was another reminder that her game belongs in the thickest part of the fight.
Gaby Lopez Delivers A Career Major Best
Gaby Lopez matched Hull at seven-under to record her best finish in a major championship. She also tied the best U.S. Women’s Open finish by a player from Mexico, matching Lorena Ochoa’s T2 result in 2007.
Lopez made four birdies on the back nine and was one of only three players to birdie the 18th. That matters. Closing holes at major championships are not designed as acts of kindness. They are built to inspect your pulse, rifle through your pockets and ask difficult questions about your childhood.
Lopez answered beautifully. Korda simply answered one shot better.
Amateur Class Makes Its Mark
Five amateurs made the cut at the U.S. Women’s Open, giving the championship a useful glimpse of the next queue forming behind the established order.
Kiara Romero finished T6, earned low-amateur honours and collected two points in the LPGA Elite Amateur Pathway standings, bringing her total to 16. Maria Jose Marin finished T8 and moved to 15 LEAP points. Aphrodite Deng, at T17, climbed to six. Asterisk Talley, T22, reached nine. Farah O’Keefe, T34, earned one point and moved to 12.
An amateur needs 20 LEAP points to become eligible for LPGA Tour Membership through the pathway. In other words, this was not merely a charming subplot. It was a career accelerator, with scorecards attached.
Korda’s Season Refuses To Slow Down
Korda’s 2026 campaign now stands at four LPGA Tour wins and eight top-10 finishes. She also sits No. 1 in the 2026 Race to CME Globe rankings, with $5.3 million in official season earnings.
Her wider record has the look of a player operating in a different register: Rolex Player of the Year and Rolex ANNIKA Major Award winner in 2024, a representative of the United States at the 2024 Paris Olympics and 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and a four-time U.S. Solheim Cup team member.
The remarkable part is not that Korda wins. It is that she keeps finding different ways to do it. Some victories look like coronations. This one looked more like a shift down a mine, emerging with the trophy under one arm and a slightly suspicious expression.
That may be the most alarming thing for everyone else. Korda did not need her best golf to win the U.S. Women’s Open. She only needed enough nerve, enough patience, and one late birdie at exactly the right time.
The rest of the LPGA can take comfort from the fact she is human. Unfortunately, she is a human who keeps leaving major championships with the silverware.
