LOS ANGELES — Although she is deep in one of the most dominant seasons in recent golf history, the fate of Nelly Korda’s first U.S. Women’s Open title still hung on the rim of the 18th hole at Riviera Country Club for one heart-stopping moment.
Her 2 1/2-foot putt to win caught the left edge, and it toured half the circumference of the hole while the gallery watched in disbelief. When it finally fell into the cup amid an outburst of gasps and roars, Korda put her hand over her open mouth before she laughed at the absurdity of her sport.
“It’s even sweeter, especially with that ice cream swirl on the last hole,” said the No. 1 player in the Women’s World Golf Rankings.
This trophy was the cool treat Korda wanted more than anything: She won the 81st U.S. Women’s Open on Sunday for her second consecutive major victory, holding off England’s Charley Hull and Mexico’s Gaby Lopez by one shot.
The 27-year-old from Florida won her fourth major title overall with a steady 2-under-par 69 in the final round — but only after her second putt on the 18th came perilously close to a spinout that would have forced a three-way playoff. When it dropped, Korda had her fourth LPGA Tour victory already from a season in which she also has three second-place finishes in just eight starts.
She finished the 72-hole tournament at 8-under 276 and celebrated with a tear-streaked face after sharing the lead with multiple competitors throughout the windy finale of the first US. Women’s Open ever held at this venerated 100-year-old country club in L.A.’s Pacific Palisades neighborhood.
This victory was nothing like Korda’s major win at the Chevron Championship in April, when she streaked away from the field. Korda was seven shots off the lead after the opening round in Los Angeles before fighting her way back to a third-round co-lead, and she never separated from Sunday’s competitive pack at Riviera — but she was also the only one among the top seven finishers without a bogey on the back nine.
“I didn’t feel my best on the back nine,” Korda said. “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.”
Korda said she’ll remember how much her nine-foot birdie putt on the 17th meant much longer than her frightening final shot because it broke her out of a four-way tie for the lead with Lopez, the hard-charging Hull and three-time major champion In Gee Chun of South Korea.
“I don’t really throw out fist pumps too often, but I did this weekend,” Korda said. “I threw out a double fist pump on that (17th) hole, because I knew what it meant.”
She made just three birdies and a bogey Sunday, playing steadily and comfortably with her improved competitive mentality. Korda has stressed positivity and steadiness after her inexplicably winless 2025, when she was still a regular top-10 finisher.
And after the hair-raising finish, Korda secured the $2.5 million winner’s share of the tournament’s record $12.5 million purse.
“This week was definitely a grind,” Korda said. “I don’t even feel like I had my B game. 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.”
Korda arrived at Riviera as the favorite, but the entire tourney was a challenge she met splendidly.
After a rough opening 73 in which she changed out of a pair of Nike shoes given to her by Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James, she took the extraordinary step of altering her grip — per the suggestion of her big sister, Jessica, a six-time winner on the LPGA Tour — and coolly put together back-to-back 67s to take a share of the lead into the final round.
The leaderboard only separated late Sunday after seven players began within two strokes of the lead.
Korda fended off excellent final rounds from Hull and Lopez, who both narrowly missed out on their first major victories. Hull finished second at a major for the fifth time in her career.
Chun finished two shots back at 6 under, while compatriot Sei Young Kim, the third-round co-leader, shot a 72 to finish another stroke back and alone in fifth.
Hull played her first two rounds at 3 over, squeezing under the cut by one stroke and beginning Sunday three shots back, but she charged into the lead before the wind picked up off the Pacific Ocean. Starting three groups ahead of the leaders and hunting flagsticks all day, Hull finished the final two rounds at 10 under with a 65-67.
“It was quite windy and I hit the ball fantastic, so fair play to Nelly Korda for back-to-back wins,” Hull said. “But I just love playing in the majors. I pretty much only get up for the major. It’s really weird, I just love playing in majors. Like if it’s a normal week to week, I struggle sometimes getting the motivation, but when it comes to major week, I just love it.”
Hull’s bogey on the 14th left Lopez, Chun, Kim and Korda all tied for the lead at 7 under. While Kim and Lopez fell back with bogeys, Korda added to a string of nine consecutive pars. But after Hull made a seven-foot birdie putt on the 17th to regain a share of the lead, Korda barely missed a 22-foot birdie putt on the 16th.
Hull ended with a 9 1/2-foot par putt for her 67. A few minutes later, Lopez made her 15-foot putt to join the pack of leaders, but Korda pulled ahead moments later with her gutsy birdie on the 17th.
Korda dropped her approach shot squarely on the 18th green and two-putted to a victory that immediately made her think about how far she has traveled since her first U.S. Open as a precocious teen in 2013 at at Sebonack Golf Club in New York.
“Obviously, I’ve had doubts,” Korda said. “Even mid-round, I was like, ‘Well, will I ever win it?’ You always have those doubts, but I think you’re just a human being if you have them. … I don’t know if a weight has been lifted off of my shoulders, but I just think I’m just extremely proud of my fight this week, and (fulfilling) the dream of that little girl.”