As Nelly Korda stared down a 9-foot-2-inch putt on the 71st hole of the U.S. Women’s Open at Riviera on Sunday, she knew exactly what was at stake: the grandest title in the women’s game and one that had eluded her in 11 previous attempts. Hole the putt for a birdie 4 and Korda would take a one-shot lead into the home hole; miss and . . . well, she’d need to make par on Riv’s brutish par-4 18th just for a spot in a playoff. “I knew that I needed to make it,” Korda said later.
She also knew the putt would move quickly and hard from left to right. Leaning on a tactic she’d been employing all week, Korda picked an immediate target between her ball and the hole, locked in on that spot and coolly jarred the birdie — moving her to two under for her round and eight under for the tournament, one clear of clubhouse co-leaders Charley Hull and Gaby Lopez. Later, in her winner’s press conference, Korda said, “That putt is the reason why I’m here.”
Really, though, every one of Korda’s other 68 shots on Sunday mattered just as much, including all four of the swipes that came after her clutch 4 at 17: her smashed tee shot on 18 that left her just 145 yards into the green; her smooth approach to the fat of the green that left her 35 feet from glory; and, from there, her solid lag putt that all but sealed the deal when it petered out just 2 feet 10 inches from the hole. Thirty-four inches. A kick-in. A formality. A gimme, if only there were such a thing in the professional game.
You’d be forgiven for thinking that Korda is flawless, this year especially. Her graceful swing, which deserves its own wing at the Met, is one thing. But her stats are even more awe-inspiring: In eight starts in 2026, Korda has now won four times (including two major titles) and finished runner-up on four other occasions; she is gaining more than 4 strokes per round on her “competition”; and her 68.26 scoring average is a stunning 1.15 shots clear of her closet rival. If this LPGA season were a boxing match, the referee would have called it weeks ago.
And yet no golfer is perfect. Not Babe. Not Hogan. Not Jack. Not Tiger. Not Nelly Korda. Her humanness surfaces on the greens, often over short putts in nervy moments. In March, at the Fortinet Founders Cup, Korda’s hopes of victory were spoiled when she missed a two-and-a-half footer on the 71st hole. “Stupid mistake,” she said after the round. Missed shorties also cost her dearly at the 2021 AIG Women’s Open and at the 2023 Chevron Championship. Korda’s short-putt shakiness was evident even at this year’s Chevon, which she won by five. Korda’s victory could have been even more dominant if not for three missed 4-footers over her last 11 holes. “I want to show kids at home that it’s okay to miss shorts putts and still win a major championship,” Korda said afterward. “You’re gonna do it. You’re gonna make mistakes but you have to mentally still be in it 100%.”
Not all 34-inchers are created equal, and the one Korda left herself on Riviera’s 18th green on Sunday — with thousands of fans and the ghost of Hogan peering down on her from the natural amphitheater above — fell somewhere between a tickler and a terrorizer. “I had to honestly a couple times tell myself, okay, stay in the moment, because I was dreaming of hoisting the trophy a little too early,” Korda said. “I kept reverting back; I’m like the job’s not done.”
Her final task: a delicate left-to-righter, wind off her left, golf history in the balance.
“I was like, good lord,” Korda said. “Pretty much, like, why did I leave myself such a long putt to make par?”
As Korda addressed her putt, her ball sat in the shadow created by her right leg. Also between her putterhead and the hole was the shadow created by her left leg — insignificant distractions under most circumstances but . . . yeah, not optimal given the weight of the moment. Korda said she had one stroke thought, and it wasn’t a positive one.
“I knew that I didn’t want to miss it right,” she said.
So she played prevent defense.
“Maybe had aimed a little bit too far left and pulled it,” she said. “I mean, your heart rate is going.”
Same was true for anyone watching from home.
The ball came off Korda’s blade left and stayed left. Inches from the hole, it looked like she’d yanked it. An inch from the hole, it was clear she had yanked it. Mercifully, the ball grabbed the hole’s edge and horseshoed around it like a skateboarder peeling around a swimming pool. Korda’s Titleist didn’t quite complete a 360 but it came close before finally disappearing. The new champion raised her right hand to her mouth, the international sign for OMG.
“She thought she’d missed it,” NBC analyst Morgan Pressel said on the telecast.
Korda hadn’t. Instead, she’d made history.
