Nelly Korda won the US Women’s Open on Sunday for her second consecutive major victory, holding off Charley Hull and Gaby Lopez by one shot when her final putt curled perilously around the cup and dropped in.
Korda’s first US Open win is the fourth major victory of her career, and she claimed it with a steady two-under 69 in the final round – but only after her second putt on the 18th green – from a little over 2ft – caught the edge and toured half the circumference of the hole before falling.
Korda put her hand over her open mouth in disbelief before finally laughing at the nervy end to a win that emphasized her dominance of the sport. She finished at eight-under for the tournament after sharing the lead with multiple competitors throughout the windy finale of the first Women’s Open ever held at Riviera.
“I feel like I’m in a dream,” Korda told the gallery. “I just can’t even explain how much this means to me with all of you here cheering me on.”
Korda made a 9ft birdie putt on the 17th to break out of a four-way tie for the lead with Lopez, the hard-charging Hull and three-time major champion In Gee Chun. Korda two-putted for par on the 18th, claiming the $2.5m winner’s share of this Open’s record $12.5 million purse.
The 27-year-old Korda won The Chevron Championship in April, and she had three victories and three second-place finishes in her first seven starts of a spectacular season after going winless in 2025. After a rough opening-round 73 during which she changed out of a pair of Nike shoes given to her by LeBron James, she coolly put together back-to-back 67s to take a share of the lead into the final round.
The leaderboard only separated late on Sunday after seven players began within two strokes of the lead.
Four shared the lead late, but only Korda avoided a bogey on the back nine, allowing her to fend off excellent final rounds from England’s Hull and Mexico’s Lopez, who both narrowly missed out on their first major victories.
Hull began the day three shots back, but she charged into the lead before the wind picked up off the Pacific and led to a roller-coaster finish – for everybody except Korda.
The champion made just three birdies and a bogey, playing steadily and comfortably with her improved competitive mentality. Korda has stressed positivity and steadiness after her inexplicably winless 2025, and it has paid off with one of the most outstanding starts to a season in recent golf history.
