Nelly Korda received the US Ladies’s Open for her second consecutive main victory, holding off Charley Hull and Gaby Lopez by one shot when her closing putt curled perilously across the cup and dropped in.
Korda’s first US Open win is the fourth main victory of her profession, and he or she claimed it with a gradual two-under-par 69 within the closing spherical at Riviera Nation Membership in Los Angeles – however solely after her second putt on the 18th inexperienced – from 30 inches – caught the sting and carried out what Korda later described as ’an ice cream swirl’ across the gap earlier than lastly falling in.
Korda put her hand over her open mouth in disbelief earlier than lastly laughing on the nervy finish to a win that emphasised the reigning world no.1’s dominance of the ladies’s sport. The 27-year American completed at eight-under for the event after sharing the lead with a bunch of gamers all through a closing spherical performed in windy circumstances.
Korda made a 9-foot birdie putt on the seventeenth to interrupt out of a four-way tie for the lead with Lopez, Hull and three-time main champion In Gee Chun. Korda two-putted for par on the 18th, claiming the $2.5m winner’s share of this Open’s file $12.5 million purse.
Korda received the primary ladies’s main of the season, the Chevron Championship in April, and has had three victories and three second-place finishes in her first seven begins of a spectacular season after going winless in 2025. After a tricky opening-round 73, she put collectively back-to-back 67s to take a share of the lead into the ultimate spherical.
The leaderboard solely separated late on Sunday after seven gamers started inside two strokes of the lead, however solely Korda prevented a bogey on the again 9, permitting her to fend off glorious closing rounds from Hull and Lopez, who each narrowly missed out on their first main victories.
Hull started the day three pictures again, however she charged into the lead with a gap eagle adopted by a birdie, earlier than the wind picked up and led to a roller-coaster end – for everyone besides Korda.
“I really feel like I’m in a dream,” stated Korda. “ I simply can’t even clarify how a lot this implies to me. I feel final yr I actually, actually needed it, and the extra you need it typically the extra you stiffen up and also you get a little bit bit extra nervous. I play my greatest golf after I’m blissful, free Nelly, and I’m form of joking round on the market. That’s form of the angle that I would like.”
For Hull, who was seven strokes behind on the midway mark, it marked one other irritating finish to her seek for her first main title. After making such a gradual begin, a win appeared unlikely, however she adopted her third-round 65 with a four-under-par 67 within the fourth to equal the bottom 36-hole whole in US Ladies’s Open historical past.
The 30-year-old from Kettering has now notched up 5 second-place finishes within the majors – 4 instances for the reason that begin of 2023 and twice within the final three.
“It’s simply irritating,” stated Hull. “One other second place. It’s fairly annoying, however I performed nicely over the weekend and I’ve to take the positives from that. I clearly missed a few key putts on the again 9, however I hit the ball incredible within the windy circumstances, so honest play to Nelly [Korda] for back-to-back wins.”
For all of the scores from the 2026 US Ladies’s Open, click on right here.
