Nelly Korda wins US Ladies’s Open: World No 1 fulfils childhood dream with newest main win – may Grand Slam be subsequent?

Nelly Korda spent almost half her life trying to win the US Ladies’s Open – now the world No 1 has efficiently fulfilled her childhood dream of securing one of many sport’s most prestigious titles.

Korda continued her dominant begin to the season by claiming a second successive main, edging away from a congested leaderboard and holding off a final-round cost from Charley Hull to assert a one-shot win at Riviera Nation Membership.

The world No 1’s newest victory is her fourth on the LPGA Tour this season and noticed her turn out to be the youngest American since 1960 to achieve 4 main titles, with the win additionally the third leg of the profession Grand Slam.

Korda made her debut on the US Ladies’s Open as a 14-year-old qualifier in 2013 and had three earlier top-10s on the occasion with out success, with the 27-year-old now going one higher than final 12 months’s runner-up end to assert the most important she feared she might by no means win.

“For that 14-year-old girl that stepped on the range at Sebonack [Golf Club] in 2013 [US Open], I mean, her dream has just come true sitting next to this trophy right now,” Korda stated in her victory press convention. “It is actually onerous to place into phrases.

“I at all times felt like I emphasize the [US] Ladies’s Open a lot like – that is the place my dream began of taking part in on the LPGA. Yearly I by no means performed nicely.

“I used to be at all times over-par or I made a multitude of a gap at Lancaster [10 on a par-three during the 2024 contest], and I simply felt like that dream was virtually sort of slipping away, nevertheless it was nonetheless preserving me very a lot so motivated.

“Being in the chase at Erin Hills [2025 US Women’s Open], I turned the corner of ‘okay, can I be in the hunt, I can do this, I can play and I can contend at a US Women’s Open. I can put the dream aside and focus on what’s right in front of me’. I really tried to focus on that.”

‘B or C-game’ sufficient for Korda’s ‘bucket record’ win

Korda was seven strokes off the early lead after an opening-round 73 however charged right into a share of the lead after back-to-back 67s over the following two days, then birdied two of her first six holes throughout a curler coaster Sunday.

The American bogeyed the par-four seventh and commenced to doubt her victory prospects after a par-streak by the ultimate spherical, solely to discover a birdie on the par-five seventeenth and shut out her win with a two-putt par on the final.

“This week was definitely a grind,” Korda admitted. “I don’t even feel like I had my B-game! I was just grinding out there. 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.

“I’ve an ideal assist system and I actually wouldn’t be standing right here with out hundreds of thousands of pep talks I simply bought on the golf course from Jay [Jason McDede, caddie].

“I mean obviously I’ve had doubts – even mid-round I was like, ‘well, will I ever win it?’ I mean you always have those doubts. I think you’re just a human being if you have them. Like everyone will have them eventually at some parts of their career.

“I don’t know if a weight has been lifted off of my shoulders, but I’m just extremely proud of my fight this week and the dream of that little girl that you get to check that off your bucket list.”

Grand Slam forward? What subsequent for Korda’s legacy?

Korda’s nineteenth LPGA Tour victory strikes her simply two factors away from securing her place within the LPGA Corridor of Fame, plus sees her turn out to be the primary participant since Inbee Park in 2013 to win the primary two majors of a calendar 12 months.

She has extra main wins than every other participant this decade and has additional alternatives so as to add to her tally within the coming months, with the KPMG Ladies’s PGA Championship (June 25-28) adopted by the Evian Championship (July 9-12) and the AIG Ladies’s Open (July 30-August 2).

A victory on the finish of the following three would see Korda equal essentially the most main wins in a calendar 12 months by a feminine golfer, with both the Evian Championship or AIG Ladies’s Open required to finish the profession Grand Slam.

“I’ve never really thought about the legacy of my career, if I’m being completely honest,” Korda admitted. “I just really love competing and I love being in this position of sometimes having a big lead going into Sunday – or being tied for the lead – and having to absolutely grind it out.”

Solely 4 of the 5 majors are required to be categorised as having accomplished the Grand Slam and Park is the one participant to have gained all 5 present majors, though her Evian Championship title got here earlier than it was formally recognised among the many majors.

“I think now that there’s more work to be done [for Korda] and I think she’ll be the first to admit it,” former main champion Karen Stupples instructed the Sky Sports activities Golf podcast. “She [Nelly] knows this is but there’s still more that can be done.

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“We have been so accustomed to gamers like Tiger Woods and Scottie Scheffler displaying up and performing. Within the ladies’s sport, it hasn’t been the case in majors. You have had your finest gamers on this planet, probably not contending at majors, so it has been a little bit of an enigma for these prime gamers.

“I think everything was primed for this moment and for Nelly to achieve these heights. I’ve seen a transition in her in attitude when it comes to her golf. She’s much more forgiving of some of her bad shots as opposed to being incredibly hard on herself and trying to achieve perfection.

“She understands now that she doesn’t need to be perfect to win.”

Australian legend Karrie Webb is the one earlier ‘Tremendous Grand Slam’ winner as she gained all 5 lively majors throughout her profession, though the du Maurier Traditional was faraway from being a significant quickly after her 1999 success.

Korda has many alternatives forward to place herself out forward of the remaining as certainly one of golf’s all-time greats.

Sky Sports activities continues to be the house of the ladies’s majors, with all 5 completely dwell throughout the 2026 season together with LPGA Tour and Women European Tour motion. Get Sky Sports activities or stream golf with no contract.