Nelly Korda has won The Chevron Championship with a performance worthy of her return to number one in women’s golf.
Staked to a five-shot lead at the start on Sunday, local time, Korda was efficient as ever and no-one could get closer than four shots all afternoon at Memorial Park.
She closed with a 2-under 70 for a five-shot victory to capture the third major of her career.
“It’s not easy going in with that big of a lead,” Korda said.
“I think that was the challenging point with like, where do I still play like Nelly and where do I play a little defensive?”
That’s why where was much relief as joy when she holed a 7-foot par putt to close with a 2-under 70 to capture her third major championship and return to number one in the women’s world ranking for the first time since August.
She celebrated in the best manner possible — a cannon ball into the 4 1/2-foot pool built to the right of the 18th green to keep with the tradition at this major that dates to 1988 when the winner jumped into Poppie’s Pond at Mission Hills in the California desert.
“Feet first,” she said with a smile, dressed in the winner’s white robe.
“I knew it was four feet, so I was expecting to hit the ground very fast.”
Nelly Korda celebrated by jumping into Poppie’s Pond with caddie Jason McDede. (Getty Images: Sarah Stier)
Patty Tavatanakit of Thailand and Yin Ruoning of China finished five shots back in a tie for second.
Hannah Green was Australia’s best finisher, a final-round 68 her best of the weekend to leave her in a tie for seventh on 6-under, 12 shots behind.
Cassie Porter carded a one-over 74 for the final round to end on one-under for the tournament — a tie for 34th — with Minjee Lee in a tie for 49th on two-over.
The fourth Aussie Karis Davidson was four-over on the final round and five-over for the tournament to tie for 67th.
The victory was Korda’s 17th on the LPGA and 21st worldwide, and it was enough for the 27-year-old American star to move back to the top of the women’s world ranking for the first time since August.
She has also won the 2021 Women’s PGA Championship and both the 2024 and 2026 Chevron Championships for three majors, tying her with contemporaries Minjee Lee, Lydia Ko of New Zealand, Anna Nordqvist of Sweden and In-gee Chun of South Korea, as well as Hall of Famer Nancy Lopez.
Korda not only won wire-to-wire, it was never really a contest.
She hit a 5-iron to 5 feet for birdie on her 16th hole of the opening round Thursday to take the lead and never trailed again.
Korda made a 25-foot birdie putt on the 12th hole Friday, and didn’t make another putt over 10 feet the rest of the week. That included a trio of 4-foot misses that kept it from being a blowout, and it stayed in her heard.
But that was part of Korda’s new outlook. Don’t worry about mistakes, knowing she could make up for them, and she did.
‘What I was telling myself was I really want to hoist this trophy because I want to show the kids at home that it’s OK to miss short putts and still win a major championship,” she said with a laugh. “You’re going to make mistakes. You have to mentally still be in it 100%, and that’s really what I wanted show.
“I wanted to show it to myself and I wanted to show it everyone looking up to me.”
She joined Juli Inkster (1989) and Amy Alcott (1991), both at Nabisco Dinah Shore, as the only players in 50 years to win LPGA majors when leading by multiple shots after each round.
And by the look of it, Korda might just be getting started on another stellar season.
She has played in the final group all five tournaments she has started this year, winning the season opener and the first major, finishing runner-up in the other three.
AP/ABC
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