LOS ANGELES — Nelly Korda has dreamt of this moment since she was a young girl. But she couldn’t have imagined when she first teed it up at Sebonack in the 2013 U.S. Women’s Open how sweet it would ultimately taste having the metal of the Harton S. Semple trophy warmed by her touch on a Sunday afternoon in La La Land.

And now that she has that silver cup firmly in her grasp, Nelly might never let it go.

Korda’s dreams were in danger of being dashed on Thursday at Riviera Country Club after the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings No. 1 opened with a 2-over 73, an effort that left her bobbing in open ocean and near the cutline at T56. A Friday 67 then vaulted her into a share of ninth, a dangerous position in which to see the 27-year-old lurking through 36 holes for those at the top of the leaderboard.

Another 67 saw Nelly finally emerge from the rest of the pack as the main character in the movie script that was developing in the 81st edition of this major championship. And despite top-tier efforts from In Gee Chun, Charley Hull, Sei Young Kim and Gaby Lopez to try and be the foil to the story that the Los Angeles crowds so desperately wanted to play out, it was Nelly who wound up as best actress in the City of Stars, ecstatically hugging the trophy she has always wanted to win the most tight to her chest as the cameras flashed on the 18th green.

“That 14-year-old girl who stepped on the range at Sebonack in 2013, her dream has just come true, sitting next to this trophy right now. It's really hard to put into words,” said Korda, who was in delighted disbelief during her winning press conference. “This week was definitely a grind. I don't even feel like I had my B game. I was just grinding out there. And 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. And I have a great support system off the golf course, on the golf course, and I literally would not be standing here without millions of pep talks I just got on the golf course from (Jason McDede, her caddie).”

Winning when you’re supposed to is an incredibly tall order for any professional athlete, and it’s a challenge that Korda has certainly grown accustomed to facing over the last several years of her career. But she hasn’t always been successful in rising to the occasion, particularly at this major championship.

Before Sunday’s triumph at Riviera, her closest call came last year during an uncharacteristically winless 2025 season, as Nelly tied for second alongside Rio Takeda at Erin Hills after losing to Maja Stark by two strokes. It’s a runner-up performance that was referenced several times throughout the week in Hollywood, and a showing that Korda has continually reaffirmed that, outside of the immediate disappointment of another near-miss, made her hungrier for the moment she earned on Sunday in California.

“I always felt like I emphasized the Women's Open so much,” Nelly said. “That's where my dream started of playing on the LPGA. Every year, I never played well. I was always over par, or I made a mess of a hole at Lancaster, and I felt like that dream was almost slipping away. But it was still keeping me very much so motivated.

“Being in the chase at Erin Hills, I turned the corner of, okay, I can be in the hunt. I can do this. I can play, and I can contend at a U.S. 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 today. When I entered the back nine, all Jay and I were talking about was one shot at a time.

“Not getting too ahead of myself. Not looking at the leaderboard, seeing what other people were doing. It was just a shot at a time.”

And because of that attitude, there are now spoils aplenty for Korda after this latest triumph. Statistically speaking, this U.S. Women’s Open marks Nelly’s 19th career LPGA Tour victory and fourth major championship title, making her the first athlete of the 2020 era to capture four wins in the game’s biggest events.

She is the first player since Republic of Korea native Inbee Park in 2013 to win the first two majors of the season and is the first American to do so since Pat Bradley in 1986, a woman who went on to capture three major wins and finish the Career Grand Slam that season.

The Olympic gold medalist is the third active Rolex Rankings No. 1 to win the U.S. Women’s Open since the inception of the Rankings in 2006, joining a list that only otherwise includes Park and Annika Sorenstam, and she is the fifth American to win four majors before age 28, an illustrious list that also features Patty Berg, Louise Suggs, Mickey Wright and Kathy Whitworth.

Additionally, according to golf statistician Justin Ray, Korda is the first athlete to win the U.S. Women’s Open after coming in second the year prior since Washington native JoAnne Carner, who celebrated the 50th anniversary of her 1976 victory this week at Riviera. And now, with the $2.5 million winner’s check, Korda is the highest-earning American athlete in LPGA Tour history, having made over $20 million in official earnings.

But maybe most significantly, Korda has earned two more points toward the LPGA Hall of Fame and currently sits with 25 total, just two points shy of automatically qualifying for one of the most exclusive halls of fame in all of sports.

Furthermore, it’s now going to be incredibly hard to pass her in the Rolex Player of the Year race, so really, there’s now a world in which Korda could be a Hall of Fame member by the end of November, the second athlete in the last three seasons to earn her place among the game’s greatest superstars after Lydia Ko did so at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Nelly would then be the first American to do so since Juli Inkster in 1999.

What’s crazy to think about, though, is that we are barely at the midway mark of the 2026 season, and Korda has already made this year one of the best—if not the best—of her entire career.

But for now, though, a celebration of epic proportions is in order, as is an unshouldering of the U.S. Women’s Open monkey that has clung to Korda’s spine for the last several years, and rightfully so, as Nelly deserves the relief she has to be feeling in this moment.

The white whale has been slain. The medal is around her neck. The trophy she’s yearned for since she started her career now has a place in her cabinet.

And with this tournament checked off her bucket list, there’s no telling what’s next for Nelly Korda.

The LPGA Hall of Fame is nigh.

Nelly Korda Captures Long-Awaited U.S. Women’s Open Crown at Riviera Country Club

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