PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. – Most weeks we have no clue who will win. The odds list their educated guesses, but they’re all based on single-digit percentages. But some weeks, the storylines converge around a single character. At the US Women’s Open, that’s Nelly Korda.
The question Korda faces Sunday is the same one she faced Thursday morning when she played her first hole. It’s the same thing she faced Tuesday morning when she gave her pre-tournament press conference. It’s very simple:
Are you able to earn a week that you need more?
Why does she need this more? Because form is not forever. Because she is playing the best golf of her life. Because she has won a gold medal, but never her national championship. Because the US Women’s Open on the historic Riviera isn’t on the calendar, and these moments can pass quickly if you don’t stamp your name on them all.
For more than 10 yearsRory McIlroy failed to finish the job at Augusta National and fell one win short of a career Grand Slam. Then the dam broke. He has now won there twice in a row.
Lydia Ko may just accept the podium at the 2024 Olympics. She should have been on HEAD of the podium at the Paris Games, not only to join the LPGA Hall of Fame, but also to eliminate the medal slam. Silver in 2016, bronze in 2021, it was Gold or nothing in 2024. She won the gold medal. Then she won in St. Andrews a few weeks later.
Scottie Scheffler will (it seems) have a much better chance to win the US Open, starting in two weeks at Shinnecock – so he can claim his career Grand Slam – but until he does, we’ll be wondering, can he do it? When will he do it? IF he can do it.
So it goes with the best players in the game. They go through valleys and reach peaks all the time. It comes and goes and they understand that. But when the golf is great, HOW big can be? These are the questions we ask. In press conferences, in clubs and in Hall of Fame speeches 20 years from now. How memorable will this Nelly Korda piece of golf be? It starts on Sunday afternoon, in a position not too different from where we were 12 months ago.
When she returned to the back nine last year at Erin Hills, Korda was a shot behind Maja Stark. After all, all he needed was one down in the final stretch. She shot one.
“I really, really loved it,” Korda said Saturday night, reflecting back. “And the more you want it, sometimes the more hardened you become and the more nervous you become.”
She says she plays her best golf when she is free. When she jokes and happy. This is her attitude wants to bring to the final round. But how possible is this? Her game has not been perfect this week. She worked with different opinions and advice from her team.
When it starts on Sunday, some kind of travel will have narrowed down to a really tight spot. The biggest crowd of the week will follow, and they will tee off around the first tee in front of the historic clubhouse. If you turned the clock back to January 1 and asked her to visualize her 2026 season, she would picture herself heading into the final round at Riviera with the lead. She is there now and it is no accident. The days between January 1st and June 7th, at least as far as golf is concerned, have been near perfect. Three wins, three second places, top 10 everywhere. It is without a doubt the best golf of her life and some of the best golf we have ever seen.
But what if it doesn’t end in victory?
