Nelly Korda went wire-to-wire at The Chevron Championship, winning her third major by five shots and returning to world No. 1.
Nelly Korda left no doubt Sunday at The Chevron Championship, closing out a wire-to-wire major victory at Memorial Park and reclaiming the No. 1 ranking in women’s golf.
Korda began the final round with a five-shot lead and never let the tournament get tense. She shot a 2-under 70, finished at 18-under 270 and won by five over Ruoning Yin and Patty Tavatanakit.
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It was Korda’s third career major championship, her 17th LPGA Tour victory and 21st professional win worldwide.
“This was a hard weekend,” Korda said. “Honestly, having that big of a lead, it’s not easy. It was definitely one of the hardest things I’ve had to do mentally. ... Just happy to get it done.”
Korda grabbed the lead Thursday with a birdie on her 16th hole and never gave it back. Even when she three-putted the 12th on Sunday, trimming her lead to four, she answered immediately by stuffing a wedge to 2 feet at No. 13.
She added one more birdie at the par-5 14th after ripping a 3-wood near the green.
She finished one shot shy of Dottie Pepper’s long-standing 72-hole scoring record, but the trophy was never really in question.
Korda said she wanted the win to show resilience as much as dominance.
“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,” Korda said.
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“You’re going to make mistakes. You have to mentally still be in it 100%, and that’s really what I wanted show.”
Then came the celebration: a cannonball into the pond beside the 18th green, continuing one of golf’s best traditions.
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