HOUSTON (AP) — Nelly Korda won The Chevron Championship on Sunday with a performance worthy of her return to No. 1 in women's golf.
Staked to a five-shot lead at the start, 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.
The victory was her 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.
Korda not only won wire-to-wire, it was never really a contest. She hit 5-iron to 5 feet for birdie on her 16th hole of the opening round Thursday to take the lead and never trailed again.
As easy as Korda made it look, it felt like a struggle.
“That was a hard weekend,” she 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."
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.
Korda's lead was four shots after a tentative three-putt bogey on the 12th. She followed by hitting wedge to 2 feet on the 13th, and then hammered a 3-wood just short of the green on the par-5 14th for a simple up-and-down for her final birdie.
She joined Juli Inkster (1989) and Amy Alcott (1991), both at Nabisco Dinah Shore, as the only players in the last 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 played this year, winning the season opener and the first major, finishing runner-up in the other three.
About the only drama in the final hour — all weekend, really — was whether Korda could break Dottie Pepper's 72-hole scoring record that has stood since 1999. Korda was playing it safe with a big lead, hitting to the fat of the green and settling for pars, along with another three-putt bogey.
She finished at 18-under 270, one short of Pepper's record at Mission Hills.
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.
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.”
Ruoning Yin (69) and Patty Tavatanakit (70) tied for second. They were the only ones who could even think about having a chance on Sunday.
Tavatanakit walked in a 25-foot birdie on the sixth hole to get within four shots, only to make bogey with a wedge on the par-5 eighth. Yin went 56 consecutive holes without a bogey until making one on the 17th.
Korda won $1.35 million for a victory that puts her back as the best in women's golf without any debate. She won seven times in 2024, including a record-tying five in a row she capped off with a victory at The Chevron when it was at Carlton Woods.
This was the first time the LPGA's opening major was held at Memorial Park, a big golf course that had been redesigned for the Houston Open on the PGA Tour.
