World No. 1 talks preparation, the habit of staying the course, and why she is more comfortable in her own skin than ever as the U.S. Women’s Open gets under way at Riviera Country Club.

There is a version of a world No. 1 who arrives at a major championship surrounded by noise — schedule changes, swing overhauls, a reinvented game plan. Nelly Korda is not that version. Arriving at Riviera this week for the U.S. Women’s Open, the American is doing, by her own account, what she has done for the past three or four years. Same preparation. Same structure. Same approach.

“Everything stayed the same,” she said at her pre-tournament press conference. “I’ve stayed the course of: this is what I feel the best doing, and I’m going to continue it.”

That consistency has not come without effort. Korda had one day off per week during the off-season. The other six were split between the gym, the practice ground, and treatment sessions that ran from morning into the early evening. “You kind of sacrifice your time at home with friends or family,” she said. “But it’s just so worth it because there’s no better rush than being in the hunt.”

Riviera: a new venue, a familiar mindset

Korda played Riviera once before, in 2024, when temporary greens were in use on the par-3s. Her first full experience of the course in major championship condition has left her impressed. She teed off at 6:56 on Monday morning, played all 18 holes, and walked off without hitting a ball afterwards. The principle — play, then rest — is how she approaches every major week.

Her preparation leans on people rather than research. She has not watched footage of previous tournaments at Riviera and admits she does not tend to. Instead she walked the course with coach Jamie Mulligan, a California native who knows the property well, and trusts caddie Jason to bring the data. “Sometimes too much information isn’t really good,” she said. “I just try to play the golf course and figure it out on my own.”

The one hole she singled out as a particular test is the par-3 10th. The tee shot may look inviting, but the green — and the bunker — make it anything but. “You would think it being a short hole that it’s an easy birdie chance,” she said. “But that green is just so tough. Knowing where to miss is a really big key on this golf course.”

Hungry for more

Last year was, by Korda’s own assessment, a strange one. She did not win a tournament, but she was close — close enough to feel it, and close enough for it to sting. Rather than treating that as a reason to change, she treated it as fuel. “It made me hungrier to be in those positions,” she said.

That hunger has an almost physical quality in how she describes it. Being in contention on a back nine at a major, she says, produces a rush of emotion that no amount of range time or early mornings fully replicates — but which makes all of that work feel worthwhile. “There’s nothing better when you’re a very competitive person than being in the hunt,” she said. “Even if it doesn’t work out, you constantly want to put yourself back into that.”

She is also, she says, simply more comfortable in herself than she used to be. “I know what I want to do when I come out. There’s a process. There’s structure.” She was wearing red, white and blue on Tuesday — partly out of patriotism ahead of her confirmed Solheim Cup place, and partly because 13 is her lucky number, which happened to be on an Alex Morgan shirt. The World Cup begins next week. The timing, she noted, felt right.

U.S. Women’s Open 2026 — Key Facts
Venue: Riviera Country Club, Pacific Palisades, California
Dates: 4–7 June 2026
Credit: Interview courtesy of the United States Golf Association / U.S. Women’s Open

Watch the full interview here.