A grip change, a stomach full of nerves and a lifetime of wanting. Sitting beside the trophy at last, the new US Women’s Open champion reflected on the major that meant more to her than any other.
Nelly Korda sat down next to the Harton S. Semple Trophy and admitted she could barely find the words. “I really don’t have any,” she said. “That 14-year-old girl that stepped on the range at Sebonack in 2013 — her dream has just come true sitting next to this trophy right now.”
For Korda, no title has carried the weight of this one. She grew up watching her older sister Jessica play the championship, and the US Women’s Open became the event around which her ambitions were built. “I always felt like I emphasise the Women’s Open so much,” she said. “That’s where my dream started of playing on the LPGA.”
The years of doubt
That emphasis cut both ways. Year after year, the championship slipped through her fingers. “Every year I never played well. I was always over par, or I made a mess of a hole at Lancaster, and I just felt like that dream was almost slipping away,” she said. The breakthrough in mindset came at Erin Hills a year ago, where a runner-up finish taught her she could contend. “I kind of turned the corner of, okay, can I be in the hunt? I can do this,” she said. “I can put the dream aside and focus on what’s right in front of me.”
Even on Sunday, the doubts crept back in. “Obviously I’ve had doubts of, even mid-round, like, well, will I ever win it?” she said. “But I think you’re just a human being if you have them.”
No B game, just grind
What she leaned on instead was a willingness to scrap. “I don’t even feel like I had my B game,” she said, laughing. “I was just grinding out there. And that’s what major championships are all about, right? It doesn’t matter if you have your B or C game, you have to be there mentally.”
She had reason to laugh about it. Struggling to find the fairway off the tee, Korda had taken the considerable risk of changing her grip in the middle of a major. “It was honestly the worst,” she said. “I think it’s the hardest thing in the game of golf to change your grip… I do not recommend changing your grip during a major championship.” Her sister, she said, barely slept after suggesting it.
The putts that decided it
Two putts came to define her week. The first, a nine-footer on the 17th, broke her clear of the lead and drew a rare celebration. “I threw out a double fist pump on that hole because I knew what it meant,” she said. “That putt is the reason why I’m here.” She ranks it among the best moments of her career.
The second was the three-footer to win on the 18th — and she did not enjoy it nearly as much. “Why did I leave myself such a long putt?” she said. “Your heart rate is going. I wish I had my WHOOP to showcase my heart rate, because it was definitely high.” She had to fight the urge to celebrate early on the walk up the last. “I was dreaming of hoisting the trophy a little too early, and I kept reverting back — the job’s not done, the job’s not done.”
The people in her corner
Korda was quick to share the moment. Of caddie Jason McDede, she said she “would not be standing here without millions of pep talks” out on the course. Her family were waiting behind the 18th, which made it “even sweeter — especially with the ice cream swirl on the last hole,” she joked of that final putt. She also singled out 1980 US Open champion and Riviera member Amy Alcott, who met her on the first tee each day with a hug and a word of encouragement.
The galleries left their mark too. “LA definitely showed up,” she said, reflecting on how the women’s game has grown. “For me to hold that spot for these little girls, these little boys, means the world to me. I hope they get to hoist that trophy one day too.”
Humble, and not one for legacy talk
Asked what the win meant for her place in the game, Korda waved the question away. “I’ve never really thought about the legacy of my career, if I’m being completely honest,” she said. “I just really love competing.” She returned instead to three words she said she lives by — hungry, grind, humble. “Golf will humble you. The amount of times golf has humbled me throughout my years is crazy.”
If a weight had lifted, she would not quite say so. What she would own was the fight. “I’m just extremely proud of my fight this week,” she said, “and the dream of that little girl — you kind of get to check that off your bucket list.”
