PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. – Many weeks we have no clue who will win. Oddsmakers make their educated guesses, but they’re all based on single-digit percentages. But in some weeks, the story lines converge around one character. At the US Women’s Open, that’s Nelly Korda.
The question Korda faces Sunday is the same one he faced Thursday morning when he played his first hole. This is what he faced on Tuesday morning when he gave a press conference before the tournament. It’s very simple:
Can you summon victory in the one week you need it most?
Why does he need it so much? Because form is not eternal. Because he is playing the best golf of his life. Because he won a gold medal but never won his national championship. Because the next US Women’s Open at the historic Riviera is not on the calendar and these moments can pass quickly if you don’t stamp your name on them all.
For more than 10 years, Rory McIlroy failed to make a career at Augusta National, and remained with only one victory in his career Grand Slam. Then the dam broke. Now he has won there twice in a row.
Lydia Ko may just accept the podium at the 2024 Olympics. He should have opened it up of the Paris Games, to not only join the LPGA Hall of Fame, but to polish the medallion. Silver in 2016, Bronze in 2021, Gold or nothing in 2024. He won the Gold. Then he won in St. Andrews a few weeks later.
Scottie Scheffler will (apparently) have plenty of chances to win the US Open, starting in two weeks at Shinnecock – in pursuit of his career Grand Slam – but until he does, we’ll be wondering, can he do it? When he will do it. IF he can do it.
So goes the game’s best players. They go through valleys and reach peaks every time. It comes and goes and they understand that. But if the golf is good, How would it be good? These are the questions we ask. In press conferences, clubhouses and Hall of Fame speeches 20 years from now. How memorable will this Nelly Korda golf episode be? It starts on Sunday afternoon, in a place not too different from where we were 12 months ago.
When he turned on the back nine, last year at Erin Hills, Korda was one stroke behind Maja Stark. Looking back, all he needed was to finish. He shot one.
“I really wanted it,” Korda said Saturday night, reflecting back. “And the more you want, sometimes the stronger and more nervous you become.”
He says he plays his best golf when he is free. When you play you are happy. That’s his attitude looking for to bring it to the final round. But how is that possible? His game wasn’t perfect this week. He was working on different ideas and advice from his team.
When it starts on Sunday, the tour will have reached a really strong point. The biggest crowd of the week will be following him and will enter the first place in front of the historic house. If you turn the clock back to January 1 and ask him to envision his 2026 season, he can imagine himself entering the final round at the top-of-the-line Riviera. You are here now, and it is not an accident. The days between Jan. 1 and June 7, at least golf-wise, are almost perfect. Three wins, second place finish, top ten overall. Arguably the best golf of his life and some of the best golf we’ve ever seen.
But what if it doesn’t end with victory?
