Nelly Korda opened the LPGA season on fire. She ran away with the first major of the year, the Chevron Championship, and then accomplished a lifelong dream by winning the U.S. Women’s Open at Riviera Country Club.
Korda arrived at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship looking to complete the third leg of the “Nelly Slam” and, in the process, punch her ticket to the LPGA Hall of Fame. Korda contended at Hazeltine, but a cold putter let her down as Haeran Ryu won her first major title.
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Two weeks after snapping Korda’s major streak, Ryu landed in France for the Evian Championship, the year’s fourth major, with a simple goal in her first major after getting the monkey off her back.
“When we first start this tournament [at] the press conference I said my goal is to just play on the weekend; that’s it,” Ryu said, laughing, on Saturday.
While Korda missed the cut at the Evian Resort Golf Club, Ryu has done much more than she initially hoped. She shot eight under over the first two rounds to get into Saturday’s final group alongside 36-hole leader Lottie Woad and Aki Iwai.
Then, on Saturday, Ryu quickly went from being in the mix at another major to grabbing it by the throat and making major championship history in the process.
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Ryu birdied two of her first five holes and then holed out for eagle on the par-4 sixth to grab the lead. She birdied seven and nine to turn in six-under 29, then birdied the 10th. As Ryu stretched her lead on the back nine, she was unaware that she was speeding toward something that had never been done before. After three straight pars from 11-13, Ryu made circles at 14, 15, and 17, sparking buzz around Evian that a 59 was in play with the par-5 18th coming up. Ryu split the fairway with her tee shot and then found the green. But her 30-foot eagle putt came up just short, leaving her to tap in for birdie and sign for a third-round 11-under 60, the lowest major championship round in women’s golf history.
It was only when Ryu counted up her score after a closing birdie that she realized what she had done.
“I never know,” a smiling Ryu said in her post-round interview about making history. “I never know because, I didn’t know [it’s] par 71 [at Evian]. That’s why I just hit it — I didn’t know my score on the green today.
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“But after the putt, I counted my score with my caddie, and, ‘Oh, my God, it’s 11-under par.’ It was so amazing. My caddie says, ‘Yep.’ Yeah, I’m so happy right now.”
Per golf stats guru Justin Ray, Ryu gained 9.40 shots on the field on Saturday, building a three-shot lead over Iwai heading into Sunday. That is the second-most Strokes Gained in a major round this season, trailing only the 10.17 by Ina Yoon in the opening round of the KPMG.
The 25-year-old Ryu tried to break through on the major stage for years. After coming through at the KPMG, she feels more relaxed as she looks to go back-to-back on Sunday.
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“[It’s] an amazing, amazing dream,” Ryu said of being a major champion. “So I just want that one to come true, but we have one more day, and Aki is a pretty good player and everybody is so good, so [I’m] just doing myself pretty well.”
Two weeks ago, Nelly Korda had two majors and seemed primed to tighten her grip on women’s golf as the LPGA’s summer major swing began. Two weeks later, Ryu is on the cusp of equaling Korda’s 2026 major total and legitimately threatening her for Player of the Year honors.
But that’s a discussion for Sunday after Haeran Ryu has held off Iwai and the rest of the field — after she has gone from a player hoping to break through to being a two-time major champion.
Saturday was all about history. What it means is a discussion for after the final 18 holes are in the books.
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“It was an amazing day,” Ryu said. “But we have one more day.”
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