Nelly Korda wins 2026 Chevron Championship

Nelly Korda (Keith Allison, Wikimedia Commons)

For the third time in her golf career, Nelly Korda of Bradenton, Florida is a major champion. After winning the 2021 Women’s PGA Championship and the 2024 Chevron Championship, Korda won the 2026 Chevron Championship by posting a winning score of -18.

Nelly Korda had a fourth round score of two-under-par 70, and beat former major champions Patty Tavatanakit of Bangkok, Thailand, and Ruoning Yin of Kunming, China by five strokes each. Tavatanakit won the 2021 ANA Inspiration at Rancho Mirage, California (the major that moved to Texas in 2023 and became the Chevron Championship), and Yin won the 2023 Women’s PGA Championship.

On Sunday, Korda had four birdies and two bogeys. She birdied the first, third, 13th and 14th holes, and bogeyed the 12th and 17th holes. In an interesting statistic, Korda had an excellent start to her round on all four days during the tournament. On the first hole she posted a score of one-under-par. It was that initial boost of confidence that contributed to her success.

Korda was also a wire-to-wire winner over the weekend. She led the tournament with a score of -7 after round one, -14 after round two, and -16 after round three. It is fair to say that Korda won the tournament after Friday, and no one had what it took to make the first major of the women’s golf season remotely interesting as Korda won in a rout.

With the win, Korda deservedly moves into number one in the Rolex Women’s Golf Rankings. She has 11.65 average points. Former world number one Jeeno Thitikul of Thailand is second with 9.99 points.