Tranlate this title Nelly Korda returns to world number one in spanish

Nelly Korda regained the top spot in the women’s world rankings with a dominant victory at The Chevron Championship, the first major of the LPGA season held at Memorial Park Golf Course in Houston.

The American finished the tournament at -18 (270) with a final-round 70 (-2), finishing five shots ahead of Ruoning Yin and Patty Tavatanakit, tied for second. This is her third career major and her first since winning the title in 2024: a victory that restores her to the world No. 1 ranking for the first time since last August.

Nelly Korda, results

Korda authoritatively held a five-shot lead entering the final round. She played the final 29 holes on par, though she admitted that maintaining focus was challenging: «It’s not easy to go in with such a big lead. The challenge was knowing when to keep playing like Nelly and when to be a little more defensive.»

The key moments of her round came on the back nine. After two early birdies and two more in the second half of the round, she faced several six-foot putts that had posed problems in the third round. She converted the one on the 11th, left the next one short (reducing her lead to four shots), but responded like a champion.

On the 13th, she ignored her caddie’s suggestion to play short on the very uneven green and went straight for the stick, earning a birdie from just inches away. On the next hole, she played a 3-wood almost to the green for an up-and-down winner. On the 16th (a par-5 with water), she opted for a conservative approach: a layup with a wedge and a lob to 25 feet for a two-putt par.

The 27-year-old closed with a six-foot putt for par on the 18th, before diving into the water, as per tournament tradition. In place of California’s famous Poppie’s Pond, organizers built a temporary pool next to the green on the 18th: a pool about 4.5 feet deep. Korda went in «feet first,» as she explained, smiling in her white winner’s robe: «I knew it was only 4.5 feet deep, so I expected to hit bottom right away.»

With this triumph, Korda reaches 17 victories on the LPGA Tour (21 worldwide) and becomes the first American since Meg Mallon (2000) to win three career majors. She is also one of the few players in the last 50 years to have won an LPGA major while leading the standings after each round by a margin of multiple shots (like Juli Inkster in 1989 and Amy Alcott in 1991).

On a personal level, the victory takes on even greater significance because it comes after some errors on the green in the third round that had raised doubts. “I told myself I wanted to lift this trophy to show the guys back home that you can miss short putts and still win a major. You make mistakes, but you have to stay 100% mentally. I wanted to prove that to myself and to those watching,” Korda explained with a laugh.