Nelly Korda’s emotional U.S. Women’s Open win was years in the making

The moment Nelly Korda had worked for her entire life finally arrived on Sunday as the sun started to set over Riviera Country Club. Countless hours of work when no one was watching — the early mornings, exhausting range sessions, numerous triumphs and last year’s heartbreak at Erin Hills — all led Nelly Korda to the edge of her destiny.

All that was left between her and a U.S. Women’s Open title at a historic venue was 2 feet, 10 inches. Such a small distance can feel vast when it’s all that’s standing between you and one of your heart’s deepest desires. The fear of having everything you ever wanted only to let it slip at the last moment can be crippling. From Dustin Johnson to Rory McIlroy, major championship golf history is filled with legends who missed putts they had made thousands of times when the weight of the world was in their hands.

After 71 holes at Riviera, Nelly Korda sat atop the leaderboard by one stroke. She unleashed a 288-yard drive with 158 mph ball speed down the center of the iconic 18th fairway, hit her approach to 35 feet and left herself with 34 inches to claim the biggest prize in women’s golf. Korda, whose putter has been her kryptonite at times during her career, had been nearly flawless from short range this week in Los Angeles. She lined up the putt, took a breath and put a shaky stroke on the ball, sending it toward her fate. The ball went left off the putter face, hit the lip and looked like it would slip out, sending Korda to a playoff with Charley Hull and Gaby Lopez.

But this time the golf gods had other ideas. Nelly Korda’s destiny had been deferred for long enough — the sting of the runner-up at Erin Hills was a necessary scar, but it didn’t need a partner. The ball hit the lip, rolled around the cup and dropped.

“Don’t make me relive that again,” a laughing Korda told NBC’s Cara Banks while holding the U.S. Women’s Open trophy and wearing the Mickey Wright Medal.

“The thing is, you can barely feel your hands.”

The irony is that Korda’s journey to her dreams is one she’ll play back in her mind for the rest of her life. That feeling, of catching the car you’ve long chased, is something you can’t replicate. It departs quickly, leaving you with only the memory of the day you etched yourself into history.

For Nelly Korda, her road to U.S. Women’s Open immortality started long ago, back before anyone knew Nelly Korda. The tireless work ethic that has come to define her rise was instilled in her at a very young age by her parents, Petr Korda and Regina Rajchrtová, both of whom are former tennis players. Her ascention to the dominant star in women’s golf has seen her capture three majors prior to Sunday, but the one she wanted more than anything alluded her. Her track record in the U.S. Women’s Open was confoundingly poor until last year at Erin Hills, where a balky putter kept her from tracking down eventual champion Maja Stark.

“I always felt like I emphasize the Women’s Open so much, like that’s where my dream started of playing on the LPGA,” Korda said on Sunday after her win. “Every year I like 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 kind of like slipping away. But it was still keeping me very much so motivated.”

That day in Wisconsin was a pivotal moment. It showed Korda that her dream of being a U.S. Women’s Open champion was attainable. “I kind of turned the corner of, okay, like can I be in the hunt, I can do this, I can play and I can contend at a U.S. Women’s Open. I can put the dream aside and focus on what’s right in front of me,” Korda said.

Korda arrived at Riviera as the heavy favorite. This was a massive stage for women’s golf, and the game’s best player winning on an iconic course and putting her name on the Ben Hogan statue that sits above it seemed like the Hollywood script women’s golf has been desperately searching for.

Then came the first round, where Korda stumbled out of the gate, shooting a 2-over 73 to sit seven shots off the 18-hole lead. In the past, Nelly Korda might have gotten down on herself, believing she’d shot herself out of the tournament before the proceedings really got underway. Instead, Korda embraces the major championship grind and fired the low round of the day on Friday, a 4-under 67 to vault back into contention. Another 67 on Saturday saw Korda close with three straight birdies to grab a share of the 54-hole lead and set up the biggest round of her career on Sunday.

On Sunday, Korda received a text message from Tiger Woods, telling her to “Finish it off today.” She had been writing herself positive messages on sticky notes on her bathroom mirror all week. As her dream beckoned, Korda wrote herself one final message.

Whatever happens happens. Just give it 100 percent.

Korda opened with a birdie at the first and added another at the sixth before dropping a shot at No. 7 to fall out of the lead. Korda watched as Hull soared up the board to grab the lead and then saw In Gee Chun race out to a two-shot lead with six holes to play. As others made their move, Korda tried to stay present even while the doubts that come when you’ve tried and failed to achieve your dream inevitably arrive.

“I mean, obviously I’ve had doubts of like even mid-round I was like, well, will I ever win it, right?” Korda said. “I mean you always have those doubts. But I think you’re just a human being if you have them. Like everyone will have them eventually at some parts of their career.”

But Korda never flinched. She made nine straight U.S. Open pars from eight through 16 as Hull, Chun and others stumbled back. She arrived at the par-5 17th tied for the lead, knowing that a birdie and a par would likely deliver her the trophy. Korda found the fairway and then pulled her approach shot into the left rough short of the green but with a good angle to the pin. Her chip left her just short of 10 feet for birdie, which Korda rolled into the center of the cup to take a one-shot lead that she refused to let slip through her fingers, even when she couldn’t feel them on the final putt.

As reality set in for Nelly Korda on the 18th green at Riviera, with fans sitting on the hill chanting her name, her emotions — those that arrive only when lifelong dreams are achieved, when mountains are summited — flowed.

“I feel like I’m in a dream,” a teary-eyed Korda said on the 18th green after receiving the trophy. “Gosh, I just can’t even explain how much this means to me. Thank you all for coming out and cheering me on. It really brings tears to my eyes.

“I really don’t have any,” Korda said later when asked to put her crowning achievement into words. “I mean, that 14-year-old girl that stepped on the range at Sebonack in 2013, I mean, her dream has just come true sitting next to this trophy right now.”

There’s a weight in dreams and in expectations. Nelly Korda has shouldered those as she has tried to find a way to walk the right path the moment that arrived Sunday at Riviera Country Club. She has tried everything to win this tournament. She emphasized it too much and tried to treat it like any other event. Her failures stacked up and the doubt rose. A deep scar at Erin Hills gave her belief and pain. It also led her to a mindset shift that saw her focus on being the happy, free Nelly on the golf course instead of allowing negative thoughts to dull her world-class game.

“Last year, the U.S. Open hurt,” Korda’s caddie Jason McDede told GOLF.com in Houston after her Chevron Championship win in April. “But everything happens for a reason, right? If that doesn’t happen, maybe we’re not here right now.”

After finally reaching the mountaintop, Nelly Korda faced a question all great athletes confront after reaching their destiny, after carrying the burden of grand dreams on their backs. Do you feel different? Has catching the car left you fulfilled and liberated?

Nelly Korda, whose name will forever live at Riviera Country Club, didn’t feel the need to search for an answer; she’d already found all the ones she needed to finally reach the place she’d always envisioned for herself, back when she was just a girl who drew herself into the stars.

“I don’t know if a weight has been lifted off of my shoulders,” Korda said. “But I just think I’m just extremely proud of my fight this week and the dream of that little girl that you kind of get to check that off your bucket list.”

In the end, Nelly Korda’s winding road to the U.S. Women’s Open trophy came down to 2 feet, 10 inches; to numb hands and doubts and dreams and expectations; to the long journey to immortality and questions about what happens if you never reach your destination.

Thirty-four inches later and every part of the cup later, Nelly Korda finally became what she was always meant to be — forever a U.S. Women’s Open champion.