Nelly Korda arrived at the lpga leaderboard as the world’s No. 1 player for the 81st U.S. Women’s Open at Riviera, a week after taking two weeks off and with last year’s runner-up finish still in view. She now returns to the site of a narrow miss, this time as the player to beat.
Korda Returns to Riviera
Korda finished second to Maja Stark a year ago at Erin Hills, then used that result as fuel. She said last year’s Open left her “hungry for more,” and added, “But I also learned a lot about myself. It made me hungrier to be in those positions.”
This season has backed up the ranking. Korda won the Chevron Championship, has three victories overall and has finished second three more times. She also said, “Last year was just a weird year of kind of not necessarily playing my best, but also when I did, not getting the bounces or just missing by a centimetre here and there.”
Stark Brings the Defending Edge
Stark returned the trophy she won by beating Korda last year, a simple handoff that reset the tournament around the two names that shaped it most. She is 23rd in the world after making seven cuts in eight starts this season, and she finished 16th in Cincinnati three weeks ago.
Her run after the major title was less stable. Stark hired a therapist and a sports psychologist after missing the cut in five of her next seven tournaments following her win, a stretch that kept the title defense from feeling routine.
Riviera Adds Another Layer
This is the first women’s U.S. Open ever held at Riviera, and the event has never been staged anywhere in Los Angeles County before. Korda had played Riviera only once before this week, but she called it “amazing out here” and said, “the vibe of the place, knowing that so much history has been played out here, it’s a great place for us to play.”
The setting puts a premium on the opening swings of the championship. With Korda leading the field after a season that has already delivered one major and five top-two finishes, the next rounds will show whether last year’s near miss at Erin Hills becomes the frame for a breakthrough at a course she has barely seen.
