Korda finds success at Hogan’s Alley

The place is known as Hogan’s Alley. Ben Hogan won a U.S. Open at Riviera Country Club, and now Nelly Korda has as well. 

Maybe calling it Nelly’s niche is a bit premature so we’ll skip that description.

But when a great player succeeds on a great course, it is more than a footnote.   

As is the work of the U.S. Golf Association which through its work gave the ladies the opportunity the men had, to play and win the national championship on an historic layout. 

Pebble Beach was the site in 2023, a groundbreaker, and Allison Korpuz, the winner. Then Sunday at “The Riv”, where the walls are covered with photos of entertainers—everyone from Humphrey Bogart to Dean Martin—and there is a statue of Hogan at the practice green.

After opening with a 2 over 73 Thursday, Korda got her game together—or considering Riviera’s famous membership—act together—and ended up with a total score of 8-under-par-276. She closed with a 2-under-par 69 Sunday, dropping a 2-foot, 10 inch putt on the 18th green for the victory. Korda won by a shot. 

That brought huge cheers from the crowd huddled below the hill that creates an amphitheater at Riviera’s 18th. 

In a three-way tie for 2nd were Charley Hull of England, Gaby Lopez of Mexico and In Gee Chun of South Korea.

Korda, 27 and the World No. 1, has taken both of the women’s majors this year, adding the Open—unquestionably the biggest women’s event in the game—to the Chevron, which you may recall began as the Dinah Shore in Palm Desert.

There is no question Nelly, who struggled last year, at the moment is the best on the LPGA. There is a question whether she is the best athlete in her talented family.

Her father, Petr, was a Czech former professional tennis player who reached World No. 2 and won the 1998 Australian Open.  Her mother, Regina Rajchrtova, was a former professional tennis player who represented Czechoslovakia and competed in the 1988 Summer Olympics.

Nelly’s sister, Jessica, was a highly successful professional golfer on the LPGA Tour. Her younger brother, Sebastian, plays the ATP tour.

Korda is the youngest American player to win four majors since Mickey Wright, the one-time Stanford star, in 1960, and only the second American in the past 10 years to win the Open.

Korda had been frustrated after going winless in 2025. 

“I’ve tried to have a mindset shift,” Korda said. “I’m just going to embrace the challenges, and I’m not going to walk off the golf course. I’m just going to figure it out.”

She did exactly that.