Inside Nelly Korda’s Opening Round at the 2026 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship

Nelly Korda has already claimed the first two women’s golf majors this season. After winning the US Women’s Open earlier this month, she revealed that her 2025 runner-up finish at the event made her realize that she was “just hungry for more.” Now, at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship held at Hazeltine National Golf Club, she has a chance to achieve that more.

A win at the KPMG Women’s PGA Champions doesn’t just mean a third major this year for the World No. 1; it will also award her the points she is shy of becoming an LPGA Hall of Fame addition. This would make her the first American to get the honor since Juli Inkster in 1999.

However, she is not focused on that yet. Heading into the third major of the season, she said, “I know a lot about the stuff that I want to know about, but this, I don’t want to put extra pressure on myself. I feel like the game of golf is already hard enough. If I add more pressure on myself, then it’s going to be even harder. I think it’s an amazing accomplishment, and it would be one of the best achievements of my career, for sure.”

Her comments show that she wanted to focus on just lifting the trophy, as it would have helped propel her on that path anyway. And she did have a decent start after her tee time at 8:17 AM CDT from Hole 1 alongside Hannah Green and Sei Young Kim. Although it was not a dream start like Ina Yoon, who currently leads with an opening round of 9-under 63, the World No. 1 still has very strong chances to rise to the top of the leaderboard in the following rounds.

Nelly Korda finished her opening round at 2-under 70, currently T12, with many other professionals, including Hye-Jin Choi, Charley Hull, and Jeeno Thitikul, yet to finish their 18 holes. Her stats for the opening round are as follows:

SG: Total: 3.139 SG: Off-the-Tee: 0.504 SG: Approach-the-Green: 2.115 SG: Around-the-Green: 0.007 SG: Tee-to-Green: 2.576 SG: Putting: 0.562

Nelly Korda’s story of the front nine

She started her round with three straight par scores on holes one to three. But she followed it with a bogey on par-3 4th. She started the 4th with a 176-yard tee shot that landed in the left rough. She missed the fairways on holes two and three, too, but this one proved brutal because of the Kentucky bluegrass. Her second shot of 28 feet 7 inches to the left of the green left her with 18 feet and 6 inches to the hole, which she missed.

Apr 26, 2026; Houston, Texas, USA; Nelly Korda prepares to putt on the 18th hole during the final round of The Chevron Championship golf tournament. Mandatory Credit: Erik Williams-Imagn Images

However, she was quick to recover from that with consecutive birdies on the par-4 6th and the par-5 7th. After following those birdies with two par scores, she finished the front nine with one under.

Her performance on the back nine was exceptional except for a costly mistake.

Nelly Korda’s costly mistake on the back nine

Korda hit three birdies on the back nine. The first was on the par-5 11th, followed by the par-3 13th and the par-5 15th. At that point, she was 4-under and in strong contention to finish the opening round in the top five. But there came her costly mistake on the 16th.

She teed off with a pretty decent 260-yard drive, but it landed in the creek on the left side. This led to a penalty and a drop off at 130 yards to the hole. While her third shot landed on the green, she took three-putt shots to complete the hole. This was her first double or higher in her last 347 holes. Korda followed it with two pars on the 17th and 18th to finish with 2-under 70.

“So the wind was off the right, and I actually think I just made too fast a swing, and I was kind of in between clubs. It’s a pretty intimidating tee shot, and I just didn’t really like the way I hit it off the start,” the 19-time LPGA Tour winner said about her tee shot on the 16th.

While the hiccup on the 16th slightly derailed her opening round, Nelly Korda is still optimistic.

“It was solid. Honestly, just made one bad swing, which ended up in a double. Overall, pretty happy with my day,” she added.

She is still confident about her chances. When speaking to the media, Nelly Korda said that every tournament is different, and while a tournament can’t be won on the first day, it can definitely be lost. Therefore, she was just happy that it wasn’t too bad.

You can watch her play in Round 2 in the same group. This time, she will start on the back nine at 1:42 PM CDT at Hazeltine National Golf Club.

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