LOS ANGELES (AP) — Nelly Korda won the 81st U.S. Women’s Open on Sunday for her second consecutive major victory, holding off Charley Hull and Gaby Lopez by one shot when her final 2 1/2-foot par putt curled perilously around the cup and dropped in.Korda’s first U.S. Open win is the fourth major victory of her career, and she claimed it with a steady 2-under 69 in the final round — but only after her second putt on the 18th green caught the left edge and toured half the circumference of the hole before falling.The top-ranked Korda put her hand over her open mouth in disbelief before finally laughing at the frightening way she had finished a victory that emphasized her dominance of the sport. She finished at 8-under 276 after sharing the lead with multiple competitors throughout the windy finale of the first Women’s Open ever held at 100-year-old Riviera.
“I feel like I’m in a dream,” Korda told the gallery. “I just can’t even explain how much this means to me with all of you here cheering me on.”Korda made a 9-foot birdie putt on the 17th to break out of a four-way tie for the lead with Lopez, the hard-charging Hull and three-time major champion In Gee Chun. Korda two-putted for par on the 18th, claiming the $2.5 million winner’s share of this Open’s record $12.5 million purse.
