History was made at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minnesota, on June 25-28. Just not the history most were expecting.
Instead of Nelly Korda winning her third consecutive major, Haeran Ryu won her first. The 25-year-old South Korean showed the type of resilience required to win a major, during the week and especially on Sunday when a three-plus hour rain delay added to the final-round stress.
Ryu was given less than a 1 percent chance of winning after opening with a 1-over 73 – her first round of golf in six weeks after an injury forced her to miss the U.S. Women’s Open – that left her 10 shots behind leader Ina Yoon. Only two golfers had overcome a 10-shot deficit to win a major: Carol Mann at the 1964 Women’s Western Open and Paul Lawrie at the 1999 British Open at Carnoustie (thanks, Jean van de Velde).
Ryu makes it three. She changed putters after the first round and rebounded with rounds of 64-68-70 – shooting the lowest score of the day in the second and third rounds – to finish at 13-under 275 and win by two shots over Yoon. Ryu earned the first prize of $1.95 million from the richest purse in women’s golf ($13 million) and, more importantly, a spot in the record books.
“It’s awesome. ‘Major champion Haeran Ryu,’ awesome,” Ryu said with a laugh. I’m so happy I got the major title and then now, at the next tournament, they will introduce me [as] major champion Haeran Ryu. It’s amazing for me.”
But it didn’t come easy. It never does in a major.
Ryu saw her one-shot lead over Brooke Henderson, a two-time major champion, disappear in the final round when she made three bogeys in her first five holes. It didn’t help that Korda, world No. 1, made three birdies around the turn to move within two shots of the lead.
But just as she did after the opening 73, Ryu rallied, thanks to a silky-smooth swing to produce shots that lead to lifting trophies. She birdied the seventh, ninth, 10th and 12th holes to regain a lead that eventually swelled to three shots after she led the field in strokes gained tee-to-green.
When she made a par putt at the 18th hole, she started laughing. Out of joy and disbelief.
“I felt like, yeah, it feels like a dream and I cannot trust it right now because I’ve come close to winning a major,” Ryu said. “Now feels like a dream and that’s why I laughed a lot on the last hole.”
This was no fluke. Ryu already had five top-10 finishes in majors and she becomes the seventh LPGA Tour player to win in each of her first four seasons.
She wasn’t concerned after the opening 73. She switched putters and got a pep talk from her coach.
“He told me just trust yourself and that’s it,” Ryu said. “You don’t have another problem so just trust your shot and trust your caddie, and trust your (game) on the golf course.”
Yoon’s first-round 63 tied the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship record held by five others. She expanded her lead to five after a 69 in the second round, but a 75 left her two back entering the final round. That proved to be the margin of victory after she and Ryu both shot 70s.
“Grateful to, you know, have a really valuable experience that I have today. Little disappointed yesterday and today, but I think I did [a] pretty good job being under pressure and it’s just part of golf,” Yoon said. “I think it’s going to be really big lesson in the big picture.”
Most of the attention during the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship was focused on Korda’s attempt to become only the third LPGA Tour player to win the season’s first three majors. Korda made 18 birdies during the week – same as Ryu – but struggled on Hazeltine’s greens, averaging 29 putts a round, to finish tied for eighth.
Korda also double-bogeyed the par-4 16th, Hazeltine’s signature hole, twice. She insisted she wasn’t distracted by the talk of winning three consecutive majors.
“You guys made that such a big thing,” she told reporters afterward. “I didn’t think about that. I was just kind of disappointed in the way I played this week, not that I came up short.”
Henderson, the 28-year-old Canadian, had a joyous start to the week when big sister Brittany, her longtime caddie, gave birth to her first child, Sahalee, named after the course where Brooke won the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship a decade ago. Alas, Brooke came up short in matching Korda’s three career majors, finishing tied for third with Dewi Weber, who had the best finish in a major by a player representing The Netherlands.
“So happy to get a top-three in a major,” said Henderson, whose last major title came four years ago. “Makes the whole season feel a little bit better and it gives me a lot of confidence going into the rest of the year.”
But the 2026 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship belonged to Ryu. She was on the correct side of history. —Craig Dolch
