Pacific Palisades, California – “To shoot an arrow forward, you must pull it back.”
There was a time when Nelly Korda used that word as wallpaper on her phone. My sister Jessica decided to get an arrow tattoo. It’s not the Korda family’s motto, but it’s something they often talk about, said Jessica, who was standing outside Riviera Country Club while Nelly met with reporters after sharing the 54-hole lead at the 81st U.S. Women’s Open.
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“Even if it feels like you’re taking a step back, you never know, you might be taking four or five steps forward,” Jessica said. “But that’s the point of life: you’re always going backwards and forwards and backwards and forwards. You’re never on an upward trajectory.”
Nelly Korda hits a tee shot on the ninth hole during the third round of the 2026 U.S. Women’s Open Presented by Alley on Saturday, June 6, 2026, at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, California.
Nelly had four wins on the LPGA in 2021, including his first major and Olympic gold medal. Over the next two years, they won only once. She won seven championships in 2024, including her second major, but suffered heartbreak in 2025, including a runner-up finish at the U.S. Women’s Open at Erin Hills.
This season, she has lost to a total of nine players in seven starts and has three wins, including her third major title at the Chevron Championship. The difference, she said, is a change in mindset. When bad interruptions occur, as they inevitably do, she strives to embrace the challenge rather than get depressed.
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“That’s the kind of attitude I’ve been trying to change, because I think the worst thing about this sport is, and still is, being a perfectionist in this sport. I get really frustrated when I keep missing divots, or I get into 1-centimeter divots here and there, or I hit a great putt and it goes out of my mouth,” Korda said.
Korda said she has talked to “a lot of people” about working on her heart. Her fiancé, Casey Gunderson, is encouraging her to be more positive. She started traveling with post-its to give herself uplifting reminders as she prepared for the day.
“Casey can bring such a positive, calm personality to the chaos of a tornado,” Jessica said with a laugh. “He was a great addition.”
Korda made back-to-back birdies at Riviera on Saturday to move to 6 under par and tied with South Korean veteran Sei-young Kim, who has 13 LPGA titles, including the 2020 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.
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Five of the top seven players on the leaderboard are major winners. Ying Gee Chun, a three-time major champion with two trophies at the U.S. Women’s Open, hopes to become the seventh player in U.S. Women’s Open history to win three or more titles. She is one spot behind Jennifer Kupcho, who birdied two of her final three on a picture-perfect day in Los Angeles County.
The first woman to win at Augusta National and the last woman to win at Mission Hills, Kupcho is looking to make more history at the Riviera that quickly captured her heart.
“I love playing this golf course,” Kupcho said. “I don’t say that about a lot of golf courses. As I walked from the 18th to the caddy, I said, ‘Wow, this is such a nice place. Like I love this place. I love this place.’
“And he said he’s never heard you say that before.”
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Charlie Hull shot a brilliant 6-under 65 in the lowest round of the tournament, putting her in eighth place with Alison Lee, a super mom from Los Angeles who gave birth to son Levi 13 months ago.
“I actually played really decent the first two days from tee to green, but I just didn’t make the putts,” Hull said. “So I just kind of stuck in there today and just gave it my all. I just thought it was crap.”
While the board is packed with major winners, many hot amateur players stand with nothing to lose. NCAA and Augusta National Women’s Amateur champion Maria Jose Marin and 16-year-old Aphrodite Deng are just four strokes apart at 2 under.
Asterisk Tully, 17, shot a bogey-free 5-under 66, the worst weekend round by an amateur in U.S. Women’s Open history, and finished 16th at 1 under.
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Chiara Romero, the number one amateur in the world, made even par. NCAA champion Farrah O’Keefe celebrated her 21st birthday with a 1-under 70 on Saturday. She was one of five amateurs to finish in the top 25.
A total of 17 players were under par for the championship, marking the first time in 30 years that all players in the top three after 54 holes were major winners.
But going into Sunday, all eyes will be on the world’s No. 1 player. This is Korda’s most desired title. She fell in love with the idea of playing professional golf when she qualified for her first U.S. Women’s Open at Sebonack at age 14. I didn’t do it because my sister Jessica did it, but because I wanted to.
“She had to sign. She felt like a total badass. She could do everything, everything, for free. Look at the (tour) track. It wasn’t there with me, it was there for her. She had her name in her locker. She really got into it,” Jessica said.
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Arrows have never been so easy to fly.
Beth Ann Nichols is Golfweek’s senior writer covering the LPGA..
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: U.S. Women’s Open: Nelly Korda in position for historic win at Riviera
