HOUSTON — Nelly Korda has a chance to win a major in wire-to-wire fashion and she’s got the largest 54-hole lead of her LPGA Tour career to try to do it.
It’s hard to imagine a better scenario for the world’s second-ranked player in the Chevron Championship at Memorial Park Golf Course. Korda has a five-shot lead over Patty Tavatanakit and six-shot margin over Ruoning Yin. Both have also won majors, and the trio will play together in the final group on Sunday.
The 26-year-old Korda—a two-time major winner—shot a two-under 70 Saturday to set herself up well to take a dip in the new small pool at Memorial Park. Yin shot a six under 66, tied for low round of the day, and Tavatanakit shot a three under 69.
Ruoning Yin trades a fist bump with her caddie on Saturday.
Korda is the first player to lead this championship by multiple shots after the first, second and third rounds since Lorena Ochoa did it 20 years ago. Karrie Webb beat Ochoa in a playoff to win that year in 2006.
Because Korda has played fantastic all year, it’s hard to see her coming back to the field. She’s excited for the opportunity to try to close it out on Sunday. She’s already won once at the season-opening Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions and finished second in the other four events.
“I love them,” Korda said of even the close calls. “At the end of the day I'm learning so much about myself, too. On the back nine [on Saturday] I learned that I needed to stay in it and not to kind of focus so much on my mis-hits with my putts. I just needed to keep giving myself opportunities, which I was. I don't want it to bleed into the other parts of my game where then I start to get so frustrated that it affects my driver, affects my irons. Just didn't want that at all. I wanted to continue giving myself opportunities even if I wasn’t holing them.
“I was still trying my best, and at the end of the day that's all I can control. I want to try my best and execute at the best of my ability. I can't be frustrated with anything but that.”
Tavatanakit was getting up-and-down all day Saturday, and really, she made a habit of scrambling all week. Korda has been ever the consistent player, tee to green. She’s hit 28 of 39 fairways and 43 of 54 greens in regulation this week. Tavatanakit has found just 23 of 39 fairways and only 31 of 54 greens in regulation—12 fewer than Korda.
They’ve each gotten to Sunday’s final pairing in such remarkably different ways with a chance to win but it almost feels like they’re playing different courses. The numbers are that striking.
Korda, who was Tavatanakit’s playing partner, was impressed.
“It was pretty incredible,” Korda said. “She was definitely making some insane up and downs and she has this flow to her chipping and to her entire game where it looks super easy. She looks very confident around the greens.”
If Korda wins or ties for second, she’ll snatch the World No. 1 ranking she lost last summer back from Jeeno Thitikul—who missed the cut here. Korda has played in the final group on Sunday in every tournament this season. It will be the 28th final grouping of her LPGA career. That’s five more than the next closest player on tour since Korda’s 2017 rookie season.
“Nelly has proven so much quality of golf the last few weeks, since she started 2026,” said Gaby Lopez, who shot a bogey-free six under 66 and is nine shots back. “It's very inspiring. Actually, on the second day that I saw that Nelly was 13 or 14 under, I told myself, ‘hey, it's out there. Sometimes we just give too much respect to the golf course. Just grip it and rip it. She's been amazing and very, very awesome to watch and inspiring. Hopefully she can slow down a little bit so we can catch her a little bit more.”
The lead ballooned to eight during Korda’s round on Saturday as she played the front nine at three under. Korda was one over on the back nine. She had one bogey on the front and three-putted for bogey on No. 13. She parred the rest of the holes on the back nine.
Korda told Golf Channel she was missing all of her putts right and that she was headed to the practice putting green after her round.
Tavatanakit and Korda have both taken the plunge (a tradition that started at Poppie’s Pond) and raised the trophy at the Chevron Championship. The 26-year-old Tavatanakit won in 2021 when the tournament was the Kraft Nabisco at Rancho Mirage. Korda won in 2024 in Houston, but that was at The Club at Carlton Woods. The 23-year-old Yin has won the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in 2023 and last year she was in the five-woman playoff here that Mao Saigo won.
What a tournament for Tavatanakit, who didn’t make a bogey until the 49th hole of the Chevron Championship.
“You just do what you’ve got to do. It's a major championship. It's playing tough,” Tavatanakit said. “You're not going to always have your best, but you’ve just got figure out what's in front of you.”
Korda was confident with her putter the first two rounds when she shot a pair of 65s, and she still made plenty of putts Friday. She tapped in for par at No. 18 to finish her round.