Hyo Joo Kim – Photo by Max Bechtoldt/Women’s Golf Daily News
Coming into the final round of the 2026 Ford Championship played at Whirlwind Golf Club near Phoenix, there was a hope that history would occur and the single-tournament scoring record of -31 would be broken. We didn’t see that, but Hyo Joo Kim still did enough to win for the second week in a row with a two-stroke victory over Nelly Korda.
Kim came into the final round with a four-shot lead, which was immediately cut in half thanks to an eagle on the par 5 second from Korda. Kim proceeded to make three birdies on the front nine before a double bogey on the eighth hole brought Korda back to within striking range.
The turning point of the round came at the turn, where Korda bogeyed both the ninth and 10th holes, while Kim birdied 10. From there, the tournament never really got close again thanks to some sloppy iron play from Korda and another crucial short putt missed on 15.
Korda did fight hard, with an eagle on 17 and birdie on 18, but Kim was so in control the entire back nine. It is so difficult to come back on a player like Kim, who rarely makes mistakes, and Korda had just enough missteps to keep her away from the title.
Kim missed just one fairway and hit 15 greens. For the week she missed just 10 fairways and 12 greens overall. This was the ninth win of Kim’s career and the third top-three finish in four starts so far in the early stages of this season.
This is the first time since 2001 that the same player has won two weeks in a row with the same runner up since Annika Sörenstam and Seri Pak according to golf stats expert Justin Ray.
The LPGA Tour now returns to Shadow Creek for a new event The Aramco Championship. Korda and Kim are both in the field, and will battle it out again.
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