​It was a challenging day to be No. 1. On the same day Scottie Scheffler missed his first cut in four years, Nelly Korda missed her first weekend in two years. With the cut line at even par and two holes left on the Amundi Evian Championship course, Korda’s bid grew tense as she slipped on a short par-4 17th. Her par putt stopped short after a misstep in the greenside bunker, leaving her to face the closing par-5, the easiest hole on the layout, needing a birdie to secure her place on the weekend.
Korda, representing the United States, watched from the tee as her drive veered to the right, narrowly failing to find the fairway. The lie wasn’t convincing enough to attempt the green in two, so she chose a layup to 86 yards and then wedged to roughly 14 feet. That birdie attempt also fell short, leaving her at 1 over for the tournament as she paused on the closing hole.
Shortly after Korda finished, the cut line shifted to 1 over due to a late surge from others, including amateur Yunseo Yang who birdied the 17th and Ryann O’Toole who birdied the 18th. Those late moves propelled the field’s threshold back to even par, with 66 players advancing.
Heading into Evian, Korda had not finished outside the top eight in any stroke-play event all season, a run that included four victories and wins at the first two majors. Over the two days of competition, she shot 74-69 and tallied 64 putts, a total that underscored the persistent struggle to convert opportunities on a demanding course.
Ahead of the week, talk around Korda centered on the possibility of a career grand slam and a potential LPGA Hall of Fame designation. After weathering a rough start, the narrative shifted toward whether she could merely reach the weekend in Evian. On Wednesday she spoke about her relationship with Evian, a venue where she has never finished higher than a share of eighth, acknowledging that the mountainside layout rewards precision in a way that sometimes doesn’t translate into rewards on the scorecard. “I don’t know,” she said, succinctly, when asked about Evian. “It’s Evian. That’s all I’m going to say.”
Beth Ann Nichols, a senior writer for Golfweek who covers the LPGA and women’s golf, notes that this story originally appeared on Golfweek. The 2026 Amundi Evian Championship delivered drama beyond the scoreline, reminding fans that even the sport’s dominant players are not immune to the capriciousness of a course that tests both form and nerve.