​The week opened with chatter about the career grand slam and the prospect of a place in the LPGA Hall of Fame, and it closed with a watchful eye on the cut line. World No. 1 Nelly Korda never looked entirely at ease in France, and her day-to-day rhythm slipped away in the decisive stretch as she bogeyed the 17th and then parred the straightforward 18th, the par-5 that stands as the easiest hole on the course, to miss the weekend by a single stroke. It marked her first missed weekend since the 2024 KPMG Women’s PGA. The U.S. star arrived in Evian-les-Bains seeking to extend her remarkable run, but despite starting the season with a string of top-eight finishes in stroke-play events and collecting four victories—including a pair of majors—Korda couldn’t sustain the momentum in the heat of France, ultimately shooting 74-69 and tallying 64 putts over two days.
The cut line, which had tipped to 1 over par shortly after Korda’s finish, was nudged back to even by a birdie from amateur Yunseo Yang on the 17th and a late birdie from Ryann O’Toole on 18. In the end, 66 players earned a place for the weekend. Among them was Hannah Green of Australia, who had battled back after a rough start on Thursday but could not maintain enough momentum to reach Saturday and Sunday. Her rounds of 70-73 left her on the wrong side of the cut line, marking her second consecutive major miss this season after Hazeltine.
Mexico’s Gaby López had been delivering a major-season surge, finishing T-12, T-2, and T-12 in the first three majors of 2026, but the Evian course ultimately stifled that momentum as she birdied three of her last six holes on Friday to card a 70, still just falling short of the weekend. France’s Celine Boutier, the lone Frenchwoman to win Evian in the event’s history, endured a rough start with a triple bogey on the first hole on Thursday and followed with a 76, then a composed 69 on Friday that still wasn’t enough to mount a weekend charge or delight the home crowd.
Kiara Romero, the top amateur in the field, arrived with a shot at earning her LPGA card by making the cut, yet she too landed outside the weekend rotation. Romero’s Evian debut closed with a roller-coaster finish: an eagle on the 18th to cap a 74-73, but a triple and a double on Nos. 16 and 17 derailed any chance at a breakthrough. The week’s narrative balanced promise and disappointment as the field contended with heat and pressure, and only a handful emerged undeterred for the final rounds.
In sum, the Evian Championship ended where it began in many eyes: with high expectations and the stark reminder that the sport’s path to greatness is never guaranteed, even for the sport’s brightest stars. The week’s tale included flashes of brilliance, snippets of struggle, and the persistent undercurrent that a single misstep at Evian can redefine a season’s arc. The spotlight on Korda’s missed weekend underscored the brutal reality: in major golf, consistency is a demanding standard, and poise under pressure can determine outcomes as much as raw talent.