- Nelly Korda has clinched the 2026 Rolex Player of the Year award with three events remaining.
- The award gives Korda her 26th LPGA Hall of Fame point, one short of the 27 required.
- Korda will be honoured at the Rolex LPGA Awards during CME Group Tour Championship week.
Nelly Korda has wrapped up the 2026 Rolex Player of the Year award before the season’s final stretch. The LPGA confirmed the result once the entry deadline for The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican passed at 5pm ET on Tuesday. That deadline was the last chance for her rivals to add a start.
The 28-year-old Floridian has led the points race since her victory at The Chevron Championship in April. She followed it by winning the US Women’s Open at Riviera for back-to-back majors. With four wins to her name, she went into the LPGA’s autumn Asian swing 75 points clear.
For the second time in her career, Nelly Korda is the @ROLEX Player of the Year! 👏 https://t.co/8nwseKHtaZ
— LPGA (@LPGA) November 3, 2026
How did the chasers fall away?
Three players were still in contention: Haeran Ryu, Jeeno Thitikul and Miyu Yamashita.
Ryu won the KPMG Women’s PGA and the Evian this season. With four events left on her schedule, she needed two wins, a second place or better and an eighth place or better. She kept her hopes going by finishing runner-up at the BMW Ladies Championship. She then withdrew from the Maybank Championship before the first round with a strained finger ligament, which she suffered riding in a golf cart during the pro-am.
Yamashita and Thitikul each needed three wins. Both are playing in the TOTO Japan Classic and scheduled for the CME Group Tour Championship, so each would also have had to enter The ANNIKA to get a third start. Yamashita defended her Maybank title on Sunday for her third LPGA win of 2026. Neither player entered The ANNIKA before the deadline, which ended the race.
A second early clinch
Korda also secured the award in 2024 with three events still to play. She is the first player in the last ten years to clinch it mathematically before the season finale twice.
The award was introduced in 1966. Points go to top-10 finishes at every official LPGA event and are doubled at the five majors. Past winners include Thitikul, Lydia Ko, Inbee Park, Lorena Ochoa and Annika Sorenstam.
One point from the Hall of Fame
Every Player of the Year earns a point towards the LPGA Hall of Fame. This one takes Korda to 26, one short of the 27-point threshold.
She can earn points in four ways:
- winning an official LPGA event (one point)
- winning a major (two points)
- claiming the Vare Trophy (one point)
- taking Olympic gold (one point)
Korda has not played enough rounds to qualify for this year’s Vare Trophy. That leaves two chances to secure induction in 2026: The ANNIKA at Pelican and the CME Group Tour Championship.
Related: Yamashita Shares First-Round Lead in Bid for Back-to-Back Wins
Simon Bale
Simon Bale is the publisher of Golf Today. A low single-figure handicap golfer, he was previously a major shareholder and course reviewer for Top100GolfCourses.com for over a decade, starting in 2010. Through this role, he developed extensive knowledge of golf course design and architecture while playing more than 300 courses worldwide.