Haeran Ryu settled it with three feet of green. On the first hole of a playoff at the Amundi Evian Championship, the South Korean rolled in a short birdie putt to see off Brooke Henderson and claim a second consecutive major title. Both women had finished 72 holes at nineteen under par. Only one of them left Evian-les-Bains with the trophy.
How it was decided
The Sunday belonged to Henderson before it belonged to Ryu. The Canadian assembled a closing 64, built on three eagles, among them a hole-in-one at the eighth and an eagle at the last that carried her to nineteen under and into the playoff. Ryu, meanwhile, laboured to a level-par 71. She had led into the final round and watched her margin thin with every hour. On the seventy-second hole she holed the birdie she needed to stay level. Henderson answered with the eagle that forced extra holes.
They returned to the eighteenth. Henderson pulled her drive, was forced to lay up, and made par. Ryu did not flinch. She left herself a tap-in for birdie and took it. The contrast told the story of the week: Henderson's charge against Ryu's composure, both arriving at the same number by opposite roads.
The foundation had been laid a day earlier. On Saturday, Ryu signed for a 60, eleven under par, the lowest single round in the history of major-championship golf. It gave her the lead and the cushion she would need when Henderson came for her on Sunday.
A fortnight that changed a career
Two weeks earlier, Haeran Ryu had no major to her name. She arrived at Evian as a first-time major winner, having taken the KPMG Women's PGA Championship at Hazeltine on 28 June. That victory was itself remarkable: a closing 70 for a two-shot win over Ina Yoon, achieved after she overturned a ten-shot first-round deficit in heavy wind, the largest comeback in the tournament's history and the first ten-shot recovery at a major since 1964.
Evian confirmed that the first win was no accident. Ryu, twenty-five, became the second player to win back-to-back majors on the LPGA Tour in 2026, following Nelly Korda's early-season double. Before this year, no woman had gone back-to-back at the majors since 2013.
Before these three weeks, I didn't have a major championship — now two in a row. I am so happy, I can't believe it.
She said as much afterwards, describing the run as a dream. Three weeks, two majors, one record round. Haeran Ryu walked off at Evian a different player from the one who arrived.
