---
title: "Ryu wins her first major after a comeback no one had ever made"
description: "South Korea's Haeran Ryu won the KPMG Women's PGA Championship on Sunday, capturing her first major title with a final-round 70 — and an almost unbelievable backstory: she had trailed by 10 shots after the opening round, a deficit no golfer had ever overcome to win one of the game's majors."
category: "Sports"
category_url: https://newsparlor.com/category/sports
author: "Liam Fitzgerald"
published: 2026-06-29T04:08:00.000Z
updated: 2026-06-29T04:08:00.000Z
canonical: https://newsparlor.com/article/haeran-ryu-womens-pga-championship-comeback
tags: ["golf", "lpga", "womens-pga", "haeran-ryu", "major-championship"]
---
# Ryu wins her first major after a comeback no one had ever made

South Korea's Haeran Ryu won the KPMG Women's PGA Championship on Sunday, capturing her first major title with a final-round 70 — and an almost unbelievable backstory: she had trailed by 10 shots after the opening round, a deficit no golfer had ever overcome to win one of the game's majors.

Haeran Ryu completed one of the great recoveries in women's golf on Sunday, winning the KPMG Women's PGA Championship at Hazeltine National in Chaska, Minnesota, for the first major championship of her career, [the LPGA confirmed](https://www.lpga.com/news/2026/haeran-ryu-wins-the-kpmg-womens-pga-championship-for-her-first-major-title).

## A deficit never before erased

What set the victory apart was where it began. Ryu had opened the tournament 10 shots off the lead after the first round — a hole so deep that, [as NBC Sports noted](https://www.nbcsports.com/golf/live/kpmg-womens-pga-championship-2026-live-updates-from-the-final-round-at-hazeltine), no player had ever come back from that far behind after 18 holes to win a major. Over the next three days she steadily closed the gap, and on Sunday she shot a two-under 70 to hold off her compatriot Ina Yoon and win by two strokes.

## The numbers

Ryu took home about $1.95 million from a record purse of $13 million for the championship, [according to Golf Channel](https://www.golfchannel.com/lpga/news/kpmg-pga-womens-championship-2026-full-payout-from-13-million-purse). World-class names were in the chase — the American star Nelly Korda was among the contenders entering the weekend — but it was Ryu who held her nerve down the stretch on a demanding Hazeltine layout better known for hosting men's major championships.

## A breakthrough — and a familiar story

The win is a milestone for Ryu, a young South Korean who had been knocking on the door of the game's biggest titles. It also extended South Korea's long dominance in women's golf: with Yoon finishing runner-up, Korean players took the top two places at one of the sport's marquee events. For Ryu, the manner of the victory — patience, precision and a refusal to concede a tournament that looked lost after one round — may prove as memorable as the trophy itself.