Nelly Korda is one point away from the Hall of Fame

Nelly Korda has arrived on the doorstep of the LPGA Hall of Fame.

She got there without hitting a single shot.

The world No. 2 locked up her second Rolex Player of the Year award on Tuesday afternoon.

The race ended when Jeeno Thitikul and Miyu Yamashita — the second- and fourth-ranked players in women's golf — withdrew from the Annika, the LPGA's penultimate event of 2026.

Their absences mathematically eliminated them from the Player of the Year race.

Korda won with 239 points and two events still left on the schedule.

Haeran Ryu finished second with 176 points.

Yamashita had 156 points.

Thitikul had 155 points.

The award is Korda's second Player of the Year honor.

She first won it in 2024.

That year, she also clinched the title with three events remaining.

This year's accolade comes with an extra weight.

Player of the Year winners earn one point toward LPGA Hall of Fame eligibility.

That point pushed Korda's career total to 26.

The Hall of Fame requires 27 points.

She is one point away.

One win away.

Korda has three events left in 2026.

She is scheduled to play in two of them: the Annika and the CME Group Tour Championship in Naples, Florida.

If she wins either event, she locks up her place in golf immortality before the month ends.

Regular-season LPGA wins are worth one Hall of Fame point.

Major victories are worth two points.

The Vare Trophy for lowest scoring average is worth one point.

An Olympic gold medal is worth one point.

Korda's 69.38 scoring average is the best on tour this season.

But she will not win the Vare Trophy.

She has not played the required minimum of 70 rounds.

That door is closed.

The Olympic gold medal door is also closed for now.

The next opportunity is a tournament win.

Korda has already won four times in 2026.

She opened the season with a victory at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions in February.

That event was reduced to 54 holes because of weather.

It was her first win in more than 14 months.

She won the Chevron Championship in April — the first major of the year.

She won the U.S. Women's Open at Riviera in June.

That was her fourth career major.

She also won the season's second major at the Chevron.

After those two major wins, her Hall of Fame point total climbed to 25.

That left her one major title or two non-major victories away from qualification.

Korda said she was not paying much attention to the numbers.

At the KPMG Women's PGA in late June, she admitted she had no clue how many points were required for Hall of Fame entry.

She also did not know how many points she had accrued.

"I kind of like to be oblivious about it in that way," she said.

But the numbers are impossible to ignore now.

She is at 26 points.

Current players with at least 15 LPGA Hall of Fame points include Yani Tseng at 23, Jin Young Ko at 20, Stacy Lewis at 19, Ariya Jutanugarn at 17 and Brooke Henderson at 16.

Korda leads them all.

The LPGA Hall of Fame is points-based.

It is different from the World Golf Hall of Fame, which uses a voter-based selection process.

To qualify for the LPGA Hall of Fame, a player needs 27 points.

The player must also have won or been awarded at least one of the following: an LPGA major, the Vare Trophy or Rolex Player of the Year honors.

Korda has all three.

Lydia Ko was the most recent player to reach the Hall of Fame.

She did so in 2024 after winning gold at the Paris Olympics.

Ko became the 35th player to earn enough LPGA Hall of Fame points.

Korda would be the 36th.