“Well, by George, she’s done it.  She’s only gone and done it.”

The fair lady I’m referring to is world No 1 Nelly Korda who, last Sunday, won the US Women’s Open at Riviera Country Club on the outskirts of Los Angeles.  She once described her relationship with this major as “complicated” and openly admitted this was the prize she coveted above all else.  Being runner-up last year to Maja Stark only fuelled that desire.

Things didn’t start off too well for America’s golden girl.  An opening 73 meant that no fewer than 55 players had her in their rearview mirror and she trailed first-round leader Jennifer Kupcho by a whopping seven shots.  Admitting to nerves and assessing that that made her tighten up, Korda had to rely heavily on her short game throughout the week.  It didn’t disappoint.  Out of the thirty occasions she was required to get up and down to save par she managed it two dozen times.

A brace of 67s (against a par of 71) in rounds two and three meant Nelly had clawed her way up to the summit of the leaderboard where she found herself sharing top spot with Sei Young Kim on six under par.

During a tense Sunday the cheers ringing around the course alerted her to a Charley Hull charge of epic proportions.  The Englishwoman had survived the cut by the slenderest of margins but a brilliant, best-of-the-championship 65 on Saturday brought her to only three shy of the leading duo.  An opening eagle at the first and a birdie at the third in the final round was a serious declaration of intent.  Charley added four more birdies to that tally but a trio of bogeys, sprinkled between the 9th and the 14th holes, were her undoing – and two of those bogeys were down to three-putting.

It all added up to one shot more than Korda and a shared second place with Mexican Gaby Lopez who had a blistering inward Sunday nine of three under to finish alongside Charley.

Exuding a composure she didn’t feel, Nelly timed her run to the line perfectly, assuming the outright lead for the first time after birdieing her penultimate hole.  Her lifelong dream came true when her two and a half footer on the final green did a lap of honour before disappearing underground.  She was immediately greeted by her sister Jessica and the rest of her family opening a bottle of champagne.

“I feel like I’m in a dream,” said Korda, “Gosh, I just can’t even explain how much this means to me.”

What it does mean in terms of stark statistics is that she has now won nineteen LPGA titles, which includes four majors, and is a mere two points shy of entry into the Hall of Fame.  She cements her position at the top of the world rankings and is also the first player for more than a decade to win back-to-back majors.  Let’s not forget either that she already has an Olympic gold medal tucked away and, at 27 years of age, arguably still has her best golfing years ahead.

This was also a championship particularly notable for strong performances from the amateur contingent.

American Curtis Cup player and No 1 in the world, Kiara Romero, finished joint sixth on three under, five behind Nelly, and won the medal for the low amateur.  One shot behind in joint eighth place came Colombian Maria Jose Marin, the current Augusta National Women’s Amateur Champion and Aphrodite Deng, the Canadian whizz kid, also cracked the top twenty finishing on level par for tied seventeenth place.

Two further American Curtis Cup stars were also in fine form – Asterisk Talley, who finished joint 22nd on two over par  and Farah O’Keefe, who was four over and finished tied 34th.

By now Romero, Talley and O’Keefe will have made the short hop across town to the swanky Bel-Air Country Club for the 44th playing of the Curtis Cup.  Their teammates took some time out from their own preparations to spend a day at the US Women’s Open just relaxing and drinking in the vibe of a big-time tournament.  Great Britain & Ireland did likewise but only had one team member teeing it up at Riviera, Nelly Ong, who missed the cut.

The almighty Americans are nearly always far stronger on paper so it’s probably just as well that the match isn’t actually played on paper – and don’t forget that GB&I, under the captaincy of Catriona Matthew, are defending the cup after their epic win at Sunningdale two years ago.

This year Curtis Cup aficionados from this side of the pond will be celebrating the 40th anniversary of GB&I’s first, and only, victory on American soil, which took place at Prairie Dunes in the searing heat of Hutchinson, Kansas.  That was masterminded by the formidable Diane Bailey and has yet to be matched by any other Curtis Cup captain.  That team is planning a reunion at Lytham at the end of July.

Meanwhile, this year Catriona Matthew will attempt to emulate that feat and she has, as they say, got “previous” in that she has both played in and captained a winning Solheim Cup team away from home.

She will recognise the formidable task ahead of her charges but her wisdom and experience will tell her that for the three Americans who played at the sharp end of such an energy-sapping championship as a US Women’s Open it will be a tall order to refresh mentally and physically for the pressures of a Curtis Cup a mere five days later.

I hope that whatever the outcome the players will have one of the best and most memorable weeks of their golfing lives.  I know there will be highs and lows – as there always should be in the cut and thrust of high level sport.  The home team will perform well, of that I have no doubt, but I trust that my American pals will forgive me if I say I really do hope the away team performs just a teensy-weensy bit better!

Play away.

Sweden’s Maja Stark (above) is the defending champion at this week’s US Women’s Open which is being played at Riviera Country Club, nestled in the swanky district of Pacific Palisades, around half an hour from the centre of Los Angeles.

The feisty Solheim Cup player has had a quiet enough year since her big breakthrough in Wisconsin last year but she’s certainly not out of place on the short but high quality list of Swedes to have lifted this major.  The trailblazer was Lotta Neumann who won wire to wire in 1988 at Baltimore Country Club, one of the first 100 courses to be established in America.  It was Lotta’s maiden victory on the LPGA and when she hoisted the trophy aloft she made history by becoming the first Swede, male or female, to win a major title.

It’s easy to consign a career and a life to statistics and Lotta’s 27 worldwide victories and six Solheim Cup appearances as a player roll off the tongue easily enough.  However, add to that her achievement of being the first European Solheim Cup captain to win a contest on American soil, which she did in 2013 at Colorado Golf Club just outside Denver, and you can see the widespread influence she has had on the game.

In the 1980s and 1990s the powerhouse that was Swedish golf was just gaining momentum and quality players rolled off the yellow and blue production line with tremendous regularity.  It was from this hotbed of potential that arguably the greatest Swedish talent of all was honed and burnished.  A young, shy Annika Sorenstam turned professional in 1992 and recorded her first professional win in December 1994 in Australia, at Royal Adelaide.

It was in June of the  following year, however, that she really lit the blue touchpaper, winning her first LPGA event and her first major, the US Women’s Open, at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs.  That year she won the moneylists on both sides of the Atlantic and the professional career of one of the best women ever to play the game was launched.  She forged a successful defence of her US Open title the following year at Pine Needles in Southern Pines, North Carolina and completed the hattrick eleven years later in 2006 at Newport Country Club, Rhode Island.  Three US Open wins leave her trailing only two players in the history of the women’s game, Americans Betsy Rawls and the incomparable Mickey Wright, a fellow career grand slam winner, both of whom won four of their national titles.

By the time the Swede was finished playing she was globally known by the single moniker, “Annika.”

This championship, first played in 1946, is being played for the 81st time this week and Sweden’s three players with their five wins place their country third in the league table of titles won by nationality.  Top of the list, unsurprisingly, are the Americans with 53 wins spread between 34 homegrown winners but it is the South Koreans who are leading the modern-day charge with ten of their elite players scooping eleven titles, all since 1998.

Kudos to England who are in fifth place with those memorable victories of Laura Davies in 1987 and her colleague, Alison Nicholas, a decade later, in 1997.  Laura triumphed at Plainfield Country Club in New Jersey in an 18 hole play-off against two-time champ JoAnne Carner, known to all and sundry as Big Momma, and Japanese superstar Ayako Okamoto.

A swashbuckling, effervescent career followed for the hugely talented and exciting Davies and galleries followed Laura wherever she went.  Her competitive playing days are behind her but she’s an invaluable member of  the Sky Sports commentary team providing unique insights on the game.  To this day, if you mention “Laura” everyone knows instantly to whom you refer while some close pals call her “Damo”, an affectionate reference to her title of Dame of the British Empire.

The week after her US victory I remember Laura returning triumphantly, cradling the trophy, to St Mellion where we were playing the Women’s British Open.  In a portent of things to come Ali won that particular week but our championship, alas, had not at that stage been accorded major status, so the diminutive Yorkshire woman had another decade to wait before grabbing that major championship.

The sister, Patricia, has always declared that the Nicholas triumph at Pumpkin Ridge, for her, surpassed any major victory by any European, man or woman.  Alison found herself up against the darling of American golf, Nancy Lopez, who at 40 years of age had done everything in the game – everything that is, except win her own national title.  She had been runner-up three times and was roared on by understandably partisan galleries.  That week in 1997 she became the first player in championship history to break 70 in all four rounds, but still it wasn’t enough.  Alison tapped in from a foot on the final green to record an epic one-stroke victory.

France is the only other European country to record a win in this venerable championship thanks to the incomparable Catherine Lacoste who won in 1967 in Hot Springs, Virginia.  She remains the only amateur winner of the championship.

So, at the moment, it’s nul points for Scotland, Ireland and Wales at the US Women’s Open and, unfortunately, there’s not any great reason to think that’ll change this week.  There’s many a savvy fan, however, keeping an eye on Englishwoman Lottie Woad, who is building a strong major resumé in her, as yet, brief professional career.  Her last three major appearances read 8th, 3rd and 7th proving what her amateur career suggested – that she has the game for the biggest stage of all.

It will be intriguing to watch who can add their name to this illustrious roll of honour and to watch their careers unfold.  Can the defending champ Maja Stark emulate Annika by winning in consecutive years?  Can she, indeed, chart a career that merits her being universally known by her first name alone – like Annika and Laura?

As a footnote, last week I received a message from my painter, out of the blue, which, without preamble, read:  “In an Irish pub in Lower Bridge Street, Chester.  Photo on wall.  Apparently Laura has been in twice.”

To my knowledge my painter isn’t a golfer but I knew instantly who was in that picture.  I got him to send it through to me.

Yep, there she was – the 1987 US Women’s Open Champion.