Mark Schlabach
The oldest major championship title and largest purse in women’s professional golf will be on the line when the 80th U.S. Women’s Open tees off Thursday at Erin Hills Club in Erin, Wisconsin.
It’s the first time Erin Hills is hosting the Women’s U.S. Open, and the course known for its undulating fairways and greens that were created by a glacier centuries ago figures to provide one of the most difficult tests of the season for the world’s best golfers.
“It tests every part of your game,” two-time major champion Nelly Korda said Tuesday. “It’s very demanding. It’s firm. It’s fast, as well. Even if you think you’ve hit it good, you can exhale when you see it stop. I would say even the weather plays a big role with the shots out here, with the putts.”
Here are some of the big storylines for the second major championship of the season:
Can Nelly get going?
World No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler needed a few months to get going before he won twice on the PGA Tour this season, including his third major at the PGA Championship.
It has been the same kind of season for world No. 1 golfer Nelly Korda on the LPGA Tour. A year ago, Korda had already won six times before the second major of the season.
This year, she has yet to lift a trophy in seven starts.
“Yeah, it’s been a very interesting year for me,” Korda said Tuesday. “Definitely have had a bit of good and a bit of bad. Kind of a mix in kind of every event that I’ve played in. I would say just patience is what I’ve learned and kind of going back home and really locking in and practicing hard.”
It’s not as if Korda hasn’t played well this season. She had a top-25 finish in all but one of her starts, including runner-up in the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions in the season opener. She tied for fifth in her last start at the Mizuho Americas Open.
Korda ranks second on the LPGA Tour in strokes gained: total (2.40) and off the tee (1.03) and is ninth in tee to green (1.59). She also ranks in the top 25 in approach (0.65) and putting (0.86).
She’ll be looking for a better result in the U.S. Open. She has three missed cuts, a tie for eighth and a tie for 64th in her past five starts. Last year at Lancaster Country Club in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Korda carded a 10 on the par-3 12th hole, her third hole in the first round. She carded a 10-over 80.
Korda rebounded to post an even-par 70 in the second round but still missed the cut.
“Oh, yeah, lots of ups and downs,” Korda said. “I mean, it’s the biggest test in the game of golf. Definitely has tested me a lot. I love it.”
Korda will play the first two rounds with England’s Charley Hull and Lexi Thompson. They’ll tee off on No. 1 at 2:25 p.m. ET on Thursday and on No. 10 at 8:40 a.m. on Friday.
“At the end of the day, this is why we do what we do is to play these golf courses in these conditions, to test our games in every aspect,” Korda said. “Not even just our games, our mental [strength], as well. I enjoy it, and I’m excited to see what this week is going to bring.”
Ko eyeing career Grand Slam
Lydia Ko can become the eighth golfer in LPGA history to complete the career Grand Slam if she wins the U.S. Women’s Open in her 14th try. She has a pair of top-10 finishes in the tournament and missed her first cut last year.
Only 27, Ko has already collected three major championship victories at the 2015 Evian Championship, 2016 Chevron Championship and 2024 Women’s British Open.
Ko is playing with defending U.S. Women’s Open champion Yuka Saso and amateur Rianne Malixi in the first two rounds. They’ll start on the No. 1 tee at 8:40 a.m. ET on Thursday and on No. 10 at 2:25 p.m. on Friday.
“I think as long as I’m playing, it’s always good to have a goal, so that when I’m working on things, I’m always going forward and not trying to think, ‘Oh, did I this, so who cares?'” Ko said. “So it’s just more to just keep myself more motivated. Hopefully not, but even if I never win a U.S. Women’s Open, I don’t think I’m going to wake up from my sleep and go, ‘I never won.'”
Louise Suggs, Mickey Wright, Pat Bradley, Juli Inkster, Karrie Webb, Annika Sorenstam and Inbee Park won four different majors in their career. Webb is the only one who won different majors in completing the super career Grand Slam.
Sweden’s Anna Nordqvist, who won the 2009 Women’s PGA Championship, 2017 Evian Championship and 2021 Women’s British Open, can also complete the career Grand Slam this week.
Saso’s three-time try
Saso will attempt to become only the seventh golfer to win the national championship three times.
Betsy Rawls (1951, 1953, 1957, 1960) and Wright (1958, 1959, 1961, 1964) finished first in the U.S. Women’s Open four times, while Babe Didrikson Zaharias (1948, 1950, 1954), Susie Maxwell Berning (1968, 1972, 1973), Hollis Stacy (1977, 1978, 1984) and Sorenstam (1995, 1996, 2006) won three times.
“I could call myself a two-time major champion, and better than that, two-time U.S. Women’s Open champion,” Saso said of winning last year. “I think it’s a great tournament to have beside my name, and, I don’t know, maybe because I dreamed of winning this, and winning it twice is much better.”
Saso is already the only golfer to capture the Harton S. Semple Trophy while representing two different countries. When Saso defeated Nasa Hataoka on the third hole of a playoff at the 2021 U.S. Women’s Open at the Olympic Club in San Francisco, she represented the Philippines, where she was born.
Last year, Saso was playing for Japan, her father’s homeland, when she beat Japan’s Hinako Shibuno by three strokes with a 72-hole total of 4-under 276.
Saso had dual citizenship in both countries before having to renounce her Filipino citizenship in 2022 under Japanese nationality law, which she was required to do before turning 22.
Erin Hills is a big course
Erin Hills Golf Course, located about 35 miles northwest of Milwaukee, is a par-72 course that will play 6,829 yards. It’s the second-longest course on the LPGA Tour so far this season.
Erin Hills hosted the 2017 U.S. Open, which Brooks Koepka won with a 72-hole total of 16-under 272.
It doesn’t figure to play that easily this week, especially if the wind blows. There’s a chance of thunderstorms Friday with 10 to 20 mph winds. Forecasts call for sunny skies and 5 to 10 mph winds on the weekend.
“It’s definitely a really big course,” said 2023 U.S. Women’s Open champion Allisen Corpuz. “I hit a lot more hybrids and woods than I would have wanted to into greens [during Monday’s practice round]. I think just any major, ball-striking is always really important. I think especially with the green complexes here [and] a lot of run-offs, just a few tight fairways that will definitely be key here.”
Erin Hills doesn’t have a single water hazard, but there are 132 sand bunkers and 3½-inch fescue rough, which will make things tricky.
“It’s very demanding off the tee with all the bunkers,” Korda said. “The bunkers are not easy. Sometimes you just don’t even have a stance in them because they’re so small. Then the shots into the greens and also the greens. Just an overall good test of your entire game.”
The United States Golf Association has alternate tees available if the wind doesn’t blow or the course gets wet.
“We also keep a very close eye on firmness, and obviously speed, wet conditions, very windy conditions,” said Shannon Rouillard, the USGA’s senior director of championships. “It’s really important that the test remains relative and appropriate to the conditions that we’re going to face, whether they’re wet or whether we’re going to experience some greater wind conditions.”
