The oldest main championship title and largest purse in ladies’s skilled golf shall be on the road when the eightieth U.S. Ladies’s Open tees off Thursday at Erin Hills Membership in Erin, Wisconsin.
It is the primary time Erin Hills is internet hosting the Ladies’s U.S. Open, and the course identified for its undulating fairways and greens that have been created by a glacier centuries in the past figures to offer probably the most tough exams of the season for the world’s finest golfers.
“It exams each a part of your recreation,” two-time main champion Nelly Korda mentioned Tuesday. “It’s extremely demanding. It is agency. It is quick, as properly. Even for those who suppose you’ve got hit it good, you may exhale if you see it cease. I might say even the climate performs an enormous position with the pictures out right here, with the putts.”
Listed below are among the huge storylines for the second main championship of the season:
Can Nelly get going?
World No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler wanted a number of months to get going earlier than he gained twice on the PGA Tour this season, together with his third main on the PGA Championship.
It has been the identical form of season for world No. 1 golfer Nelly Korda on the LPGA Tour. A 12 months in the past, Korda had already gained six instances earlier than the second main of the season.
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This 12 months, she has but to carry a trophy in seven begins.
“Yeah, it has been a really fascinating 12 months for me,” Korda mentioned Tuesday. “Positively have had a bit of fine and a little bit of dangerous. Type of a combination in form of each occasion that I’ve performed in. I might say simply endurance is what I’ve realized and form of going again house and actually locking in and training arduous.”
It isn’t as if Korda hasn’t performed properly this season. She had a top-25 end in all however one in all her begins, together with runner-up within the Hilton Grand Holidays Match of Champions within the season opener. She tied for fifth in her final begin on the Mizuho Americas Open.
Korda ranks second on the LPGA Tour in strokes gained: whole (2.40) and off the tee (1.03) and is ninth in tee to inexperienced (1.59). She additionally ranks within the high 25 in strategy (0.65) and placing (0.86).
She’ll be on the lookout for a greater end result within the U.S. Open. She has three missed cuts, a tie for eighth and a tie for sixty fourth in her previous 5 begins. Final 12 months at Lancaster Nation Membership in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Korda carded a ten on the par-3 twelfth gap, her third gap within the first spherical. She carded a 10-over 80.
Korda rebounded to publish an even-par 70 within the second spherical however nonetheless missed the minimize.
“Oh, yeah, plenty of ups and downs,” Korda mentioned. “I imply, it is the largest take a look at within the recreation of golf. Positively has examined me quite a bit. I adore it.”
Korda will play the primary two rounds with England’s Charley Hull and Lexi Thompson. They will tee off on No. 1 at 2:25 p.m. ET on Thursday and on No. 10 at 8:40 a.m. on Friday.
“On the finish of the day, because of this we do what we do is to play these golf programs in these situations, to check our video games in each facet,” Korda mentioned. “Not even simply our video games, our psychological [strength], as properly. I get pleasure from it, and I am excited to see what this week goes to convey.”
Ko eyeing profession Grand Slam
Lydia Ko can turn into the eighth golfer in LPGA historical past to finish the profession Grand Slam if she wins the U.S. Ladies’s Open in her 14th attempt. She has a pair of top-10 finishes within the event and missed her first minimize final 12 months.
Solely 27, Ko has already collected three main championship victories on the 2015 Evian Championship, 2016 Chevron Championship and 2024 Ladies’s British Open.
Ko is taking part in with defending U.S. Ladies’s Open champion Yuka Saso and novice Rianne Malixi within the first two rounds. They will begin 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 feel so long as I am taking part in, it is all the time good to have a aim, in order that after I’m engaged on issues, I am all the time going ahead and never attempting to suppose, ‘Oh, did I this, so who cares?'” Ko mentioned. “So it is simply extra to only maintain myself extra motivated. Hopefully not, however even when I by no means win a U.S. Ladies’s Open, I do not suppose I’ll get up from my sleep and go, ‘I by no means gained.'”
Louise Suggs, Mickey Wright, Pat Bradley, Juli Inkster, Karrie Webb, Annika Sorenstam and Inbee Park gained 4 completely different majors of their profession. Webb is the one one who gained completely different majors in finishing the tremendous profession Grand Slam.
Sweden’s Anna Nordqvist, who gained the 2009 Ladies’s PGA Championship, 2017 Evian Championship and 2021 Ladies’s British Open, can even full the profession Grand Slam this week.
Saso’s three-time attempt
Saso will try to turn into solely the seventh golfer to win the nationwide championship 3 times.
Betsy Rawls (1951, 1953, 1957, 1960) and Wright (1958, 1959, 1961, 1964) completed first within the U.S. Ladies’s Open 4 instances, whereas Babe Didrikson Zaharias (1948, 1950, 1954), Susie Maxwell Berning (1968, 1972, 1973), Hollis Stacy (1977, 1978, 1984) and Sorenstam (1995, 1996, 2006) gained 3 times.
“I may name myself a two-time main champion, and higher than that, two-time U.S. Ladies’s Open champion,” Saso mentioned of successful final 12 months. “I feel it is an important event to have beside my title, and, I do not know, possibly as a result of I dreamed of successful this, and successful it twice is significantly better.”
Saso is already the one golfer to seize the Harton S. Semple Trophy whereas representing two completely different international locations. When Saso defeated Nasa Hataoka on the third gap of a playoff on the 2021 U.S. Ladies’s Open on the Olympic Membership in San Francisco, she represented the Philippines, the place she was born.
Final 12 months, Saso was taking part in for Japan, her father’s homeland, when she beat Japan’s Hinako Shibuno by three strokes with a 72-hole whole of 4-under 276.
Saso had twin citizenship in each international locations earlier than having to resign her Filipino citizenship in 2022 below Japanese nationality legislation, which she was required to do earlier than turning 22.
Erin Hills is an enormous course
Erin Hills Golf Course, positioned about 35 miles northwest of Milwaukee, is a par-72 course that can play 6,829 yards. It is the second-longest course on the LPGA Tour to date this season.
Erin Hills hosted the 2017 U.S. Open, which Brooks Koepka gained with a 72-hole whole of 16-under 272.
It does not determine to play that simply this week, particularly if the wind blows. There’s an opportunity of thunderstorms Friday with 10 to twenty mph winds. Forecasts name for sunny skies and 5 to 10 mph winds on the weekend.
“It is undoubtedly a very huge course,” mentioned 2023 U.S. Ladies’s Open champion Allisen Corpuz. “I hit much more hybrids and woods than I might have needed to into greens [during Monday’s practice round]. I feel simply any main, ball-striking is all the time actually essential. I feel particularly with the inexperienced complexes right here [and] loads of run-offs, only a few tight fairways that can undoubtedly be key right here.”
Erin Hills does not have a single water hazard, however there are 132 sand bunkers and 3½-inch fescue tough, which can make issues tough.
“It’s extremely demanding off the tee with all of the bunkers,” Korda mentioned. “The bunkers are usually not simple. Typically you simply do not also have a stance in them as a result of they’re so small. Then the pictures into the greens and in addition the greens. Simply an general good take a look at of your total recreation.”
The USA Golf Affiliation has alternate tees out there if the wind does not blow or the course will get moist.
“We additionally maintain a really shut eye on firmness, and clearly pace, moist situations, very windy situations,” mentioned Shannon Rouillard, the USGA’s senior director of championships. “It is actually essential that the take a look at stays relative and applicable to the situations that we’ll face, whether or not they’re moist or whether or not we’ll expertise some higher wind situations.”
