The venues change but the characteristics are always the same.
“Very undulating greens!” Lydia Ko said. “You have to be below the hole and on the right side of the green.”
“You need to hit the fairways because it looks like some very sticky rough. When you’re in the rough, it might be hard to even go for the green in two.”
Sound familiar? It should. It’s another U.S. Women’s Open conducted by the USGA, a test unlike any other meant to challenge every single aspect of a player’s game. This go around the venue is Lancaster Country Club, a classic early 1900s design with all the elements of the toughest test golf has to offer each year.
“It’s always the hardest golf courses, and the USGA gets a golf course in the best shape it can possibly be,” Paula Creamer, the 2010 U.S. Women’s Open champ said. “Really, its pin placements, they make you want to go for them all the time and sometimes it’s hard to hit away from them.”
It’s why the U.S. Women’s Open is always one of the very few tournaments each year that you’ll see a multitude of players make site visits for practice rounds in advance of the tournament week. Each have a different way of prepping, too, during this off week in advance. Azahara Munoz decided to take the first three days off to rest up and do some wedding planning before getting back to work on her game Thursday. Lydia Ko had a charity outing Monday but planned on taking a couple days off before squeezing in some practice in the days before departing for Lancaster. For her, though, it’s really more about conversing energy for what’s sure to be a stressful test. Paula Creamer spent this week practicing the shots she saw that she’ll need when she was at Lancaster for her practice round, hoping to craft a game plan and do the necessary prep to alleviate as much stress as she can for the week of the event.
Regardless of the approach, it’s all in an effort to round their games into the only type of form that the U.S. Women’s Open ever rewards.
“I think your A game,” Ko said of what it takes. “I mean, any tournament, to win you need to hit the ball very well. You need to be putting very well. At a major where scores – it’s not going to be 8-under-par every day that’s going to win. So you just need to have your game plan and it’s going to be probably a long week so energy level is definitely a thing to work on.”
In essence, each player’s pre-tournament game plan is designed for what they think they need to do to peak at the right time. However, part of that is recent form and players can only build up so much confidence on the practice range or in practice rounds.
That’s why last year’s U.S. Women’s Open runner-up Stacy Lewis feels worlds better than she did a week ago. Although she lost her lead on the 17th hole Sunday when Na Yeon Choi holed out for eagle at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship Presented by P&G, Lewis had struggled by her standards recently and felt like she found something last week.
She’s been shockingly consistent over the last two years at majors with finishes inside the top 16 in her last eight majors with five top-10s since her win at the 2013 RICOH Women’s British Open.
A year ago, Lewis’ runner-up at Pinehurst came a week prior to her win at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship. This season the schedule’s flipped and she’s hoping her results follow suit.
“When somebody holes out and makes a birdie on the 17th, you know, it’s one of those things that that it’s kind of meant to be for her,” Lewis said. "But maybe this year I switch the first and second and go to U.S. Open and win so I’m going to take a lot of good things out of this week and just keep going.”
Win or lose, though, Lewis, who hasn’t yet played Lancaster, and every other player in the field know exactly what they’re in store for next week.
“Everybody talks about it, you know, anyone who’s started their career says I want to compete in the U.S. Open,” Ko said. “And no matter what scores, U.S. Open is the U.S. Open. It’s grand. You can see by last week what an exciting finish, but yeah, you know, I think it’s going to be an exciting finish for us and hopefully it will be a good week for me. Fingers crossed!”
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