The 78th U.S. Women’s Open sets the stage for three LPGA Tour majors to be played in the span of six weeks. Many players will be stepping foot onto Pebble Beach Golf Links for the first time in their careers. In LPGA Tour history, the premier public golf course previously hosted the Pebble Beach Weathervane won by Babe Zaharias in 1950 and Patty Berg in 1951.
As the major championship season continues, this will be the first time since 2011 that the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and U.S. Women’s Open will be played as back-to-back majors in an LPGA Tour calendar year. The U.S. Women’s Open returns to the state of California for the third time in the last eight years, establishing itself as one of five states to host at least five championships. Pebble Beach joins San Diego Country Club, Del Paso Country Club, CordeValle and The Olympic Club to host once since 1946. This elevates the state of California into a west coast pillar for hosting U.S. Women’s Open Championships.
Most U.S. Women's Open by Host State - Since 1946 | |
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Pennsylvania | 9 |
New Jersey | 7 |
North Carolina | 6 |
California | 5 |
New York | 5 |
The average Rolex Women’s World Golf Ranking for the champion at the U.S. Women’s Open is 22, with 16 of the last 17 winners ranked 42 or better in the world. Twelve of the last 17 winners ranked in the top 20 in the Rolex Rankings. Annika Sorenstam (2006) and Inbee Park (2013) both won the U.S. Women’s Open when they were ranked No. 1. When A Lim Kim won in 2020, her Rolex Ranking was 94, which was the lowest ranking for the U.S. Women’s Open winner since 2006. The previous two U.S. Women’s Open champions in California, Brittany Lang (2016) and Yuka Saso (2021), were ranked No. 40 when they won their titles.
Rolex Women's World Golf Rankings | |
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U.S. Women's Open Champion Since 2006 | |
Rolex Rank | # of Champions |
1-10 | 6 |
11-20 | 6 |
21-30 | 0 |
31-40 | 3 |
41-50 | 1 |
>50 | 1 |
The U.S. Women’s Open has been at the forefront for growing the purse for women’s majors. This major championship was the first to award a total purse of more than $2 million in 2000 when $2.75 million was awarded at the 55th U.S. Women’s Open. An additional $7.25 million has been added to the purse in the last 20 years. The U.S. Women’s Open was the first major to award $5 million in 2017 and increased the total purse to a historic double-digit figure of $10 million last year when the major was played near the home of American golf. Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club hosted the 77th U.S. Women’s Open and is the only course where players have competed four times for the Harton S. Semple Trophy.
U.S. Women's Open Purse Growth Since 1980 | |
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1981 | $150,000 |
1990 | $500,000 |
1995 | $1 million |
2002 | $3 million |
2017 | $5 million |
2022 | $10 million |
Three American standouts to watch who are currently ranked within the top 50 of the Rolex Rankings are Jennifer Kupcho, Megan Khang and Rose Zhang. Khang is the highest-ranked American in the Rolex Rankings without an LPGA Tour win. She has a total of 32 top-10 finishes since 2016.
Pebble Beach is known to challenge players with smaller greens. According to the KPMG Performance Insights, Khang ranks 18th in strokes gained approach while Zhang ranks 26th. Kupcho ranks 15th on the LPGA Tour in greens in regulation percentage from the fairway at a conversion rate of 80.56% in 38 rounds played this year.
The average score to par is -4.25 for the U.S. Women’s Open champions in California.
Fans will be able to track player shots better than ever with USGA ShotCast Powered by Cisco on the USGA mobile app and website. This U.S. Women’s Open will showcase top player performance with this latest technology.