LOS ANGELES — After what’s been an incredibly consistent season for the veteran on the LPGA Tour, Gaby Lopez cruised around Riviera Country Club on Thursday at the U.S. Women’s Open presented by Ally, opening with a 3-under 68 to kick off the year’s second major championship.

The Mexico native was in command early, getting up and down from the left bunker on the short par-4 10th for birdie to move to 1-under on the first hole of her round and then picking up another birdie on the par-5 11th hole after knocking her third shot to eight feet. Lopez stuffed her second shot on the par-4 13th hole to four feet, nine inches en route to her third birdie of the day and then struck again with a birdie on 15 following another approach that she also put within five feet.

The three-time LPGA Tour winner found the green in two on the par-5 17th and two-putted for her fifth birdie of the day, turning in 31 after parring the iconic 18th at Riviera, and when she birdied the first hole to climb to 6-under, Lopez looked like a number deep in the red was well within reach.

But Gaby came back to Earth with a bogey on two, and it was ultimately a pair of bogeys on the par-4 fifth and par-4 seventh holes that led to the Olympian posting a 3-under 68, a score that has her squarely in the mix in Hollywood. Despite the frustrating finish over those closing eight holes, there’s no love lost between Lopez and Riviera, and her day-one effort has just confirmed that this property is indeed a place that really suits her competitive eye.

“I love the golf course. I think we did a great preparation coming towards this event,” said Lopez. “Hitting the fairway is key. I missed a couple of fairways on the back nine. It was honestly very solid golf overall.”

Her prep work consisted of some advance trips to The Riv to familiarize herself with the property, work that clearly paid off for Lopez on Thursday in Southern California.

“I came a couple times to see the golf course to get more familiar, and I think it's a fade golf course that you have to hit fades off the tee and very, very solid tee shots in order to give yourself chances,” Gaby explained. “You have to hit it high enough to get it to stop towards some of those pin locations that are tucked in.”

Riviera’s agronomical setup has posed a somewhat daunting challenge for much of the 156-player field this week, as very few golf courses see Kikuyu and Poa annua grass types heavily utilized across their properties. Such is the case at this George Thomas-designed facility, and Lopez is likely one of just a handful of athletes who feel comfortable competing on this grass type, knowledge on which she has been able to lean thus far in this tournament.

“It feels like Mexico. This is exactly the kind of grass that I grew up on, Kikuyu and Poa (annua),” Lopez said. “I feel like I put myself in a position that I'm hitting more fades off the tee, and that's helping a lot. But overall, I feel like it's just getting a little bit more familiar. I'm a little bit more adaptable than past years, I would say, with different types of shots and different types of grasses as well.”

This is Lopez’s 13th start in the U.S. Women’s Open, and before this week at Riviera, the 32-year-old has only managed to finish in the top 15 one time in this major tournament, doing so in 2016 at CordeValle Golf Club in San Martin, Calif., where she tied for 11th. She has teed it up in eight events on the LPGA Tour so far this season, making all eight cuts and carding three top-15 results, the most recent of which is a tie for third that came in her last start at the Mizuho Americas Open at a difficult Mountain Ridge Country Club.

Lopez also notably tied for 12th at The Chevron Championship, which was held for the first time at Memorial Park Golf Course in Houston after being contested at The Club at Carlton Woods in The Woodlands, Texas since 2023.

That performance marked her career-best result in that major tournament and is one of just five top 15s that Lopez has recorded in a major since 2020, what likely served as a confidence boost as Gaby set her sights on the rest of the 2026 major championship season.

Lopez now has 54 holes left to chase down the Harton S. Semple trophy and will need to do plenty of work to either maintain or improve her position on what’s an already cluttered leaderboard. And with a resilient perspective derived from 13 years of experience navigating the difficulties of one of the toughest tests in all of golf, Gaby knows that she needs to put a premium on patience in the three rounds upcoming and lock in on the game plan that she carefully crafted in the weeks leading up to this moment at Riviera.

“We're going to miss. We're going to make bogeys. I just have to stay away from double bogeys this week,” Lopez said. “It's okay to make three bogeys on the back nine or on the front. It's okay. Golf is not perfect. The more I accept that and the more I'm okay with that, I'm going to be more at peace out there.”

Gaby Lopez Looking to Be “More At Peace” at U.S. Women’s Open at Riviera

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