The United States Women's Open was added to the USGA's roster of championships in 1953, 58 years after the first U.S. Women's Amateur. The reason for the USGA's relatively late assumption of the Women's Open is simple: women's professional golf is relatively new. When Opal Hill turned professional in 1938, she and Helen Hicks were two of the very few women golf professionals in the world.

Unlike the other 12 national championships conducted by the USGA, the Women's Open was created by another organization. In 1946, the short-lived Women's Professional Golfers Association introduced the Women's Open at match play at the Spokane (Wash.) Country Club. The Spokane Athletic Round Table, a men's fraternal organization, contributed the $19,700 purse from its slot machines proceeds.

The first Women's Open was the only one conducted at match play. Patty Berg won the 36-hole qualifying medal in 1946 with rounds of 72-73-145, then won the championship by defeating Betty Jameson, 5 and 4, in the 36-hole final.

The small membership of the WPGA ran the championship for three years. By 1950, however, women's professional golf was making significant strides and the Ladies Professional Golf Association was founded. A group of 11 women, including Berg, Jameson, Louise Suggs, and Babe Didrikson Zaharias, established the new association to provide organized tournaments for women professionals.

The LPGA ran the Women's Open for four years, but in 1953 asked the USGA to conduct the championship. The first Women's Open under the USGA flag was played at the Country Club of Rochester, in upstate New York, where Betsy Rawls won the second of her four Women's Open titles (1951, 1953, 1957, 1960). Conducted by the USGA ever since, the Women's Open is the oldest championship open to women professionals and amateurs.

Rawls and Mickey Wright, the only other four-time winner (1958, 1959, 1961, 1964) were the championship's dominant players from 1957 through 1964, winning six Women's Opens between them during those eight years.

In 1967, Catherine Lacoste, daughter of French tennis player Rene Lacoste and 1927 British Ladies Amateur Champion Simone Thion de la Chaume, became the only amateur to win the Women's Open.

In its 52-year history, the U.S. Women's Open has reigned as the world's greatest women's championship, attracting steadily increasing numbers of entries and spectators.Whereas only 37 contestants played in 1953, in 1976 the field jumped to 205 players and sectional qualifying was introduced. In 1998, a record 925 contestants entered.

A four-day attendance record of 41,200 was set at Brooklawn Country Club, Fairfield, Conn., in 1979. At the 50th Women's Open, in 1995, that record was smashed at the Broadmoor Golf Club, Colorado Springs, Colo., when 94,411 attended. A new record was established the following year at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Cub in North Plains, Ore., with 109,482 spectators. This marked the third consecutive year attendance surpassed 100,000.

In recent years, the U.S. Women's Open has truly become the world arena of women's golf. Six of the last twelve champions have been foreign-born, whereas only four of the first 40 champions were foreign-born. Its emergence as a great international contest came in 1987, when England's Laura Davies prevailed in an 18-hole playoff against Japan's Ayako Okamoto and America's JoAnne Gunderson Carner.

Another foreign-born player, Annika Sorenstam, of Sweden, established the new 72-hole scoring record of 272, 8-under par, at Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club. It was Sorenstam's second victory. She also won in 1995.

In 1965, the final round of the championship was televised nationally for the first time. The Women's Open has been televised ever since, with all four rounds now broadcast.