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 57-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 2001, a record 980 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 more than doubled at the Broadmoor Golf Club, Colorado Springs, Colo. The year 2002 marked the sixth time in the last seven years that attendance surpassed 100,000.

In recent years, the U.S. Women's Open has truly become the world arena of women's golf. Eight of the last 15 champions have been foreign-born, whereas only four of the first 40 champions were foreign-born. The emergence of the Women's Open 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 JoAnne Gunderson Carner of the United States.

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 in 1996. Juli Inkster, an American professional, matched that 72-hole score of 272, also setting a record in relation to par with 16 under, in 1999.

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.

In 2002, qualifying for the Women's Open was held in two stages for the first time - 18 holes for local qualifying and 36 holes for sectional qualifying.