U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN
3 Things: 80th U.S. Women's Open, First Round
When the 2017 U.S. Open was contested at Erin Hills, Brooks Koepka won at 16 under par, matching the 72-hole championship record set by Rory McIlroy at Congressional Country Club six years earlier. But USGA officials are expecting the 80th U.S. Women’s Open Presented by Ally to be a sterner test because of the one factor no one can control – the weather.
“Will Mother Nature show up?” asked Shannon Rouillard, the USGA Senior Director of Championships, referring to the wind that only blew during practice rounds and not the championship proper in 2017. “Right now, she's telling us she's going to show up.”
Mere numbers say Erin Hills favors long hitters, but numbers never tell the whole story. Winning this championship requires precision, patience and a solid short game. This will be a complete test of golf.
Here are 3 things to look for in Thursday’s first round.
Erin Hills sits gracefully on 652 acres of a kettle moraine shaped by the last glacier to cover south-central Wisconsin, the massive expanse giving it a wide-open feel that is seductively deceiving because of its lack of water and trees. But the brilliant design by Dr. Michael Hurdzon, Dana Fry and Ron Whitten demands a precise plan to navigate it successfully. The course measures 6,829 yards for the championship, a distance that should vary daily according to conditions. While there are three par-4 holes that measure 435 yards or longer, the most demanding test may be the shortest hole on the course, the 139-yard, downhill par-3 ninth.
“It's a diabolical green for sure, especially if the wind gets up,” said Nelly Korda, No. 1 in the Rolex Rankings. “It's a really cool hole because obviously on the green you look at it and you don't see how sloped the green is.
Korda was describing a putting surface with a false front that then runs hard to the back with a notch on the right-center of the green that feeds balls into a collection area well below the green.
This is a hole that caddies call the shortest par-5 in golf. It is an island green with no water and it is going to be fun to watch but nerve-racking to play.
One of the most watched players in Thursday’s opening round, both by the other competitors and by the fans, will be the 995th-ranked player. Why will so many eyes be on someone ranked so low? By the age of 23, Yani Tseng had won 15 LPGA events, including five majors. She also captured the 2004 U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links, defeating Michelle Wie in the final. But she has not won since 2012 and has not qualified for the U.S. Women’s Open since 2016.
Tseng, who has tried to revitalize her game by studying video of her swing when she was at her best, working on the mental side of the game and switching from putting right-handed to left-handed, survived a 5-for-1 playoff in Phoenix to get into the field. “Laura [Davies] aside, Yani was the first bomber in the women’s game,” said long-time LPGA caddie Mike Paterson. “She was so much fun to watch. Everyone is pulling for her.”
When Lydia Ko first played the U.S. Women’s Open it was also in Wisconsin, at Blackwolf Run. She was 15 years old and finished T-39 to be the low amateur. A month later, she won the U.S. Women’s Amateur in Cleveland, Ohio.
Since then, she has won 23 events on the LPGA Tour, including three major championships, took a silver, bronze and gold medal in consecutive Olympic Games and earned her way into the LPGA Hall of Fame. But she has yet to win the U.S. Women’s Open, her best finish being T-3 in 2016 at CordeValle.
“My first appearance at a USGA event was at the U.S. Am [in 2011 at Rhode Island Country Club], then the U.S. [Girls’] Junior,” she said about winning the 2012 U.S. Women’s Amateur two weeks after reaching the Girls’ Junior semifinals at Lake Merced Golf Club. “It's something that I'm really proud of, seeing the U.S. Women's Amateur trophy on my locker and just being a USGA champion, I guess for now the only event that I could potentially win is the U.S. Women's Open, which would be a really cool thing to kind of add to that USGA résumé.” A win would also give her championships in four different LPGA majors, adding it to the Chevron, Evian and AIG Women’s Open.
Ron Sirak is an award-winning Massachusetts-based golf writer whose work has previously appeared on USGA websites and publications.
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