The US Women's Open is one of 15 national golf championships run by the USGA and is generally regarded as the best week on the women's calendar. This year, Sweden's Maja Stark defends the title she so memorably won at Erin Hills, becoming the first European to hoist the Harton S. Semple trophy in nearly two decades.
As the world's best descend upon the iconic Riviera Country Club, we look back at how the Championship has evolved across its storied 81-year history and celebrate those who have shone, as well as those who have narrowly missed out on women's golf's most glittering prize.
1. Who Can Play In The US Women's Open?
There is no age limit to play in the US Women's Open, with the youngest-ever qualifiers famously being 11-year-old Lucy Li (2014) and 12-year-old Lexi Thompson (2007). This year, a record-tying 1,897 players attempted to qualify for the prestigious championship, with any hopeful amateur required to possess a USGA Handicap Index no higher than 2.4.
A elite contingent of amateurs will be in the field at Riviera Country Club. This includes the reigning winners (and runners-up) of the US Women’s Amateur, US Girls’ Junior Championship, US. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship, and the Women’s Amateur Championship, alongside the 2025 Mark H. McCormack Medal recipient and this year's blockbusting winners of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur and NCAA Division I Individual Golf Championship.
The world's best will be playing for a whopping $12 million purse, the richest prize fund in women's golf. In addition to a life-changing winner's check, the champion in California receives the Mickey Wright Medal, custody of the Harton S. Semple Trophy for one year, a 10-year exemption into the US Women's Open, and a five-year exemption into the other four major championships.
2. Who Has The Lowest Winning Score?
Two players have won the US Women's Open a record four times: Betsy Rawls (1951, 1953, 1957, 1960) and Mickey Wright (1958, 1959, 1961, 1964). But the most dominant performance in championship history came right at the beginning, in just the fourth edition of the tournament. In 1949, Louise Suggs prevailed by an incredible 14 strokes at Prince George's Golf and Country Club in Maryland. Suggs went wire-to-wire, posting rounds of 69-75-77-70 on the challenging par-75 layout, pocketing $1,500 for her efforts. She would go on to win 11 Major titles in her legendary career.
To kick off the new millennium, Australia's Karrie Webb put on triumphed by margins of five and eight strokes in consecutive years. In the quarter-century since Webb's masterclasses, no other player has managed to win the championship by more than four shots.
While Suggs holds the standard for dominance, the ultimate test of survival occurred in 1962. That year, 23-year-old Murle Lindstrom claimed the title with a score of 13-over par at a brutal Dunes Golf and Beach Club in Myrtle Beach - a week so punishing that the halfway cut fell at an eye-watering 22-over par.
3. Has An Amateur Ever Won The US Women's Open?
You would have to go back to Johnny Goodman in 1933 to find the last amateur to win the men’s US Open, but Catherine Lacoste famously won the women’s version in 1967 at The Homestead in Virginia.
To this day, the Frenchwoman remains the only amateur ever to lift the Harton S. Semple Trophy. The closest anyone has come since was in 2005, when amateurs Morgan Pressel and Brittany Lang tied for second, exactly 30 years after a young Nancy Lopez did the same in 1975.
Lacoste, who celebrated her 22nd birthday just two days before the 1967 championship began, held a three-shot lead heading into the final round. That advantage quickly ballooned to seven, but a combination of brewing weather and back-nine nerves saw her lead slashed to just two.
Showing immense composure, she birdied the 17th hole to secure a historic victory. Because amateurs cannot accept prize money, the combined first and second-place checks of $7,200 were split between the professional runners-up, Susie Maxwell and Beth Stone.
To add even more cool elements to this story Lacoste's father, Rene, was the creator of the Lacoste tennis shirt and the new US Open champ would never turn pro.
Defending her title in 1968 Lacoste tied for 13th and she would never play in it again. The following year she would land the prized double of the US Women's Amateur and the British Amateur, becoming the third woman in golfing history to achieve that feat in the same year. Lacoste would retire at the age of 25.
4. Have The Two US Opens Been Played At The Same Course?
In 2014, history was made when the US Women’s Open was played on the same course, in the same year, as the men’s US Open. The motivation wasn't to save on operational costs, but rather a deliberate effort to showcase and compare the men’s and women’s games on golf's grandest stage. The visionary idea belonged to former USGA Executive Director David Fay, who likened the concept to the US Open in tennis albeit across successive weeks.
Pinehurst No. 2 provided the perfect amphitheatre. The men took centre stage first, with Germany's Martin Kaymer blitzing the field for an eight-stroke victory. The following week, it was the women's turn, culminating in a thrilling finish. Michelle Wie West seemed to be coasting to victory until a double-bogey on the 16th hole slashed her lead to just one. Showing incredible grit, she answered immediately by burying a 22-foot birdie putt on the par-3 17th, safely parring the last to secure a emotional two-shot victory, the lone Major title of her career.
"I think that scene on 18, being on network TV, as many people as we had around there at Pinehurst No. 2 and Michelle Wie winning the tournament, I don't think you can script it any better," runner-up Stacy Lewis said after the final round. "I think it's great for the game of golf. I think it's even better for women's golf. I'm so happy for Michelle Wie. I mean, this has been such a long time coming for her."
The historic fortnight was such a resounding success for the sport that the USGA has officially announced plans to replicate the back-to-back magic at Pinehurst No. 2 in 2029.
5. What Did The First US Women's Open Look Like?
The inaugural US Women's Open in 1946 looked entirely different than it does today. It was played as a match play tournament, and it was won by the legendary Patty Berg at Spokane Country Club in Washington. While Berg would go on to win 15 Major titles, a record that still stands as the most in women's golf history, this would remarkably be her only U.S. Women's Open victory. It wasn't for a lack of contending, though; in her next 13 appearances, her worst finish was a mere 12th place.
The debut championship featured a modest field of 39 players. After 36 holes of stroke-play qualifying, the field was trimmed to a 32-player bracket consisting of 26 professionals and six amateurs. Berg secured the No. 1 seed, topping the qualifying leaderboard by 13 shots. From there, she cruised through the bracket, with her closest match being a 3&2 triumph in the 36-hole semifinal
In the 36-hole final Berg would beat fellow pro Betty Jameson 5&4. Jameson, who would win the following year's championship, actually led by three holes early on before being pegged back to all square at lunch. After that Berg forged ahead to collect the $5,600 first prize which was paid in war bonds.
6. How Many Play-Offs Have There Been?
There have been 14 playoffs in US Women's Open history, but none featured more dramatic controversy than Brittany Lang’s victory in 2016. Less than a month after the USGA faced heavy criticism for a rules debacle involving Dustin Johnson at the men’s US Open, they found themselves in an even bigger mess at CordeValle Golf Club.
During the three-hole aggregate playoff, Anna Nordqvist accidentally grazed the sand with her club in a fairway bunker on the second playoff hole. While the minor infraction was caught on television, the USGA did not inform the Swede of her two-shot penalty until after she had already hit her third shot into the final playoff hole.
To make matters worse, officials informed Lang of the penalty right before she hit her own approach shot, completely changing the tactical dynamic of the tournament mid-hole. Nordqvist handled the situation with class but didn't hold back on the brutal timing.
“I wish the USGA would have told me a bit earlier,” Nordqvist said afterward. "They approached me after I already hit my third shot into 18, then kind of ran up to Brittany to tell her that I got penalized. I don’t know if it would have changed the outcome, but it certainly would have changed my aggressiveness into the 18th pin.”
7. What Are The Quality Of The Courses Like?
There is very little room for conjecture when it comes to the future venues of the US Women’s Open. The USGA has locked in its roadmap decades into the future. We know for certain that Shinnecock Hills will play host in 2036, and Pebble Beach Golf Links is already locked in to stage the 2035, 2040, and 2048 championships. Following recent, highly successful stops at Lancaster Country Club (2024) and Erin Hills (2025), the championship has pivoted to a roster of historic venues that are familiar to golf fans.
In the coming years, the world's best women will test themselves on the mighty layouts of Riviera Country Club, Inverness Club, Oakland Hills, The Los Angeles Country Club, Chicago Golf Club, Merion, and Oak Hill. On top of that, the championship will lock in returns to legendary standard-bearers like Oakmont, Pinehurst No. 2, Interlachen, and Pebble Beach. Looking at this rota of venues, it is safe to say that the men’s and women’s US Opens are very much on an equal footing.
8. Which Big Names Haven't Won The US Women's Open?
The majority of the leading players in the women’s game - Jeeno Thitikul, Lydia Ko and Hyo-Joo Kim among them - have yet to lift this trophy. World No. 1 Nelly Korda is still chasing it too, though she came agonisingly close at Erin Hills when she finished tied for second.
Delve a little deeper into golf history, and you'll find a host of legendary names who mysteriously could never conquer this particular Major. Kathy Whitworth won 88 times on tour, more than anyone else in the history of the LPGA and PGA Tours, but her best US Women's Open finish was a solo second in 1971, and even that was a distant seven strokes behind JoAnne Carner.
If Phil Mickelson is famous for his six runner-up finishes at the men's US Open, Nancy Lopez is his equivalent in the women’s game. The legendary American first played in the championship as a teenager, and by 1975, she finished tied for second while still a non-professional. In total, Lopez racked up nine top-10 finishes in the tournament, four of which were heartbreaking runner-up placements.
The most dramatic of those near-misses came in 1997. At the age of 40, Lopez became the first player in championship history to shoot all four rounds in the 60s. Remarkably, even that historic feat wasn't enough, as she lost out to Alison Nicholas by a single stroke. “This should have been the one, darn it,” she reflected years later.
9. When Did The Koreans Begin To Dominate?
We have now seen 11 different South Korean winners of the US Women's Open, but the first came as recently as 1998. That summer, a 20-year-old Se Ri Pak, who had only joined the LPGA Tour full-time that year, added the US Women's Open to the LPGA Championship that she had won a few years earlier.
It took 92 holes of gruelling golf at Blackwolf Run to finally see off Jenny Chuasiriporn, a 20-year-old Duke University undergraduate who had dramatically drained a 40-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole to force extra holes. After a full 18-hole Monday playoff, Pak finally clinched the title on the second sudden-death hole.
Broadcast live to a captivated audience back home, triumph is widely pointed to as the single most pivotal catalyst for the modern boom of Asian golf. Pak would go on to finish her legendary Hall of Fame career with five Major titles, laying the foundational blueprint for a generation of compatriot talent.
10. Which Player Has Been The Most Unlucky Not To Have Won?
It's not often we get a figurative asterisk next to a Major winner's name, but the 1957 US Women's Open at Winged Foot was such an occasion. While Betsy Rawls officially counts the week as one of her eight historic Major titles, it was Jackie Pung who actually posted the lowest score to beat her by a single shot. The tragedy was that Pung's scorecard was incorrect.
Her playing partner, Betty Jameson, had recorded Pung's correct total for the round but had accidentally marked her down for a five on the par-5 4th hole when she had actually made a six. In a bizarre twist of fate, Pung made an identical marker error on Jameson's card. Because both players signed cards with incorrect individual hole scores before leaving the scoring tent, they were strictly disqualified under USGA rules.
The popular Hawaiian handled the heartbreaking news with immense grace, saying at the prize presentation: “Winning the Open is the greatest thing in golf. I have come close before. This time I thought I’d won. But I didn’t. Golf is played by rules and I broke a rule. I’ve learned a lesson. And I have two broad shoulders.”
Over the week, the Winged Foot membership had fallen completely in love with Pung. Stunned by the technicality, the club members and spectators immediately passed around a hat, raising over $3,000 for the "people's champion," far eclipsing the official $1,800 winner's check that was awarded to Rawls.
