The 2024 season promises to be one for the ages. For just the third time the AIG Women's Open returns to the Old Course at St Andrews while, for just the second time in the history of the competition, we also have a back-to-back Solheim Cup following the historic draw in Spain.
To add another layer to the year, and to one of the most packed and exciting summers in recent history, we will also have the Olympics in Paris at the start of August where Nelly Korda defends her gold medal.
Former LET player and now leading pundit Sophie Walker runs us through the year and where the big trophies might be heading.
Possible Major Winner - Atthaya Thitikul
Atthaya Thitikul is the youngest winner on the LET at 14 and she's been the World No.1 in both the amateur and professional ranks. Last year the Thai star was the Rookie of the Year on the LPGA Tour and she followed that up by winning the Vare Trophy for the lowest stroke average which is really significant. She was the first player in 70 years to win this award and not win on LPGA Tour which shows just how steady she was. Her stroke average has been below 70 for three straight seasons which is unbelievable.
Her Major performances have been impressive, six top 10s in her last 12 starts, but I can't think of her being in genuine contention and that has to change as she's just too good. She's from Thailand but bases herself in the States so you wonder if the Major weeks feel the same as a regular LPGA event and she might benefit from taking the week off before? But she's an incredible talent and, at the young age of 20, she's probably already the best female player not to have won a Major.
Player To Have A Big 2024 - Charley Hull
Charley Hull had an amazing 2023 but people will always point to her not having won a Major and that she is somehow under-performing. There's always been a lot of media buzz around her and this year she's justified all that – she had four second places and two of them were in Majors.
Charley missed out at Walton Heath but her post-round interview was so poignant when she acknowledged the two seconds, the other one was at Pebble Beach, but she had now played in the final group and she was so determined for 2024. It didn't happen, but she will learn from it and she is doing so many things right; she's had the same caddie, coach and putting coach for years and that is a great formula for being settled.
She's a bit like Brooks Koepka, she goes in, does her work and gets out of there. She won’t talk to anyone very much on the range and her warm-up routine is by the second. She will have alignment sticks at 45˚ like Tommy Fleetwood and it's the same every single time since her coach Matt Belsham told her to do this in the middle of the year. Even her pre-shot routine on the course is the same every single time and I've just enjoyed watching Charley improve over the years.
I spoke to Lilia Vu in Asia and she said her two favourite players to play with are Linn Grant and Charley. She played with Charley at Pebble Beach, where Lilia had just come back from injury and was going to miss the cut, but she still enjoyed watching Charley.
I really think the best is still to come, this year she's spent 19 consecutive weeks inside top 10 in the world which is a record for her. I could easily see multiple wins and I have seen a different side to her in the second half of the season in the way that she commits to her practice and drills, it’s really impressive.
Player To Have A Break-Out Year - So Mi Lee
The Korean So Mi Lee has won five times on her home Tour and she's ranked inside the world's top 60 in the world without playing in the States. She recently finished second at the LPGA Q School where she was -26 for the six rounds. We haven't seen too much of her in the Majors, she's made the cut in the last two US Women's Opens, and she could be the next Korean to hit the big time. To be that high on the world rankings without playing the LPGA is remarkable.
In Europe, Bronte Law is now back on the LET full-time. She missed out at the second stage of Q School and, being solely based in Europe and living in Britain, I think that she will have a big year. It really helps to commit to one tour and she will be in all the Aramco events which are the valuable tournaments.
The AIG Women's Open – St Andrews
I played in the 2007 Open which was the first one at the Old Course for the women and it was amazing. Back then the players’ lounge was in the clubhouse so to be surrounded by all that history was incredible. There really is nothing like the Old Course, when you make the turn and start coming back into the town it is like nothing else. Golf there is just life.
At the time Lorena Ochoa was queen and to have someone that significant win there was perfect. Michelle Wie and Paula Creamer played and I really thought that it would be the changing of women’s golf but that wasn't to be. These days the R&A run the championship and that is massive and it has elevated itself so much, Walton Heath was such an incredible week. It is smaller than a men’s Open but that’s almost what makes it at St Andrews as it's a bit more manageable.
You do have to learn the course. You almost come off it the first time and think it’s quite easy and then you realise that it will lull you into a false sense of security and you will be 60 feet away after hitting what you've thought was a good shot. There's a strong correlation of people who having played well there in the past; Stacy Lewis won 5/5 at the Curtis Cup there in 2008 and went on to win in 2013, Maria Hjorth was second in 2007 and she had won the St Rule there. Aditi Ashok won the St Rule and Celine Boutier was second so they might be worth following. I can't wait, that week will be the best week of the year.
Solheim Cup - Robert Trent Jones GC
I like the idea of it being back to back and it being a tie, it's almost like a boxing match and there’s a re-match. There’s still some spice in it and we've got the same captains; Suzann Pettersen, the man manager and Stacy Lewis, the statistician. Europe got away with one in Spain, they were 4-0 down on the Friday and then they looked like coming up short on the Sunday.
Caroline Hedwall's ability to make a lot of birdies is incredible and her comeback was something else. For a woman the 3-wood is such a hard shot to hit but she hit one of the best shots at the 18th to find the green.
For whatever reason the Europeans become better players at the Solheim and the Americans don’t, it's a bit like the Ryder Cup. When the Europeans get the call to play they understand the importance of it, for players like Linn Grant and Maja Stark it's all they’ve wanted to do, and they know all about it. At the next LET event in Hong Kong Caroline was getting swamped on the range with congratulations.
For the Americans they almost have to play in one to realise the importance of it. A lot of young Americans will have learnt from Spain and they will now have a strong nucleus in the coming years with Rose Zhang and Lilia Vu. Europe have that too and they retained it without their three strongest players not playing their best in Charley Hull, Georgia Hall and Celine Boutier and the teams will be pretty similar which will also make it great.
The Americans must have felt they had won it on the Friday morning and were never behind the whole week which is why it would feel like a loss rather than a tie.
Scandinavian Mixed - Sweden
As a player you enjoy the experience of a mixed event and being around and playing with the guys. The trouble is you’re playing for the same pot so you then switch to it’s a week at work and it’s a lot harder to win some money. The men have got hold of that and think it’s a good one to play in as they only have to beat half the men. We've only had a handful of women who are in the top 20 the last few years so the stats have showed that it’s an advantage for the men. When it’s different pots you like that more.
You have to learn two courses and the tournament is massive, things like the player catering and the range are really busy but it's good to do it a couple of times a year to freshen things up and to get eyes on the women’s game. It's like a work environment where you are able to mix things up and it's just that different perspective on the same thing.
Nearly every woman who I interviewed said that the men just went for everything and that the men's putts are always going at the hole. Anne van Dam said that she would be hitting driver more as the men did and the men said how relaxed and unfazed the women are and how well the women hit their hybrids.
I noticed how the women on the course are happy to speak whenever as they don’t do it all the time whereas the men do it every week. And exposure is phenomenal with the DP World Tour sharing all the LET players' social media stuff and that is a massive lift. When we listen now to whose swing they like, they’ll say Linn Grant or Anne's and that might not have happened without this tournament.
The Olympics - Le Golf National
Golf can’t afford not to be in the Olympics and Paris is a huge opportunity after a bit of a slow start to its reintroduction. I do think that it will evolve, some players didn’t want to play in Brazil and Charley and Georgia didn’t go to Tokyo, but there is now a massive chance to enjoy a great week and there will be a lot of home eyes on Celine Boutier.
I still don’t understand why it's not a mixed element. I don’t normally watch triathlon but when the men and women were put together I thought this is cool. If they want to have a men’s and women’s individual gold medal then that’s cool, but then have a pairs event as well. Also, are non-golfers going to watch four days of golf? It needs to be shorter and more exciting and something different.
I'm like a lot of people in that I'm fascinated by the Olympics. I went to watch the hockey in 2012 and when I did A Question of Sport, the diver Jack Laugher was there and he had his gold, silver and bronze medals with him which was incredible. I really admire sportspeople who train for that one moment every four years and golf can learn a lot from other sports and to be in that environment as we can be quite isolated.
I also think that the caddie deserves a medal too. I saw in Dubai that Harry Diamond was given a salver after they topped the Race to Dubai and thought that was quite nice. Caddies are way more important than some people give them credit for and it adds to the team aspect and the celebrations. With golf, you win and there's often nobody to celebrate with and it can be a bit of an anti-climax, so you're desperate for another player to come on the green and share the moment.
