2024 U.S. Women's Open Preview
Korda goes for another major, Thompson announces retirement, Corpuz defends. Plus, William Flynn's refreshed Lancaster CC, television times, weather and Reads.
The U.S. Women’s Open Presented by Ally arrives at an opportune time.
With two majors in the books, the splintered men’s game has offered a reminder of what competitive golf at its best looks like and only heightens the PGA Tour’s changing vision, non-manspat manspats, and struggle to find a resolution with LIV. (That’s your first and last reminder of the “events of June 6th” beckoning for those in need of commemorative gifts. FYI, H.E. still wants a Deepdale membership while I hear Steamboat has a wonderful online retail store.)
Women’s sports are enjoying a boost thanks, in part, to a transactional, brute quality dragging down men’s golf and, to a lesser extent, other professional sports. Caitlyn Clark’s also just really good. But various metrics were already showing huge interest jumps in everything from softball, volleyball to Olympic sports even prior to the Iowa star’s rise.
Golf already knows about Nelly Korda’s historic 2024 start.
“Right now I think Nelly is just in a league of her own,” said defending U.S. Women’s Open Champion Allisen Corpuz.
The 25-year-old Korda will get her shot at a second-straight major and seventh win this year at a venue that’s already proven as a star. Further helping matters: the PGA Tour is not at the always-popular Memorial tournament. And American sports audiences appear to have more free viewing time now that one NBA conference final is in the books and another is on the verge of a sweep. This also frees up the weekend for Adam Silver to tighten the NBC contract language to prevent Comcast from penny-pinching mid-deal to justify its (alleged) $2.3 billion bid.
Lancaster Country Club’s updated William Flynn design has previously highlighted quality play and enjoyed energetic fan support in an area starved for a big-time event. Television should be on board as well. Without Olympic trials to rush off to, NBC is offering six hours of weekday coverage on USA and just as much on the weekend, albeit with the traditional Peacock/USA/NBC shuffle. Even the weather forecast has aligned. (More on both of those topics below.)
Whether or not Korda succeeds this week is beside the point. She has a growing fanbase and should have more given her beautiful swing, quick-but-respectful pace of play, classy demeanor and unthinkable success rate in eight starts this year. It’s been a decade since the LPGA has seen a player dominate the way Korda has in 2024.
“I think we’re seeing the best season by any LPGA player since at least 2013 when Inbee Park won six times in the first half of the year,” said longtime LPGA broadcaster Grant Boone, who shares lead announce duties with longtime NBC voice of golf Dan Hicks. “Three of those were majors.”
Is she feeling pressure to do more than just play golf?
“I think our responsibility is to go out and play golf, to hopefully put on a show for everyone, and to go out there and perform our best golf,” Korda said Tuesday. “Hopefully that brings in the audience. I know there's expectations from players, and I think that our number one priority should be to go out there, enjoy our time on the golf course, and grow the game playing good golf.”
Korda expects Lancaster Country Club to call on a bit of everything that should reward her well-rounded game.
“It's a beast of a golf course,” Korda said. “Visually it looks so much shorter than it is. There's bunkers that visually you see that you think you're going to carry that you end up maybe ten yards short of. Visually the golf course is tough as well as, if you're in the rough and you miss the fairways, the greens are very small and very slopey, and the rough is thick around the greens too.
“It's just going to test every part of your game.”
NBC lead analyst Morgan Pressel agrees.
“There’s some great undulation, doglegs, different blind shots and things that really test all aspects of your game,” said Pressel, who played Lancaster when it last hosted the U.S. Women’s Open in 2015 and has been briefed on the setup plan supervised by the USGA’s Shannon Rouillard. “They certainly do a great job in moving tees around and hole locations. They want to you get every club in your bag dirty.”
There will be rough, fast greens, and plenty of chances for luck of the draw to curtail Korda’s hopes of another major. But that only adds to the fun of it all.
U.S. Women’s Open By The Numbers
1946: First edition played at Spokane CC won by Patty Berg
156: Field size
8: Former champions in the field (In Gee Chun (2015), Allisen Corpuz (2023), Ariya Jutanugarn (2018), A Lim Kim (2020), Brittany Lang (2016), Minjee Lee (2022), Jeongeun Lee6 (2019), Yuka Saso (2021))
6: Former U.S. Women’s Amateur champions (Kristen Gillman (2014, 2018), Danielle Kang (2010, 2011), Lydia Ko (2012), Gabriela Ruffels (2019), Megan Schofill (2023), Rose Zhang (2020))
36: Contestants who played in 2015 at Lancaster CC (Celine Boutier (MC), Carlota Ciganda (MC), In Gee Chun (Won), Jodi Ewart Shadoff (MC), Ally Ewing (MC), Mariel Galdiano (T-42), Kristen Gillman (MC), Georgia Hall (MC), Brooke Henderson (T-5), Charley Hull (T-42), Wei-Ling Hsu (MC), Ariya Jutanugarn (MC), Moriya Jutanugarn (MC), Danielle Kang (T-47), Kim Kaufman (T-35), Megan Khang (T-35), Hyo Joo Kim (MC), Sei Young Kim (T-42), Lydia Ko (T-12), Brittany Lang (T-14), Alison Lee (T-26), Mi Hyang Lee (T-14), Minjee Lee (MC), Amelia Lewis (MC), Xiyu Lin (MC), Gaby Lopez (MC), Caroline Masson (MC), Stephanie Meadow (MC), Sydnee Michaels (T-20), Anna Nordqvist (MC), Ryann O’Toole (T-20), Jenny Shin (19), Ai Suzuki (T-32), Lexi Thompson (T-42), Mariajo Uribe (MC), Amy Yang (2))
40: First-time competitors
27: Countries represented in the field
21: Amateurs in the field (9 from the WAGR top 50)
39: age of the field’s oldest player (Jean Reynolds)
15: age of the youngest player (Asterisk Talley)
26.15: average age of the championship field
Lexi Thompson Announces Retirement
Lexi Thompson may be playing her final U.S. Women’s Open.
The 29-year-old arrived at her 18th consecutive U.S. Women’s Open by announcing via the USGA that she is retiring from full-time golf at the end of 2024. A social media post soon followed.
“I’m not going to say yes or no on how many events I'll play or if I do,” Thompson said. “I'm just going to take it day by day and see how I feel, especially going into next year. But I'm very content with this being my last full-time schedule year.”
Thompson’s career in USGA events includes a win in the 2008 U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship in 2008, a made cut in the 2009 U.S. Women’s Open when she was 14, and 4-0-1 record representing the United States in the 2010 Curtis Cup.
She’s been at this quite a while.
“This is my 14th full-time year. Golf has been my life ever since I was 5 years old, tournaments when I was 7. I haven't really known much of a life different, but it's been an amazing one. This sport has taught me a lot, and I've learned so much along the way, built so many friendships and relationships. I'm looking forward to what life has in store.”
Thompson’s also excited about her game this week after dealing with a hand issue in the last year.
“I haven't been playing the golf that I expect myself to, but my hand has been unbelievably better. I've actually been able to go out there and swing without pain, which is always nice. That's been a great feeling to have.
Thompson turned pro at 16, has 11 LPGA Tour victories with one major win at the 2014 Kraft Nabisco, now the Chevron Championship. She’s had several near-misses in the U.S. Women’s Open, including a second-place finish in 2019 and a third place in the 2021 U.S. Women’s Open Olympic Club.
She tees off Thursday at 1:58 p.m. with Rose Zhang and Minjee Lee.
Lancaster Country Club
Just like next month’s U.S. Open venue, this one was a labor of love improved by multiple updates from the original designer.