Out of the Rough: U.S. Women's Open (2026)

The best women golfers in the World look to take to the legendary Riviera County Club for the 81st U.S. Women’s Open this week.

The U.S. Women’s Open is the longest-running tournament currently on the LPGA Tour and with that, is the oldest women’s major.

The event was founded in 1946 as this year marks the 81st playing.

The Riviera County Club, the same venue that hosts The Genesis on the PGA Tour, will host the 81st playing of the U.S. Women’s Open for the very first time.

Riviera County Club last hosted a major in 1995, hosting the men’s PGA Championship. It too will host the 2028 Olympic Games and the men’s 2031 U.S. Open.

Golfers will play for a chance to see their names etched on the Harton S. Semple Trophy among many of the game’s greats.

Along with that, the U.S. Women’s Open holds the joint largest purse on the LPGA Tour at $12 million along with the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.

The Field

Being the second major event of the season, all of the World’s best women golfers will be in attendance this week.

All eyes will be on World No. 1 Nelly Korda who is missing the coveted Harton S. Semple Trophy within her extensive trophy case.

World No. 2 Jeeno Thitikul will look to keep pace with Korda and will look to reclaim her World No. 1 standing.

The current top ten of the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings also includes Hyo Joo Kim (No. 3,) Ruoning Yin (No. 4,) Lottie Woad (No. 5,) Hannah Green (No. 6,) Charley Hull (No. 7,) Miyu Yamashita (No. 8,) Minjee Lee (No. 9) and Lydia Ko (No. 10.)

Maja Stark comes in as the defending champion, winning by two strokes over Korda, who boggied the 18th hole, and Rio Takeda.

The Course

Riviera Country Club is simply a beautiful golf oasis and architectural masterpiece, carefully crafted into the cityscape of Los Angeles.

At 6,685 yards and par-71, Riviera’s distance doesn’t jump off the page, but the compact course sure does offer its challenges. A well rounded game will be needed as scoring will be held in check this week.

Even on the best of days, Riviera presents one of the most challenging courses we’ll see across the sport.

The first of its defenses are extremely narrow fairways that progressively get narrower the closer to the green. On top of the fairways being extremely narrow, the course too is littered with tight doglegs.

If a golfer misses the fairways, they’ll have to battle the unpredictable Kikuyu rough, which tends to “stick” to the club.

With such challenges facing golfers before they even get off-the-tee, even the best off -the-tee will be forced to think twice before “letting it rip '' and will oftentimes be forced to lay up along the way. This removes wedge shots more common on easier layouts. 

The course too offers a good amount of elevation change and is heavily bunkered; both around the fairways and around the green.

Once to the green, the challenges don’t go away. The greens are a tricky, fast and firm Poa that is destined to give even the best with the flat stick fits.

The course ranks in the top five for most missed putts both inside and outside 15 feet on the PGA Tour.

Don’t let the first hole get you too excited when tuning in this week either, as the downhill par five plays as the easiest par five on Tour. A bit of a mind game this course can add to its seamlessly endless list of defenses.

The Weather

As of the time of writing this, there is at most a five-percent chance of precipitation across all four days this week. Temperatures will be at the highest on Thursday at 79-degrees before dropping to 77-degrees on Friday. Temperatures will settle at 76-degrees across the weekend. Winds are also set at just six miles-per-hour across all four days as well.

Key Stats

• Strokes Gained: Approach (SG: APP)

• Driving Accuracy Percentage

• Greens in Regulation Percentage (GIR%)

• Strokes Gained: Around the Green (SG: ATG)

• Scrambling

• Sand Saves Percentage

• Strokes Gained: Putting (SG: PUTT)

• Bogey Avoidance

• Par Four Average Scoring

Betting Card

Check back for my full betting card!

2025 Betting Card

• Minjee Lee (+2200) - T22nd

• Charley Hull (+4500) - T12th

• Angel Yin (+4500) - T9

• A Lim Kim (+5000) - T26th

• Lindy Duncan (+6600) - MC

2024 Betting Card

• Sei Young Kim (+3000) - W/D

• Hannah Green (+3500) - T16th

• Madelene Sagstrom (+5000) - T69th

• Jin Hee Im (+7000) - T58th

2023 Betting Card

• Hyo Joo Kim (+1800) - T6th

• Ruoning Yin (+3100) - T20th

• Ashleigh Buhai (+4500) - T68th