We are currently at the mid-point of the United States Women's Open Golf Championship at the Lancaster Country Club in Pennsylvania. Lancaster CC is an old time traditional golf course that was designed by William Flynn in 1920. Flynn was a colorful golden age of golf course architecture figure who played high school golf against future U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur champion Francis Ouimet, was a highly regarded tennis player who gave lessons one summer at the Lake Placid Resort, and was a part owner of the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles. He got his first important design job in 1909, working under Hugh Wilson at Merion Country Club, a highly regarded future U.S. Open site. Flynn worked as the greens keeper at Merion for a time and following the conclusion of World War I, he went out on his own for a lengthy design career. Flynn was the architect at such well known courses as Cherry Hills in Denver, Boca Raton in Florida, and the Philadelphia Country Club.
The Women's Open is the grandmother of women's golf major championships having initially been contested in 1946 when Patty Berg beat Betty Jamison under the match play format at Spokane Country Club. Match play was short lived and the following year Jamison won by six strokes and pocketed the first place prize check of $1,200. This time around the ultimate titlist will win $2 million and the total purse will be $12 million. The Women's Open has the largest purse in women's golf. The defending champion is American Alisen Corpoz who finished three strokes ahead of Charley Hull and Jiya Shin at the Pebble Beach Golf Links on the Monterey Peninsula. This year will mark the 79th edition of the Women's Open.
Women's golf is truly a world-wide endeavor and the LPGA Tour plays an international schedule with tournaments in North America, Europe, and Asia. It was at the 2007 Women's Open that foreign golfers outnumbered American players for the first time in LPGA history.
Similar to the Men's Open, there are women golfers who are exempt into Lancaster CC as well as others who have to qualify into the event. The top 50 golfers on the LPGA Tour are automatically exempt, recent winners on the LPGA Tour, as well as the top five linksters playing on the Ladies European Tour, the Japan LPGA Tour, and the Korean LPGA Tour. Amateur golfers with wins within the last year at the Augusta National Women's Amateur, the U.S. Girls Junior, the U.S Women's Mid Amateur, and the two finalists in last summer's U.S. Women's Amateur are also automatically in the tournament. The remainder of the places in this elite tourney go to women pros and leading amateurs who qualify into the U.S. Women's Open field. The qualifiers only have to get through one qualifier, but it is an intense one day 36 hole journey to get a tee time at Lancaster CC.
The talk of women's golf for the past five months has been Nelly Korda who ran off five wins in a row earlier this season including the Chevron Championship, the season's first major championship in early April. It was her second career major title. Nelly then took a few weeks off, returned to the tour and had a top 10 finish. She then returned to her winning ways at Liberty National last week just outside New York City at the Mizuno Americas Open, winning by one stroke over Hannah Green. Nelly is obviously the favorite at this year's Women's Open, but just like all levels of tournament golf, it's hard to prognosticate when you have 150 golfers of note entered into the event.
The interesting pre-tournament story this week was the announcement by 29 year old Lexi Thompson stating her intention to retire at the conclusion of this season. While it's difficult for most of us to fathom such a thing as retirement before you get to age 30, Lexi has had a pretty full career that is close to two decades old. She first qualified for the Women's Open as a 12 year old, won the Women's Junior in 2008, and joined the LPGA Tour as a 17 year old. She has 11 wins on that tour including one major, the 2014 Kraft Nabisco Championship (Dinah Shore). Although Lexi didn't give a definitive reason for her retirement, or perhaps semi-retirement, she has always seemed uncomfortable under the bright lights of stardom and perhaps stepping away will be the best for her. She has stated that part of her decision was based on mental health concerns.
Golf can be a lonely sport at all levels. You don't have teammates to pump you up and aside from your caddie, you are all alone on the course with no coaching, no timeouts, and no substitutions. It can very much be a good walk spoiled. Sad to say, the pressures of life got in the way of the life of Grayson Murray. The recent winner of the Hawaiian Open on the PGA Tour, Murray took his life last weekend. It's easy to say that it's just a game, but that is easier said than done.
Enjoy the Women's Open this weekend. The eventual winner needs to keep the ball in play on this very traditional course. The tournament will feature the best of women's golf.
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