PACIFIC PALISADES, Ca. -- This one has been circled on the calendar for quite some time and finally, the week has arrived. The best female golfers in the world are set to tee it up at historic Riviera Country Club this week with the U.S. Women's Open trophy on the line.
The season's second major championship is up for grabs and the setting could not be more compelling. A golf course that has been a regular PGA Tour stop in February will now showcase a different side of itself as it hosts the women for the very first time.
Here are four storylines to watch.
All eyes on Nelly Korda
It is no secret who will draw the most eyeballs and cameras this week. World No. 1 Nelly Korda arrives with much fanfare and attention to the biggest women's major of the year and with good reason: she has played in seven events this year, finished second in three of them, tied for eighth in one of them and won the other three, including a dominant performance at the Chevron Championship last month.
"I was definitely a little bit more motivated after last year, not getting a win," Korda said.
Parity ruled the LPGA last season as the league had an unprecedented 29 different winners, including no repeat champions for the first 24 events. So far this season, the results have painted a different story, one with Korda right in the center of it all.
On Tuesday, the 27-year-old played down the notion that she was the face of the game and yet, even if she may not want to acknowledge or accept it, that is the LPGA's reality. She's by far the most popular figure in the game and right now, she's the winningest too.
It's why she's favored -- dare I say, expected -- to be the one in the winner's circle come Sunday. Yet even with her level of play being what it has been this season and this course set up to favor her game, taking down Riv and the rest of the field won't be an easy task.
Korda has spoken about her complicated relationship with the U.S. Open before. From 2020 through 2024, she had three missed cuts and only one top-10 finish. Then last year at Erin Hills, she entered the back nine on Sunday with a real chance to win her first. She came up short (T-2), but the result appeared to leave an important mark on her.
"It made me hungrier to be in those positions," Korda said. "It was just like, there's no better place to be in than in the hunt on a back nine on Sunday at a major championship, especially at the Women's Open. It would have been a lifelong dream [to win], but there's more chances."
Can Jeeno Thitikul finally get her major moment?
No one outside of Nelly Korda has played more consistently great golf in recent years than Thititkul, who began the year at No. 1 in the world. Since landing on tour in 2022, she has 59 top-10 finishes and nine wins.
There's no questioning how great Thitikul is, which is why it remains mind-boggling to witness that, at major championships, she can't quite seem to get over the hump.
In 2021, she played in her first major as a pro at the Evian Championship and made a splash, finishing in fifth place. Since then, she has had nine top-10 finishes at majors in 23 chances as well as five missed cuts, including at last month's Chevron. At the U.S. Open, Thitikul has two missed cuts in four appearances and has also recorded a sixth-place finish.
For Thititkul, the struggle at the sport's biggest events seems to be as simple as just one aspect of her game.
"I think up-and-down are the biggest challenges for me [at majors] because I know I hit lots of greens when I was young and I'm not really chipping," Thitikul said this week while also noting that she hasn't tried to change anything about her approach to majors. "I just talk to my coach what we have to do different, but in a major he's just like, we don't have to do anything different because like when you change your routine, that's when you change your mindset."
It wouldn't be surprising to see Thitikul contend this week, and it's fair to remember that she is still only 23 years old. But if her record has taught us anything, it is that there's no telling what we'll get when she tees it up at a major championship. And as far as her chipping goes this week? Well, Riviera's sticky kikuya grass around the greens won't make it easy.
Riviera in a different spotlight
Whenever the golf calendar turns to February, Riviera takes its place as one of the best stops on the PGA Tour. Players and fans alike rave about their love for the venue, the setting and the way this particular set of 18 holes just seems to feel differently than most other courses on the calendar.
It's June now and for the first time in a long time, Riviera will get to flex a different muscle. After what has been a pretty dry winter and spring for Los Angeles, the golf course is looking firm and fast with its greens bouncing and rolling in ways we don't always see for the men. And even though the course sits in a bit of a canyon, it is not immune to the nearby ocean breeze, which will also play a sizable factor.
"I hit a pitching wedge into one of the greens two days ago, and then I hit 5-iron today," Lydia Ko said. "It's not like the wind has been very strong. So just with the combination of how strong the wind is and what time of the day you play, the course is going to firm out a little bit more ... I think that's why it's going to be difficult but fun and fair. You don't often get to go to super fair courses, and I think this is a true testament of that."
"Every day is going to be different. I know the wind switches here kind of from morning to afternoon based off it coming from the water," Korda said. "Every day is going to be a different game plan."
Even more so this week, this course will put a premium on strategy. Spin, trajectory and angles into greens will be crucial especially with players likely having longer irons into some greens. Several fairways pinch a bit tighter around the 275-yard mark too, so while the length of the course will benefit the longer hitters, some will have unique strategic decisions to make on certain holes. It's why one may argue that the scale of a course like Riviera almost suits the women -- their length, lower ball flight, and style -- better than the men.
If conditions and the weather remain as pristine as they have so far, we could see Riviera come alive this week in a way we never have before.
"It's truly a second-shot golf course," Michelle Wie West said. "It's really cool that fans will be able to watch us play and kind of maybe compare notes to how we play against the guys."
The veterans vs. the youth movement
If you look at the top 10 of the odds sheet this week, there's a very interesting split happening.
Aside from Korda and the 23-year-old Thitikul (who hold the top two spots), staples like Lydia Ko, MinJee Lee, Hyo-joo Kim and Hannah Green -- all of whom have at least one major championship win and are around 30 years old -- are on the list. Thirty-year-old Charley Hull, who has yet to clinch a major but has two top-10 finishes in her past two attempts, is considered one of the 15 favorites heading into the week as well.
Meanwhile, the rest of the list is populated by a crop of younger up-and-coming players who have already shown enough promise and results to believe they're next. There's 24-year-old Miyu Yamashita (defending Women's British Open champion), 23-year-old Ruoning Yin (four top-5 finishes in her past seven majors) and 22-year-old Lottie Woad (T-3 at the Evian last year as an amateur and two top-10s in her next two majors as a pro).
Woad, in particular, has looked every bit the part since winning the Augusta National Women's Amateur in 2024 and does not appear to be having much of a learning curve since turning pro. She is coming off a win in the most recent LPGA tour stop in Cincinnati which gave her two victories to go along with two Ladies European tour wins too.
But don't count out the vets just yet. Green has been a menace in Southern California, winning the LPGA event here (JM Eagle LA Championship) three times, including this year. It's safe to say she's comfortable playing West Coast golf courses and it wouldn't be a surprise to see her add Riviera to the list. And if we're talking about difficult golf courses, Lee can't be overlooked either. The three-time major winner already has a U.S. Open win under her belt and her elite approach game could net her a second one this week.
