How to follow the US Women’s Open
The US Women’s Open heads to the iconic Pebble Beach Golf Links on the California coastline for the first time in its history this week.
West Australian Minjee Lee will be defending the title she won at Pine Needles 12 months ago with four other Australians and two New Zealanders also in the 156-strong field.
Lee finished tied for 20th at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship two weeks ago but will be looking to climb the leaderboard even higher this week to claim her third major championship.
Among the other Australians set to vie for the Harton S. Semple Trophy is amateur Maddison Hinson-Tolchard. The West Australian, who now pays college golf at Oklahoma State University, was one of this year’s recipients of the Karrie Webb Scholarship and got a taste of major championship golf at the Women’s PGA a fortnight ago.
“The week was really awesome to get to know [Karrie], use her as a resource to ask her a lot of questions,” said Hinson-Tolchard. “It was really cool to sort of pick her brain.
This will be Hinson-Tolchard’s first major championship and has set her sights on finishing as the low-amateur of the week.
Lee and Hinson-Tolchard will be joined by Hannah Green, Grace Kim and Gabriela Ruffels in making up the Australian contingent in the field with Round 1 to commence in the early hours of Friday morning AEST.
MEDIA TRANSCRIPTS, VIDEO, INFORMATION:
https://mediacenter.usga.org/us-womens-open
SCORING
WRITTEN COVERAGE
THE COURSE
Pebble Beach Golf Links is one of the most famous courses in world golf. The Californian site has played host to the men’s US Open six times, but this will be the first time the women’s US Open will be played there.
The course was originally designed by Jack Neville and Douglas Grant, with the objective to fit as many holes as possible along the rugged and impressive coastline. Revisions have been made over the years, including some by Alistair Mackenzie.
PRIZE POOL
$US10 million
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Minjee Lee (defending champion), world No.6
Jin Young Ko, world No.1
Ruoning Yin, world No.5
Rose Zhang, world No.45
THE AUSSIES
Hannah Green
Maddison Hinson-Tolchard (a)
Grace Kim
Minjee Lee
Gabriela Ruffels
Amelia Garvey (NZ)
Lydia Ko (NZ)
PAST AUSSIE WINNERS
Jan Stephenson (1983); Karrie Webb (2000, 2001); Minjee Lee (2022)
TV TIMES
Friday and Saturday: 4am-9am Fox Sports 505; 9am-2pm Fox Sports 503 and Kayo
Sunday and Monday: 5am-8am Fox Sports 505; 8am-12pm Fox Sports 503 and Kayo