In preparation for the U.S. Women’s Open scheduled for July 6-9, we have compiled essential information about the tournament. This includes valuable details about Minjee Lee’s victory in the previous year and valuable insights into the course.
Location
Pebble Beach Golf Links, Pebble Beach, Calif.
Yardage
6,546; par 71
Tournament Record
271 – Minjee Lee (2022)
Purse
$10 million
Tournament Insight
The U.S. Women’s Open Presented by ProMedica is run by the USGA and began in 1946. It’s the longest-running tournament on the LPGA Tour and is one of the five major women’s championships.
This year the championship is being played for the first time at Pebble Beach Golf Links, the famed course on the California coastline that has been the site of six men’s U.S. Opens and annually hosts the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am on the PGA TOUR.
Course Insight
Pebble Beach is known for its spectacular ocean views, as well as for being one of the top courses in the U.S., ranked eighth in the country by Golf Digest. Designed by Jack Neville and Douglas Grant and opened in 1919, the course gained a high profile when it began to host what was then known as the Bing Crosby Pro-Am (now AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am) on the PGA TOUR in 1947 and an even higher one when it began hosting U.S. Opens in 1972. The course has hosted six U.S. Opens and one PGA Championship, producing a strong list of winners including Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, and Tiger Woods. This is the first time it has hosted an LPGA event.
The layout hugs the coast for holes 4-10. Particularly noteworthy are the short par-3 seventh, where winds off the Pacific can play havoc, and a trio of par 4s at Nos. 8-10, the first with a carry over a chasm and the next two running parallel to the coast and requiring precision play. The course returns to the shore at the par-3 17th and concludes with the famous par-5 18th with the water on the left. Players can often work their way under par on the first seven holes, though that will be more difficult in U.S. Open conditions; after that, it’s a matter of holding on.
How Minjee Lee won in 2022
Minjee Lee built a three-stroke lead with rounds of 67-66-67 and wasn’t seriously threatened as she shot a 71 in tougher final-round conditions to win by four over Mina Harigae at Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club in Southern Pines, N.C. Lee, a 26-year-old from Australia, birdied the first two holes of the final round and led by as many as six strokes on the back nine. She was never less than three ahead as she claimed her second major title (2021 Amundi Evian Championship).
- Minjee Lee’s 72-hole total of 271 was a U.S. Women’s Open record. Her 13-under was the second-best total in relation to par behind the 16-under of Juli Inkster in 1999. Lee also set the 54-hole record with a 200 total.
- Lee was the third Australian to win the event, joining Jan Stephenson (1983) and Karrie Webb (2000, 2001).
- The last U.S. player to win the event was Brittany Lang in 2016. Since then, all six winners have been from Asia or Australia.
- ProMedica became the first ever presenting sponsor of the U.S. Women’s Open in 2022, boosting the purse from $5.5 million to $10 million.
- This is the second time in the last three years that the event has been played in California; it was at The Olympic Club outside San Francisco in 2021.
This was first published in Essential Golf – you can read the complete magazine here.