Click here for the complete field at the 2018 U.S. Women's Open conducted by the USGA.
Who Is In The Field?
The U.S. Women’s Open conducted by the USGA stages one of the toughest tests players face all season long. The season’s second major championship features 156 competitors, including 10 former U.S. Women’s Open champions, amateurs, special invitees and sectional qualifiers, to make up one of the most eclectic fields in women’s golf. The top 20 ranked players in the Rolex Rankings make up the field, as well as 24 of the top 25.
Inbee Park, current world No. 1 and two-time U.S. Women’s Open champion (2008, 2013), headlines the field at Shoal Creek. She arrives in Alabama fresh off her second worldwide win of 2018 after winning for the first time in her career on the KLPGA. This week, she has an opportunity to join a short list of elite players to have won the Championship three times. That list includes Babe Zaharias, Susie Maxwell Berning, Hollis Stacy and Annika Sorenstam. Other U.S. Women’s Open champions in the field include defending champion Sung Hyun Park, Brittany Lang (2016), In Gee Chun (2015), Michelle Wie (2014), So Yeon Ryu (2011), Paula Creamer (2010), Eun Hee Ji (2009), Cristie Kerr (2007) and Karrie Webb (2000, 2001). This year, Webb received a special exemption to compete in her 23rd consecutive U.S. Women’s Open.
Ready to Defend
Sung Hyun Park's close call at the 2016 U.S. Women’s Open served as fuel for Sung Hyun Park at Trump National Bedminster in 2017. She used the moment as her motivation. It propelled her to back-to-back rounds of 67s to come from seven strokes back on the weekend to finish atop the leaderboard. The victory was her first win on the LPGA Tour and opened the flood gates for the 2017 rookie who went on to also win Canada’s national championship, ascend to No. 1 in the Rolex Rankings and earned both Rookie of the Year and co-Player of the Year honors.
Park arrives at Shoal Creek already a winner in 2018, having won in her last start two weeks ago at the weather-shortened Volunteers of America LPGA Texas Classic.
You’re Qualified
More than two dozen members of the LPGA Tour advanced through sectional qualifying to compete in their national championship, including 2018 rookie Emma Talley. The Alabama native may have the biggest advantage heading into the week as she grew up calling Shoal Creek her home course. Talley advanced through her Georgia qualifying site with a birdie on the final hole of regulation and another birdie in a three-way playoff to punch her ticket to the U.S. Women’s Open. Here is the list of LPGA Tour members who advanced through sectional qualifying:
Tiffany Chan
Ssu Chia Cheng
Katelyn Dambaugh
Daniela Darquea
Julieta Granada
Celine Herbin
Maria Hernandez
Nannette Hill
Daniela Holmqvist
Sarah Kemp
Xiyu Lin
Catriona Matthew
Giulia Molinaro
Becky Morgan
Emily Pedersen
Mel Reid
Paula Reto
Christine Song
Jenny Suh
Emma Talley
Kris Tamulis
Cheyenne Woods
Click here for qualifying results.
New Date, New Venue, Same Tough Test
A change in schedule sent the U.S. Women’s Open from July to May, leapfrogging the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and into the second slot in the Tour’s major schedule. For the first time, the LPGA Tour will tee it up at Shoal Creek, a 30-minute drive east of Birmingham, Alabama. The venue may be new to the LPGA, but it’s no stranger to staging major events. Shoal Creek twice hosted the PGA Championship in 1984 and 1990, and for five years staged the Regions Tradition, one of the majors on the PGA Tour Champions. The course was designed by Jack Nicklaus and opened in November 1977. This week, the course will play to a par 72 at 6,693 yards, but with the rain brought on by Subtropical Storm Alberto the course will play even longer.