What to expect at the 2026 U.S. Women's Open
The 2026 U.S. Women's Open of golf will be held at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, California. PGA of America president Suzy Whaley previews the event.
What to expect at the 2026 U.S. Women's Open originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
Video Transcript
There's 154 people playing in this event starting on Thursday.
So there's 154 dreams out there that would love to host, hoist that US Women's Open trophy.
Yeah, I mean, I think you have 10 amateurs in the field that you really have to pay attention to because they are incredibly You have Kiera Romero, who's the number one amateur in the world right now.
She's playing in it.
Megha Ganne, she's playing in it.
And then you have some professionals who have grown up in this area, which matters 'cause it's Kikuyu grass, and it's a very different type of grass at Riviera than typically you find around the rest of the country at championship venues.
So if you've grown up here and played this golf course a lot, it is d- a distinct advantage.
So you've got your Alison Liese, your Alison Corpuz, who won at Pebble Beach, a few years back for the US Women's Open.
You've got Andrea Lee, who also grew up in this area.
Then you've got Nelly Korda, the number one player in the world, who's coming off her win at Chevron, a major championship, her third major championship.
And in fact, it is Nelly Korda who is playing amazing golf and is the current number one in the world.
I think the cool part about this golf course, Riviera, if you don't have the history of it, so they're celebrating their centennial this year, Riviera is.
So yeah, I think it's a wonderful nod to women's sports that the US Women's Open is there in their celebration of their centennial because Riviera has hosted the PGA Championship a couple times, the US Men's Open, the US Senior Open, but never the US Women's Open.
And so for an advocate, obviously, for women's sports and for women's golf, for them to be able to play this storied championship venue is incredibly special, but also because it's so difficult.
This golf course is incredibly difficult.
They're gonna play it right around 6,600, 6,680, something like that, yards.
the golf course will demand elite iron play i- in every single facet.
as I mentioned, the grasses are gonna be a little different, so you're gonna have to get used to that in your practice rounds and figure out how you're gonna flight your trajectories, on this type of grass and what works best to make the ball stop on these undulations of these greens.
Some of these children are going to say at some point in their life, "I started golf at a Bank of America clinic, at a Golf With Us clinic, and I had a chance to play my local golf course for $5, and that made me fall in love with the game."
That's our hope, right?
Our hope is that some of these children take it I don't, it doesn't matter if they turn professional.
But maybe you might have one of these children who goes and plays college golf.
Maybe you have a girl play on the LPGA Tour.
Maybe you have one of the boys play in the US Open.
How incredibly cool would that be?
