Twelve different players have won on the LPGA this season, but no a single repeat champion. And probably the biggest surprise of all: World No. 1 Nelly Korda has yet to lift a trophy compared to six titles at this time last year.
The pressure gets turned up considerably this week with the 80th US Women’s Open set to be played for the first time at Erin Hills Golf Course, 60km northwest of Milwaukee. In the USGA’s last visit there in 2017, Brooks Koepka won the first of his five majors.
The last time this major was in the cheese state, Na Yeon Choi won at Blackwolf Run in Kohler in 2012.
The season’s expected toughest test will play out on what can be described as a bomber’s course, tipped out by the USGA at 6,244 metres.
Here are some of our best bets to win the coveted major and its total purse of $US12 million ($A18.5 million).
20. Chisato Iwai
Rolex Rankings: 45; US Women’s Open starts: 2; Best finish: T-19, 2024; ’24 Finish: T-19
The 22-year-old rookie from Japan arguably has the most momentum of any player in the field after she won the Mexico Riviera Maya Open on Sunday. She trailed by one stroke after 54 holes but birdied five of her first six in shooting a final-round 66 for her first LPGA win. That adds to her eight wins on the LPGA Japan Tour and puts her one-up in America on her identical twin sister, Akie.
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19. Madelene Sagstrom 
Picture: Mike Stobe
Rolex Rankings: 32; US Women’s Open starts: 8; Best finish: T-17, 2018; ’24 Finish: T-69
Sagstrom won the T-Mobile Match Play Championship at age 32 this season, her second career win. She missed the cut at the Chevron and has two top-10s in majors.
18. Lilia Vu
Rolex Rankings: 6; US Women’s Open starts: 3; Best finish: T-34, 2022; ’24 Finish: DNP
Vu is looking for her third major after winning two in 2023—the Chevron and AIG Women’s Open. This year has been a mixed bag as she’s missed the cut in six events, but finished second at the Ford Championship. She finished 78th in the Chevron after going 78-78 on the weekend.
17. Angel Yin 
Picture: Thananuwat Srirasant
Rolex Rankings: 11; US Women’s Open starts: 10; Best finish: T-2, 2019; ’24 Finish: MC
Yin won this season’s Honda LPGA in Thailand, birdieing the 72nd hole for a one-shot victory. She has three top-10s this year and finished 13th at the Chevron Championship. At the US Women’s Open in 2019, Yin had her best finish when she tied for second.
16. Allisen Corpuz
Rolex Rankings: 38; US Women’s Open starts: 6; Best finish: Won, 2023; ’24 Finish: MC
Corpuz has two top-10s this year and played well at the Chevron Championship, finishing with a 68 to tie for 18th. Her lone career win was at the US Women’s Open at Pebble Beach in 2023, when she closed with a 69. Corpuz has been strong in a couple of final rounds this year, shooting a season-low 64 in the Honda LPGA Thailand and a 65 at the Ford Championship, in which she finished third.
15. Haeran Ryu 
Picture: Sean M. Haffey
Rolex Rankings: 5; US Women’s Open starts: 5; Best finish: 8th, 2023; ’24 Finish: DNP
Ryu is a recent winner at the inaugural Black Desert Championship and tied for sixth at the Chevron, where she shot an opening-round 65. She has five top-10s in 16 starts in all majors, but the three-time LPGA winner is still looking for her first victory at a major.
14. Ruoning Yin
Rolex Rankings: 4; US Women’s Open starts: 3; Best finish: T-12, 2024; ’24 Finish: T-12
Yin has won one major, the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in 2023 with a birdie on the final hole. She had a chance to win the first major of this season at the Chevron, but three-putted the first playoff hole. Yin came back to tie for second the next week at the Black Desert Championship, and those are the two top-10s she’s earned this season.
13. Charley Hull
Rolex Rankings: 15; US Women’s Open starts: 10; Best finish: T-2, 2023; ’24 Finish: T-19
In 2023, Hull made a great run at winning the US Open at Pebble Beach. She started the final round seven shots back that day and shot the best score of anyone that week (66) to tie for second. Hull seems due for a big breakthrough, with nine top-10s in majors, including two in US Opens. She has one top-10 in seven events this season, a T-4 at the HSBC Women’s World Championship. She missed the cut at the Chevron.
12. Ayaka Furue 
OLIVIER CHASSIGNOLE
Rolex Rankings: 14; US Women’s Open starts: 4; Best finish: T-6, 2023, 2024; ’24 Finish: T-6
The Japanese player has five top-10s in 20 major starts and won the Evian Championship last year with an eagle on the 72nd hole. Furue also makes contending a habit, finishing T-2 at the HSBC Women’s World Championship and third at the Blue Bay LPGA in back-to-back weeks early this season.
11. Celine Boutier
Rolex Rankings: 12; US Women’s Open starts: 8; Best finish: T-5, 2019; ’24 Finish: T-58
Boutier is a major winner, securing an emotional victory at the Evian Championship in her home country of France in 2023. She won four tournaments that year but none since. This season, Boutier has missed only two cuts, but one came in the Chevron. She finished second at the Mizuho Americas Open, so if recent play is a precursor to a run at this major, Boutier is in good shape.
10. Lauren Coughlin 
Paul Devlin
Rolex Rankings: 10; US Women’s Open starts: 1; Best finish: MC; ’24 Finish: MC
Remarkably, at 32, Coughlin is making only her second start in the US Women’s Open and her 16th major appearance overall. Her results in the biggest events are also wildly mixed, with two top-five finishes last year (in Chevron and Evian), but also nine missed cuts, including in her US Women’s Open debut last year. After that, however, she won her first two LPGA titles in the span of three weeks. This year, Coughlin already has three top-10s and lost the final, 1 up, to Madelene Sagstrom in the T-Mobile Match Play.
9. Lydia Ko
Rolex Rankings: 3; US Women’s Open starts: 13; Best finish: T-3, 2016; ’24 Finish: MC
The Hall of Famer has won three majors, including last year’s AIG Women’s Open, and has top-five finishes in all five majors, so she’s always a good pick. Ko hasn’t won the US Women’s Open or the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, so if she wins the USGA event she’ll have her fourth major and secure what the LPGA considers the career Grand Slam, even though there are five majors. Ko, 28, has three top-10 finishes this season, including a win in the HSBC Women’s World Championship for her 23rd career LPGA victory.
8. Hyo Jo Kim
Rolex Rankings: 7; US Women’s Open starts: 9; Best finish: 2nd, 2018; ’24 Finish: T-12
Kim won the Ford Championship in March and has four top-10s this season. She had the lowest final-round score (70) among the players who made the five-woman playoff at the Chevron, but Mao Saigo beat everyone with a birdie on the first extra hole. Kim has an impressive 14 top-10 finishes in majors, including two in the US Women’s Open, and scored her lone major win in the 2014 Evian Championship. She’s so well-rounded that she has top-four finishes in all five majors.
7. Jeeno Thitikul 
Scott Taetsch
Rolex Rankings: 2; US Women’s Open starts: 3; Best finish: T-6, 2024; ’24 Finish: T-6
Thitikul is a top-10 specialist, so she’s about the best guarantee in women’s golf to be in contention on any given Sunday, including the majors. She’s finished in the top 10 in all five majors, yet is still looking for her first win. At 22, she’s surely the best player in the world to have yet to win a major. Thitikul ended last year winning the CME Group Tour Championship and is now in strong form, having just won the Mizuho Americas Open earlier this month for her fifth career LPGA win.
6. Ariya Jutanugarn
Rolex Rankings: 21; US Women’s Open starts: 12; Best finish: Won, 2018; ’24 Finish: MC
Jutanugarn is on a roll, having finished no worse than T-6 in her last three tournaments through the Black Desert Championship. She has won two majors, including the AIG Women’s Open in 2016, and a US Women’s Open in 2018 when she was the dominant player in the women’s game. She almost won a third if not for a shockingly duffed chip on the 18th hole at the Chevron in April that cost her an outright victory before losing in a playoff. That said, it doesn’t appear to have crushed her confidence.
5. Minjee Lee 
Kevin C. Cox
Rolex Rankings: 22; US Women’s Open starts: 11; Best finish: Won, 2022; ’24 Finish: T-9
The career 10-time LPGA winner has captured two majors, the 2021 Evian and 2022 US Women’s Open. Lee has played extremely well this season and shot a final-round 62 in the Tournament of Champions to tie for fourth. She finished a season-best second at the Blue Bay LPGA and tied for 14th at the Chevron Championship.
4. Mao Saigo 
Katelyn Mulcahy
Rolex Rankings: 13; US Women’s Open starts: 3; Best finish: T-33, 2023; ’24 Finish: MC
Saigo won the Chevron Championship in April, dispatching two major winners among a five-woman playoff on the first extra hole by making birdie. At 22, she has four top-10 finishes in 15 starts at majors, including a T-3 at the Evian Championship in 2022. Last year, she finished T-7 at both the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and the AIG Women’s British Open.
3. A Lim Kim 
Julio Aguilar
Rolex Rankings: 31; US Women’s Open starts: 5; Best finish: Won, 2020; ’24 Finish: T-16
Kim opened the season by winning the Tournament of Champions and has four top-10s this year. When she won this event in 2020, she birdied the last three holes in a terrific come-from-behind victory.
2. Nelly Korda 
Cliff Hawkins
Rolex Rankings: 1; US Women’s Open starts: 10; Best finish: T-8, 2022; ’24 Finish: MC
Korda won seven tournaments last year, including the Chevron Championship, but she’s yet to hoist a trophy this season. She has played well overall, but when you’re the world’s best golfer coming off a big year, expectations are high. Korda has three top-10s and in her last start tied for fifth at the Mizuho Americas Open. She had first-round struggles in this year’s first major, the Chevron Championship, with a 77, but gutted out a four-under 68 to make the cut and finished T-14. Last year at the US Women’s Open, she shot a first-round 10-over 80 after an ugly 10 on a par 3 and played herself out of it on Day 1. So which Korda will show at Erin Hills?
1. Yuka Saso 
Sarah Stier
Rolex Rankings: 34; US Women’s Open starts: 6; Best finish: won, 2021 and 2024; ’24 Finish: Won
Sako has won the U.S. Women’s Open twice in the last four years, taking the championship last year at Lancaster Country Club after the Filipina, at 19 years old, prevailed in a playoff at The Olympic Club in 2023. If she can win a third, she’ll join a select group to secure three US Women’s Opens—Annika Sorenstam, Hollis Stacy, Susie Berning and Babe Zaharias. Mickey Wright and Betsy Rawls have each won four. In 2021, Sako beat Nasa Hataoka on the third playoff hole. In 2024, she won by three strokes over Hinako Shibuno.
