2026 U.S. Women's Open Due for a Major Moment

The 2026 LPGA season is almost at the midway point, and in a few short hours, the biggest event of the year gets underway. The U.S. Women’s Open finally makes its way to the Los Angeles area with its 81st edition taking place at Riviera Country Club. As the best players in the world get ready to take on the George Thomas design, the question looming over the Palisades is whether or not the trend of the season will continue this week: big names at the top of leaderboards.

Through 13 events, there are already four repeat winners: Nelly Korda, Hyo Joo Kim, Hannah Green, and Jeeno Thitikul. All are major champions except Thitikul, the second-ranked player in the world. Last year, Thitikul was the lone repeat winner, and she didn’t capture her second win until October. There has also not been a first-time winner this season. Five players had claimed their maiden victories, three of them rookies, at this point last season.

After a year of unprecedented parity, the 2026 season has seen the cream of the LPGA rise to the top. Maybe it’s just a coincidence. Perhaps tougher conditions and setups are allowing the best to separate from the field. It could be as simple as the top players finally finding good form at the same time. Whatever the reason, it’s a welcome change for fans and stakeholders alike.

If there’s one place where the story of the season is likely to make a hard right turn, it’s the place where randomness and parity have thrived over the last decade. It’s the spot where the short list of household names in the women’s game just can’t seem to make it to the top of the mountain. It’s the championship where only the most diehard fans can recall the names of recent winners. It’s the U.S. Women’s Open.

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Think about it. When’s the last time there was a truly memorable, lasting moment from a U.S. Women’s Open champion? I’d argue you have to go all the way back to 2014 when Michelle Wie and her KT tape broke through at Pinehurst. Since then, we’ve had a listless victory by A Lim Kim during COVID, a less-than-inspiring win by Allisen Corpuz at Pebble Beach, two wins by Yuka Saso, the player with the strangest resume in all of golf, and a sprinkling of other championships won by well-deserving and worthy players but lacking in the gravitas the sport’s premier major evokes.

This event is well overdue for another 2014, where a giant of the game has a career-defining week and forces women’s golf into the broader sports landscape. There may not be a better setting for that moment than the 18th green at Riviera with its natural amphitheater and stunning clubhouse in the background. Maybe it’s foolish to think this week will be different, but if the two best players in the world come to play, the 81st U.S. Women’s Open could bring a rare sight in the sport: a generational player winning at an iconic setting.

Nelly Korda and Jeeno Thitikul are those top two players. They’ve risen even higher than the likes of Hyo Joo Kim, Hannah Green, and the rest of the best. They’ve combined for five wins this year, and the frequency with which they put themselves at the top of leaderboards gives them a staying power the sport yearns for. For all of the accolades, awards, and superlatives that have been thrown their way, the U.S. Women’s Open remains a white whale for both players, a puzzle they haven’t quite yet figured out.

Jeeno Thitikul knows the questions are coming. That’s the burden the best player without a major must bear. She answers each one with a smile on her face, a few laughs, and a joke or two. If the pressure of winning a major is wearing on her, her outward appearance isn’t showing it. It feels as if Thitikul has been a mainstay at majors for much longer than she actually has. This week is only her fifth U.S. Women’s Open start, and the results have been mixed. Two of her five missed cuts at majors have come at this event. Her best finish was a T-6 at Lancaster Country Club in 2024. A win in any major and Thitikul would never have to answer the questions again. She was heartbreakingly close last year at Evian. A win this week, though, would be different. She’d firmly slam the door on any doubt surrounding her ability to win the big one. A U.S. Women’s Open win is the peak, plain and simple. Not only would Thitikul get the monkey off her back, but her career would be viewed in a whole different light. The resume would now match the caliber of player she is.

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Prior to Nelly Korda’s T-2 finish last year at Erin Hills, she had missed the cut three times in the previous five years in the U.S. Women’s Open, the most infamous of those MCs happening in 2024 at Lancaster. The championship had barely just begun when a jaw-dropping 10 at the par-3 12th on Thursday all but ended her chances. In the lead-up to last year’s run at Erin Hills, she called her relationship with this event “complicated.” Contending late on Sunday before falling to Maja Stark undoubtedly makes the relationship a little less complicated. Last year was a success after the scar tissue of Lancaster, perhaps something to build on as this week gets going. A U.S. Women’s Open win is one of the last things left for Korda to accomplish. She’s won almost everything else there is to win. It’s a chance for Korda to take her career and legacy to new heights.

Sunday afternoon is a long way away. Predicting anything in women’s golf, especially at a U.S. Women’s Open, is a hopeless venture. It may be foolish to think things will be different this time around, but this championship is way overdue for another Pinehurst moment. Korda and Thitikul are the two players who can deliver just that.