U.S. Women’s Open

The women’s golf was awesome yesterday.

The leaderboard was tight from the start of play on Sunday, with seven players just two strokes off the lead, and Charley Hull, one of the LPGA’s biggest stars, just three strokes back.

Charley got off to a blistering start and charged into the lead in the middle of the round before making a bogey on the 14th.

Her miss dropped her to -6 and left Gabby Lopez, In Gee Chun, S.Y. Kim, and Nelly Korda all tied for the lead at 7-under.

Hull was able to bounce back with a birdie on the 17th and grab a share of the lead. Gabby Lopez birdied the 18th, and they both went into the clubhouse to watch Nelly Korda finish.

They watched on TV while Nelly Korda made birdie on the 17th hole to take a one-stroke lead. On the final hole, Korda hit a perfect tee shot, followed by a safe approach shot into the middle of the 18th green.

She two-putted for par and won the U.S. Women’s Open by a stroke, but we were this close to a three-way playoff:

The putt that won it all (and stopped our hearts 🫠) pic.twitter.com/VQynQ3nbUZ

— Golf Channel (@GolfChannel) June 8, 2026

The Memorial Tournament

We didn’t get a playoff at Riviera, but we did get one at Jack’s place.

The Memorial Tournament also featured a jam-packed leaderboard on Sunday.

At one point, there was a five-way tie on the back nine at 11-under.

That group was Wyndham Clark, Tommy Fleetwood, Sam Burns, Ryan Gerard, and JT Poston.

By the time the dust settled, it was Poston and Gerard who were the last two men standing. Gerard almost won it in regulation, but JT Poston made a clutch birdie on the 72nd hole to send it to a playoff.

They played the 18th, both made par, so they played it again.

This time, Gerard would bogey, leaving JT Poston an easy par putt to seal it.

With his victory, JT collected a $4 million check, along with spots in the U.S. Open and The Open this year.

He also gets to avoid playing in Golf’s Longest Day today.

What’s Next?

The RBC Canadian Open.

Odds: RBC Canadian Open

Player	Odds
Tommy Fleetwood	+1150
Matt Fitzpatrick	+1175
Sam Burns	+1300
Collin Morikawa	+2250
Robert MacIntyre	+2400
Wyndham Clark	+2500
Justin Rose	+2700
Brooks Koepka	+2800
Nicolai Hojgaard	+2900
Viktor Hovland	+2900

Attention shoppers!

For the third time in five years, RTL predicts the winner of the ShopRite LPGA.

Although it is only a three -day event, 19-1 still pays! Celine Boutier played well early on a very windy Saturday, putting herself in position for a Sunday charge. A final round 66 with six birdies and a closing 32 on the back nine gave France another big win this weekend. I’m not sure if Boutier is a big PSG fan, but both can certainly celebrate along with our readers.

From the Atlantic Ocean, the LPGA travels to the West Coast and Pacific Palisades,to be exact, for the 81st United States Women’s Open. A field of 156 players will compete for a $12+ million purse and a $2+ million first-place prize. Worth more than that medal the USGA gives you, a win also includes a 10–year exemption into the women’s national championship. Riviera Country Club is the seventeenth venue to host the US Women’s Open since the first championship in 1946. Maja Stark is our defending champion. Curious about her chances to successfully defend, the last repeat winner was Karrie Webb in 2001. Prior to Webb, Annika Sorenstam did it in 1995 and 1996. Betsy King, Hollis Stacy, Susie Berning, Donna Caponi, and Mickey Wright have all successfully defended their national titles. Seven in total, that’s a bunch for 80 years! The last debutant to win was A Lim Kim in 2020.

All top 10 in the Rolex World Rankings are competing. In fact, the first 46 on the Rolex board are in the field. What most would consider the most prestigious women’s major championship, many players have their sights set on playing out their own Hollywood ending…

“Riv“

 

For the fourth time in its history, and the first time for the women’s national championship, Riviera Country Club plays host to the USGA. Best known for the PGA TOUR’s Genesis Invitational in February, in the coming years, Riviera will also host the 2028 Olympics and the Men’s US Open in 2031. A wonderful George Thomas track (1927), “The Riv,” will test all aspects of a player’s game. The par 71 scorecard stretches 6,699 yards for the US Women’s Open. Fifty-eight perfectly placed bunkers provide the only penalty areas, as there are no water holes on this Pacific Palisades paradise. A wonderful set of winding fairways gives way to severalincredible green complexes. I know the venue moves annually, but the USGA has a scoring goal in mind for each championship. The average winning score of this open event is 7.6 under par over the last decade. We have seen three playoffs to decide the winner in that time frame, and three other US Women’s Opens played in the state of California during those 10 years as well.

Course Conditions, Weather, Wind

 

The weather forecast is amazing for the world’s best women. The temperature should climb to low 70s each afternoon around the same time that wind kicks up off the Pacific Ocean. The breeze should blow around 10-12 mph each day around 3:00 pm PT from the SSW. No rain is in the forecast for the tournament week. The rain gauge has been empty the last few months in Los Angeles. The region is five inches behind for total rain YTD. If you remember the Genesis in February, then you know how wet the course was for the men. This version will make the USGA happy as they can firm up Thomas’ track as much as they want!

What will firm conditions mean for the field of LPGA, LET, and amateur stars? It is not often that the LPGA competes on a regular PGA TOUR course. We have plenty of player data from each TOUR event, but how does that apply to the women’s game? That’s the ultimate RTL benefit of covering both tours. The average green size at Riviera is 7,500 sq/ft, and those putting surfaces are covered in a typical California Poa Annua. Surrounding those intricate greens are Kikuyu rough and collars. The approaches and fairways are Kikuyu as well. Will the introduction of Kikuyu grass to the LPGA tour make a big difference? It might, more native to Australia, pay attention to those ladies coming from down under, as they are far more familiar with this type of grass. The fairways all seem to bend at Riviera. Thomas was an expert at keeping players off kilter. As much as most fans think of the Riviera CC clubhouse sitting high above the eighteenth green, the course is quite flat. The first tee shot and final hole have some significant terrain changes, but overall, Riviera is more about left to right than up and down.

Will Riviera give us a Hollywood ending? The LPGA has played 10 events in the Los Angeles region since RTL started covering the tour in 2022. There have been some very interesting trends in that time. One player in particular loves LA, and we have won with her already this year! As always, when it comes to handicapping the world’s best women, we will dive deeper than the analytics. I have some historic notes from each of those events and the ability to compare how LPGA skills will apply to an annual PGA TOUR venue.

How to win?

The US Women’s Open is truly a unique event on the LPGA schedule. Unlike any other tournament the world’s best women play, this one rewards THE best ball strikers. The last eight Opens were captured by queens of off-the-tee power and around the green grace. Their approach ability was consistently sharp, and the putter kept them out of trouble. Saso (twice), Stark, Ariya Jutanugarn, Corpuz, and Minjee Lee were all at the height of their impact ability when they took this title home. To handicap this field, we must pay attention to the best ball strikers. Too many times we have gotten caught up in the putter or wedge, and what this event always comes down to is the elite OTT and APP players. Take that trend and multiply it by five as we head to one of the most difficult tests on the West Coast for professional golf.

Keep it out of the Kikuyu grass. That mandate starts off the tee. Many LPGA Official Scorecards list one yardage, and then it plays shorter each day. The USGA does not subscribe to that policy. They make it tough for these women, and that’s the first reason why you need the best ball strikers. It is going to play long even with the firm conditions. Longer than a weekly LPGA event. Does this favor Jeeno and Nelly? Of course it does, and it will make it even harder to beat them. Then again, they are the two best female players on the planet by a wide margin. Is it tough to beat Scottie Scheffler? Yes! I like Total Driving for this situation. Who are the longest and most accurate players OTT. We know from our on-site Genesis coverage that Riviera favors a slight left-to-right ball flight. A power fade for righties is the ideal trajectory.

Riv has above-average-sized greens at 7,500 sq/ft. Covered in that Pacific Poa Annua, they will putt much smoother than what we always see in February. Much like one of Riviera’s great comp courses, Augusta National, it is tough to gain a ton of strokes on the greens. I believe an average putter can win this week. I would (of course) rather run with a great putter, but the priority is going to be ball striking over the flatstick. These larger-than-average targets will require expert proximity to have a chance to score. Approach play from the fairway is key. Kikuyu fairways area different surface to play from. The better iron players will adjust quicker to the new turf. Pickers over diggers, with firm conditions, we will be taking the best women with a shallow angle of attack. No pelts, please; adjustments from the Kikuyu rough are also going to be needed. Riviera winners always have a great week with their irons, and this National Championship will be no different.

PGA TOUR pros hit the greens less than 60% of the time at Riviera. The TOUR average is 66%. Compound the challenge with firm conditions, and here is where the secret sauce to win the US Open is hidden: short game. Riviera has some of the most difficult bunkers on the PGA TOUR. They are deep and flat at the bottom. It takes a ton of speed and confidence to hit par–saving shots from them. Then, the closely mown or long Kikuyu is another problem. These women are going to miss GIRs, and very few of the elite players are great around the green. Some of the best ball strikers are extremely poor at pitching and chipping. The ability to play from tee TO green is imperative. The best ARG competitors in this field of 156 players have a measurable edge on their opponents. The average par 4 is over 400 yards; scrambling is going to be a factor.

The firm conditions and the USGA’s fascination with even par scores do scare me. If the navy jackets make this track too firm, luck may play a part in deciding this major championship. If that’s the case, our best chance to win falls with the women on our outright list. Besides the four basic strokes gained categories, par 4 scoring,and birdie to bogey ratio are key. Straight bogey avoidance also helps us determine the best par savers. Riviera is a well-rounded test, and one where a majority of the women will not break par. That’s good news, because it eliminates several weekly contenders because they lack the complete list of skills needed to win.

LPGA – Free Picks

 

Hannah Green (+1800 DraftKings)

If you have followed the LPGA the last four years, then you know there is only one LA Woman, and that is Hannah Green. Green has won three of the last four LA Opens. Two of which were played at Wilshire Country Club in Los Angeles proper. A classic design and wonderful comp course for Riviera, Hannah also has two wins in 2026. Need another reason besides Green’s great ball striking and short game? How about kikuyu grass? Green is one of the few players who is from Australia and has experience on Riviera’s unique turf.

 

Charley Hull (+4500 Bet Rivers)

If any player on the LPGA tour was destined to become a Hollywood star, it would be Charley Hull. Hull also has two top 10s at nearby Wilshire Country Club in the LA Open and three straight top 20s in the US Open. Three years ago, Charley finished runner-up at Pebble Beach in the national championship. Fifteenth at Aramco and tenth at the Chevron Championship, Hull knows how to prepare for the big stage. A win earlier this year on the LET, when the bright lights of Hollywood shine, Charley can capture this championship.

 

 

US Open Prep.

It has been a weird run–up to the LPGA’s second major championship of the season. The world’s best women will be in Los Angeles at the famed Riviera Country Club for the United States Women’s Open. In preparation for the toughest test of the year, a field of 144 plan to compete in Galloway, New Jersey, in the ShopRite LPGA powered by Wakefern. Hopefully, Wakefern is a code word for private jet, because a Sunday finish and cross–country trip to California will take a toll on the top 65 and ties who play on Sunday. I mention Sunday, because the cut will not happen until Saturday night. The ShopRite is one of two 54-hole events remaining on the schedule. I know grocery prices have gone up, but throwing a three-day event on the shortest course the LPGA plays across the country from the US Open is a tough sell for ShopRite. Heck, they could have played this event last week and given the women more time to prepare for the national championship.

As expected, only five of the top 25 in the Rolex Rankings are competing. The betting favorite is Hye Jin Choi (+750). Please don’t take this the wrong way. Read The Line loves the ShopRite. We have picked the winner twice 2022 (Brooke Henderson) and 2023 (Ashleigh Buhai) in the last four years. In order to grab number three, we will continue to use our winning ShopRite strategy. It starts with having played Seaview’s Bay Course many times. Analyzing a course you have played and covered on-site is very helpful. We also grabbed those two wins before the LPGA published any strokes gained data. With the upgrade of their analytic offerings and local knowledge, it is time to grab number three at Seaview, and for the year.

Ross three-peat

 

The Seaview Resort is a historic golf venue. The majestic white hotel sits above 36-holes designed by two of the great architects of the golden age of golf courses. The William Flynn Pines Course heads inland behind the hotel, and Donald Ross’ Bay Course extends from the front porch out toward the sea. The Bay Course stretches to 6,263 yards and plays to a par 71. The shortest test on tour, the women will play eight (of 11) par 4s under 400 yards. Even the average par 5 is only 490 yards. This is one of the most fan-friendly events on any tour. You can see every hole from a couple of vantage points, and many of the fairways run parallel to one another. A couple of tee boxes were added last year to increase the scorecard length. The average winning score over the last decade is 14.4 under par (for three rounds). It’s an entertaining course to watch a tournament because the field can birdie or bogey any hole, depending on the conditions. The Bay Course is so exposed, and you can see it during the coverage.

Course Conditions, Weather, Wind

 

New Jersey witnessed a miserable Memorial Day weekend. It rained approximately 1-2″ inches across all different parts of the state. Much like the rest of the country, there was a drought. That’s no longer the case and although we have no rain in the forecast for Friday through Sunday, the golf course is going to play on the softer side. Temperatures are supposed to reach the low 70s, but the Bay Course is on the water and the real feel will be cooler. Thankfully, the wind prediction is around 10 mph for the three days. It will blow harder at Seaview than the web says, but that’s a decent starting point.

Even with 93 bunkers and 6,000 sq/ft greens (on average), the field will score. That’s the DNA of the Bay Course. The ShopRite has seen Hall of Famers and first-timers win because the layout is so short. If you take the top BoB% players on tour and tell them they need to average five birdies a day under normal conditions, 15ladies (minimum) can do that. I’m praying the forecast holds up. The weather can be a wildcard at the ShopRite. The skill set needed to win is specific for Seaview. If the forecast holds, we will contend and have a great chance to win. Our weekly coverage of the LPGA will be a great asset in assessing this field. With the US Open across the country in eight days, we don’t have a deep roster of usual suspects. The field in Mexico was deeper. Hopefully, the LPGA gets a handle on this schedule and starts to figure this out. The Mizuho had a great field, but that was three weeks ago. In the last six weeks, the LPGA has collected two strong events. It’s April and May! Fans complain about the two overseas tours to Asia, but we are in peak season, and nobody is playing.

Tight fairways, plenty of bunkers, and hopefully some wind will give these ladies a decent test. It’s a shoot-out at the Jersey Shore. Let’s find some women who can make 5+ birdies per round for three straight days.

How to win?

 

Breaking down the ShopRite is all about accuracy. The course is very short for modern LPGA standards. The tour continues to go here because the crowds give the ladies tremendous support, but under normal conditions, it is not a professional test. The lead skill we seek is approach play. Our two RTL winners, Henderson and Buhai, were in the top 5 on tour for iron play when they won. The average approach length is short at Seaview’s Bay Course. Five of the 11 par 4s are under 350 yards in length. Add in a very short par 3 on 17, and that’s six approaches (33%) where you must create close birdie chances. Remember, the winning score is 14 or 15 under par over three rounds. Our contenders are looking to fire five under par per day to keep pace. Those six short-range approaches are important. Since the LPGA lacks specific proximity data, how can we measure who separates on short par 4s? I like par 5 scoring at the ShopRite for this reason and a couple of others.

Players who can score on the 5s have a unique combination of skills. First, they score from close range. The modern professional golfer pushes the ball down to the green in two on a par 5. That third scoring shot comes from inside 100 yards. The best birdie makers on par 5s excel on this last approach. Six par 4s and all three par 5s will reward this skill set at the ShopRite. That’s half the holes these ladies will play each day. If you can birdie four or five of those nine, you are on pace to win. Those sub-par scores are the easiest to make on tour. The second skill on par 5s that applies on the Bay Course is your long iron or fairway wood approach in two. All three par 5s are reachable at Seaview, as the average length is 490 yards for the 5s.

Those three long-iron swings on the 5s also correlate to success on the par 3s. If the Bay Course challenges anything, it is par 3 scoring. Outside of the short seventeenth, the other par 3s are over 180 yards. Each one has a small, undulating green. As we have seen the past three weeks on tour, Ross was notorious for testing players on par 3s. Add up those three tee shots and the three long second swings on the par 5s, and that’s six more situations where players can separate. The final key par 5 player trait is making birdie or better. The scoring average of the last three top 10s at the ShopRite after three rounds is 4.5 on the 5s. The leaders are going low on these holes. It doesn’t matter what the weather is; this collection of par 5s is very scoreable. You must average two birdies per day on those three holes.

Looking through the recent top 10s from the 2022 to 2025 leaderboards, putting ranks second in strokes gained importance. That makes sense, because this is a three-day shoot-out. Wind–swept courses like this one are required to have relatively benign putting greens because the slopes will not hold balls in the wind. They do have shelves and sections, but when you get on the right plateau, the putting becomes very straightforward. The average green is small, 6,000 sq/ft. Hit the green, and you have a legitimate birdie chance. The defending champion, Jennifer Kupcho, gained nearly three strokes per round last year with her flatstick. Women will make putts, and since scoring is all that counts, you have to pay attention to those who are trending on the greens. Consider this as well, we just left TWO Ross–designed venues. Did Donald create all of those putting surfaces? No. But the Ross DNA is there, and it exists at the Bay Course too.

How much should we pay attention to short game and OTT play? Seaview might be the only course across the LPGA and PGA TOUR where the driver really does not matter. Can it help with the 5s? Yes. There are so many short holes at Seaview, you just need to hit your wedges (very) close. That’s the consideration for the short game as well. Sure, the ladies will miss some greens, but these surfaces are really windswept flat. A decent around the green player will do fine here. You don’t really need to worry about bunker play, etc., because the field is hitting approach shots from such close range. We’re not going to overthink this; we have predicted the winner here twice. Approach, approach, approach, pick the player who will hit 75% of her GIRs, make 18 sub-par scores in three rounds, and that’s the winner.

Will any part of this event help us handicap next week? Probably not. The USGA will have Riviera set up 500+ yards longer. The driver will play a huge role in the Pacific Palisades and mid- to long- iron play. Keep an eye on the putter at Seaview. We will want to know who is popping with the flatstick, but overall, this three-round event is as much of a one–off format as is the skill set needed. Enjoy the entertainment and the NJ crowds. Nine of the last 11 ShopRites were won by one stroke or in a playoff. After a miserable Memorial Day weekend, things are about to heat up down at the Jersey Shore.

LPGA – Free Picks

 

Celine Boutier (+1900 DraftKings)

The 2021 ShopRite winner, Celine Boutier has been on a tear with her iron game on the last two Donald Ross venues. Ninth place at the Mizuho and sixteenth at the Kroger, the former champ is locked in on approach. The difference with Boutierversus some of the other middle-tier prospects is her putter. When Celine is scoring and stacking up top 20 results, it is always a well-rounded resume. Third in the field for rounds recorded in the 60s, and fourth in round one scoring, watch for the French lady to get off to a fast start and take this title home with a wire-to-wire finish.

Jodi Ewart-Shadoff (+7200 DraftKings)

Following the LPGA intensely for four straight years, I can say with confidence, Jodi Ewart-Shadoff at 72-1 is a total misprice. The second-best approach player in the field has proven she can play Seaview. In her last five starts on the Bay Course, Ewart-Shadoff has three results in the top 12. One of those finishes was a third place in 2022. Jodi finished sixth in Mexico earlier in May, another accuracy-driven design. When the number one skill needed is iron play, put JES on the card. Sixth in par 5 scoring, there are other skills Shadoff has that will promote contending again at the shore.

Brandt Snedeker Reminds Us Why This Stuff Still Rules

According to Josh Schrock of GOLF.com, Brandt Snedeker’s win at Myrtle Beach was not just another opposite-field PGA TOUR title. It was his first victory in 2,821 days, came after years of injuries, doubt, conditional status, and experimental surgery, and ended with Snedeker breaking down in his caddie’s arms after Mark Hubbard missed a putt that would have forced a playoff. This is the kind of stuff golf still does better than almost any sport: a 45-year-old grinding for one more shot, getting it, and immediately turning into a puddle. Real stakes. Real emotion. Real golf. (Golf)

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D.C. Public Golf Is Now a Political Football

In The Hill piece you linked, the Trump administration’s deal on D.C.’s public golf courses sounds like good news on the surface: Langston and Rock Creek are set to stay with National Links Trust under a new long-term lease, while East Potomac remains open on an interim basis. But East Potomac is still the big question mark. The National Park Service is eyeing what it calls a “historic restoration,” and critics are worried that one of the most accessible public golf spots in the capital could become something shinier, more expensive, and a lot less public. Public golf is booming, but this is the reminder that the best munis are always one bad decision away from becoming someone’s vanity project. (Reuters)

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Boo Weekley Gets His Moment

According to Christopher Powers of Golf Digest, Boo Weekley finally got his first PGA Tour Champions win at the Insperity Invitational, and yeah, it got emotional. Weekley won in his 64th Champions start, went bogey-free for the week, and picked up his first victory of any kind since 2013. For a guy who has always felt like one of golf’s true characters, this was a pretty perfect Champions Tour moment: a familiar name, a long wait, and a win that clearly meant a hell of a lot more than just another trophy. (GolfDigest.com)

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Jeeno Thitikul Is Not Waiting Around

According to the Associated Press via ESPN, Jeeno Thitikul won the Mizuho Americas Open by four shots over Ruoning Yin, giving her a second LPGA title this season. The turning point came late, when Thitikul birdied 16 while Yin made bogey, turning a tight finish into a comfortable one. The bigger takeaway: the LPGA is not short on star power or depth. Nelly Korda still looms over everything, but Thitikul is stacking wins, and the competition at the top of the women’s game keeps getting better. (ESPN)

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The PGA Championship Hype Machine Is Officially Running

According to Keith Stewart of Golf Digest, Rory McIlroy sits atop the PGA Championship power rankings heading to Aronimink, ahead of Scottie Scheffler, Cameron Young, Xander Schauffele, and Matt Fitzpatrick. The setup is pretty perfect: Rory is chasing another major after winning the Masters, Scottie is the defending PGA champ, Bryson and Rahm are still lurking with LIV baggage attached, and Aronimink gives us a proper old-school major venue. After weeks of tour politics, Signature Event grumbling, and LIV chaos, it is nice to get back to the simple stuff: a stacked major field, a classic course, and a leaderboard that should actually matter. (GolfDigest.com)

A mix of comeback math, golf-boom growing pains, a long-overdue first at St Andrews, a public course getting dragged into White House demolition drama, and YouTube golf continuing its march into the mainstream.

→ Bryson’s PGA Tour Comeback Might Not Be That Complicated
Bryson DeChambeau says a potential return to the PGA Tour might come down less to executives and more to whether the players actually want him back. He also raised questions about how much freedom he’d have to keep creating content around tournaments, which is kind of the whole Bryson machine now. The funny part? The Tour says players can already post during practice rounds and pro-am days, so the biggest hurdle might not be the rules. It might just be the room. (Skratch Golf)

→ Golf Got Too Popular and Now Kids Can’t Get Tee Times
The golf boom has been great for courses, brands, and anyone selling $12 beers at the turn. But there’s a problem nobody loves talking about: junior golfers are getting squeezed. Tee sheets are packed, access is tighter, and the kids who are supposed to be the future of the game are sometimes stuck indoors hitting into simulators instead of actually playing. Great problem for the industry. Not so great if you’re 13 and just want to get on the course. (GolfDigest.com)

→ It Only Took The R&A 272 Years
The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews named Claire Dowling as the first woman captain in its 272-year history. That’s a big deal, even if the timeline makes you do a double take. The club only opened membership to women in 2014, and now Dowling will take over as captain in September. Progress is progress — even when it shows up a few centuries late. (The Guardian)

→ White House Rubble Got Dumped On A Golf Course. Now There’s Toxic Metal Drama
Debris from the White House East Wing demolition was dumped at East Potomac Golf Links, the same public D.C. course already caught up in renovation controversy. According to Fortune, a National Park Service report found the soil tested positive for lead, chromium, and other toxic metals, while the Department of the Interior says the project passed legal safety standards. Either way, “public golf course becomes dumping ground for White House rubble” is not exactly the feel-good muni story of the year. (Fortune)

→ YouTube Golf Just Got Called Up To The Big Leagues
Grant Horvat and the Bryan Bros are joining Wasserman’s newly rebranded agency, The Team, after it acquired Provisions Golf. Translation: YouTube golf is not some side corner of the sport anymore. These guys are getting folded into the same kind of machine that represents major athletes, runs events, and knows how to turn attention into money. The line between “golf influencer” and “golf business” is basically gone. (frontofficesports.com)

By Nate Oxman

While the golf world is fawning over the majesty of Donald Ross’s self-proclaimed “masterpiece” at Aronimink Golf Club in the suburbs of Philadelphia as it readies to host the PGA Championship next week, another Donald Ross standout about two hours north in West Caldwell, N.J. will take the stage as the opening act.

Mountain Ridge Country Club, host of this week’s Mizuho Americas Open on the LPGA Tour, opened not long after Aronimink unveiled its Donald Ross design in 1928. While Aronimink is lauded as one of the top golf courses in golf-rich Philadelphia, Mountain Ridge is often overshadowed among the throngs of highly ranked courses in the New York metropolitan area.

With the likes of Shinnecock Hills, set to host the U.S. Open in June, Bethpage Black, most recently the site of last year’s Ryder Cup, and dozens of other courses dominating the top 100 rankings of all major golf publications and news outlets, it’s understandable Mountain Ridge may not have national notoriety.

That doesn’t make it right.

A Club with a Deep History

Mountain Ridge Country Club dates back to 1912, when a pair of Newark, N.J. businessmen were unable to obtain access to established private clubs in the area due to their Jewish religion. The club recruited heads of other prominent Newark Jewish families, purchased land adjacent to Essex County Country Club in West Orange, N.J., and hired that club’s pro, Robert Hunter, to craft a 9-hole course.

A.W. Tillinghast expanded that to a full 18, and Herbert Strong did a little tweaking in the 1920s too, before the club realized the property, severely sloped in certain spots, might not be the best location for the long-term success of the club.

Mountain Ridge’s leaders were intelligent enough to seek input from other prominent golf course architects at the time: Walter Travis, Seth Raynor, and Charles Banks. All three concluded that the club needed a new home, which it quickly found a little farther north in West Caldwell — and thus, a new designer.

Enter the great Donald Ross.

Donald Ross Arrives at Mountain Ridge

While Ross, a direct disciple of Old Tom Morris, was born in Scotland, he made a massive impact on American golf, crafting highly acclaimed courses like Pinehurst No. 2, Essex County Club, East Lake, Oakland Hills, Oak Hill, and Inverness.

His success at all of those sites made it possible for Ross to continue to do what he did best when he arrived at Mountain Ridge: carefully and creatively route a golf course to present a continuous variety of challenges, both as players venture from tee to green and then as they navigate the short grass with putter in hand.

And that’s exactly what Ross did at Mountain Ridge, which hosted its first big national tournament in the U.S. Senior Amateur in 2012.

It was around that time that the well-traveled Ron Prichard, a golf course architect later dubbed the “father of restoration,” finished his work at the club. His work included expanding the greens back to Ross’s specifications, widening fairways, building new back tees, adjusting the appearance and placement of bunkers that had gradually changed over time, and removing unnecessary trees.

The result was applauded throughout the golf course architecture world and helped Mountain Ridge attract the LPGA, which staged the Cognizant Founders Cup there in 2021. The club is now in its first year of a two-year period serving as host of the Mizuho Americas Open, a unique event hosted by Michelle Wie West that features both LPGA Tour and AJGA players competing side by side in separate competitions.

Tickets can be purchased by visiting mizuhoamericasopen.com/tickets. Golf Channel will have coverage of all four rounds.

A Gorgeous Parkland Stage

The defending champion is Jenno Thitikul, who played her final 27 holes last year at Liberty National Golf Club bogey free. While players and spectators at Liberty National enjoyed jaw-dropping views of the Statue of Liberty and the New York City skyline, Mountain Ridge offers everyone on site a glimpse at a great golf course in a gorgeous parkland setting.

“Obviously, the routing is pretty outstanding. I mean, that’s easy to give you that kind of an answer, but that’s true in every case for a Ross course. I don’t think I’ve ever found a Ross course I worked on where I felt like I would reroute it. I just felt like what he had done was a perfectly balanced golf course.”

— Ron Prichard

Prichard, who began pushing for restoration of classic American golf courses way back in the 1980s, did wonderful work at Mountain Ridge — perhaps most notably on a set of greens considered superb by both he and Dr. Bradley Klein, a golf course architecture design consultant and Donald Ross expert.

“It’s a fantastic set of greens. It’s very bold, very dramatic. Muscular. It’s in the top ten of all green sets he ever built.”

— Dr. Bradley Klein

“I think that the greens at Mountain Ridge may be easily in the top five Ross courses that I’ve ever seen.”

— Ron Prichard

That’s incredibly high — yet justifiable — praise considering Ross penned nearly 400 golf courses.

Greens Worth Studying

While all 18 green complexes wholeheartedly deserve recognition, the first of the elite is found right at the conclusion of the opening hole, a mid-length par 4 that plays downhill from a tee just below Mountain Ridge’s magnificent clubhouse.

Spectators at this week’s tournament should certainly spend some time by this green, studying how it accepts — and also deflects — different types of approach shots.

Another sensational putting surface sits atop a little rise at the end of the first one-shotter at the fourth hole, which can stretch as far back as 209 yards. Both vertical and horizontal spines and some dramatic tilts create a plethora of pin-placement options. Make it a point to spend some time studying this one.

Two more terrific greens are found at the sixth, a beautiful par 5 that could certainly put some players who attempt to reach the green in two in more than a few precarious positions, and the uphill par-3 seventh, which will undoubtedly wreak havoc on those who miss the green with their tee shot.

Don’t worry. There are plenty more greens to drool over on the back nine.

The Strategy of Ross’s Bunkering

Let’s return to the aforementioned seventh hole, which sits in the southeast corner of the property and features another fun Ross design element: a coffin bunker that both shields the player’s view of the green’s false front and snatches low-trajectory shots.

Another such bunker precedes the fairway at the short and fun 359-yard par-4 12th, an ever-so-gentle dogleg right guarded by a narrow creek on its right side.

Klein commented on these hazards that Ross used at different times throughout his impressive career.

“So that’s a different approach to bunkering than what prevailed in the entire post-World War II era. And a lot of these short carry bunkers or intruding lines of play became considered obsolete and they were removed. And I think that that’s a shame. But a lot of those now are being restored. So what you see at Mountain Ridge, for example, is fairway bunkering that comes across partially the line of play and you have to deal with it rather than just play down the middle blindly.”

— Dr. Bradley Klein

One of Prichard’s areas of focus for his work at Mountain Ridge included rebuilding and reshaping the course’s fairway bunkers to sit more perpendicular to the line of play, as Ross intended them to be.

“Very few people understand that the axis of Ross’s bunkering was normally perpendicular. Sometimes they were placed at a slight angle, occasionally you have a linear bunker that ran parallel with the line of play. But normally that was just the kind of a bunker that was almost always placed in a position to catch balls and try to keep them from going off the golf course.”

— Ron Prichard

Prichard noted that Ross intended these bunkers, many of which feature a steep wall of grass on the far side, to prevent players from being able to play to the green.

Notable examples at Mountain Ridge can be found at the first, third, ninth, 15th, and 18th holes.

An Underrated Ross Gem Gets Its Moment

The finishing hole, a beautiful uphill, dogleg-left par 4, is also often played with small planes taking off from the adjacent Essex County Airport. It’s a quaint feature that adds to Mountain Ridge’s endless charm.

“It’s a beautiful piece of land. It’s very ideal, rolling, in terms of the terrain. There isn’t a lot of steepness, but there’s always enough contour under foot. And then the greens really have been much expanded over the years, and are just fantastic.”

— Dr. Bradley Klein

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When young athletes accomplish something amazing and are quickly plucked from their local community and plopped onto the world stage, the expectations are understandably enormous. How could they not be?

Here’s an example. A 10-year-old girl from Hawaii qualifies for the 2000 U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links and then shoots 74-76 to advance to match play. She makes it to the third round the next year, then the semifinals the next, until she knocks out all adversaries to win the darn thing in 2003 and become the youngest champion in the history of the USGA at age 13.

Oh, and just a month earlier, she took advantage of a sponsor exemption and shot 66 on moving day at the LPGA Tour’s Kraft Nabisco Championship to move into the final group of the day on Sunday. In a major championship. At 13 years old. When her eighth grade classmates were on spring break. Wow!

Seven months later, she shot a second-round 68 at the Sony Open. On the PGA Tour. Double wow!

And although she missed the cut by a shot, she beat some big names that week: Scott Hoch, Craig Stadler, Adam Scott, John Cook, and Zach Johnson. And many more.

So by the time she became a teenager, it’s natural that the expectations for Michelle Wie West were wild. As previously posed, how could they not be after all she’d done at such a young age?

But all too often a player, no matter the skill, no matter the sport, heck no matter the profession (child actors?), the dramatic rise levels off. For whatever reason, it just does. For all but a very, very, very select few anyway.

But Wie West was still on her ascent at this point in time. She turned pro in the fall of 2005 at age 16, and had a strong rookie season in 2006, recording three top-five finishes in major championships. Three!

And then came a bit of a backtrack. Wie West struggled to keep the momentum she’d built as a rising star through 2008.

Then, she won the limited-field Lorena Ochoa Invitational in 2009, and she won again at the Canadian Women’s Open in 2010 before various long-term injuries led to another slide.

But Wie West is a fighter and she climbed back to the top in emphatic fashion at the start of 2014 with a T2 at the first major of the season at the Chevron Championship (nee Kraft Nabisco) down in Houston, followed by a win two weeks later at the LOTTE Championship, then four top-10s in a five-week stretch before a dramatic culmination and crowning achievement at the U.S. Women’s Open at the famed Pinehurst No. 2.

Wie West was a major champion, 14 lightspeed years after teeing it up in her first big event at 10 years old. And while she only won once more, at the HSBC Women’s World Championship in 2018, she has undoubtedly won in life. Apologies if that sounds cheesy, but watch and listen as she talks about her family and her position in the game and it’s easy to see it’s true.

Wie West gained major sponsorships after turning professional, most notably from Nike and Sony, conducted herself with grace and poise at all times while representing those worldwide brands, and was inarguably worth every penny. She did things the right way, even when skeptics squawked about her playing in too many men’s events, and naysayers knocked her for failing to meet expectations on the golf course.

Wie West didn’t win 10 majors or 20 tour events. Those are facts. But she served as a wonderful ambassador for the game of golf throughout her career. And even after she married Jonnie West, son of NBA legend Jerry West, in 2019 and became a mother in 2020, Wie West recognized that while her full-time playing career had more or less come to a close, she could still use her clout and charisma to continue to advance the game.

She joined Mizuho, a powerful worldwide financial institution, to spearhead a new LPGA Tour event in 2023 that features LPGA Tour players and the AJGA’s best competing simultaneously for separate trophies.

“The genesis of this event really came from my history of being a junior golfer and kind of my trajectory,” she said. “We wanted to create a space for juniors to experience being a pro for one week, playing with the best of the best, having the juniors compare their golf game to the pros that they’re playing with on the weekend.”

Add in an iconic venue in Liberty National Golf Club with jaw-dropping views of both the Statue of Liberty and the New York City skyline and success was sure to come. And it did.

Decorated amateur player Rose Zhang won the inaugural event in her professional debut, in a sudden-death playoff no less. Yana Wilson, the 2022 U.S. Girls’ Junior champ, won the AJGA event that first year. Wilson, an LPGA Tour rookie in 2026, will be in this year’s field.

Nelly Korda followed Zhang in 2024, and Gianna Clemente, another talented and decorated junior, won the AJGA amateur event. Atthaya Thitikul took last year’s Mizuho Americas Open win and turned it into a trifecta of season-ending awards: player of the year, leading money winner and Vare Trophy champ for lowest scoring average.

Wie West, who has served as tournament host each year, made the first of what are sure to be many headlines surrounding the event Tuesday when she revealed that she has accepted a sponsor exemption to compete this year and serve as playing host.

“One of the privileges that comes with being the host of the Mizuho Americas Open is that I, along with Mizuho and the tournament team, review the potential golfers that could fulfill our sponsor exemptions that we add to our field,” said Wie West.

“When I was presented with the idea for me to play, I couldn’t think of a better time to return to the course and compete with the world’s best golfers, as well as have the opportunity to play alongside the top AJGA (American Junior Golf Association) girls.”

Wie West will also compete in this year’s U.S. Women’s Open at Riviera Country Club.

The Mizuho Americas Open is scheduled for May 7-10 at Mountain Ridge Country Club in West Caldwell, N.J., roughly 20 miles west of New York City. The historic club features a dramatic Donald-Ross designed golf course highlighted by expansive, intriguing greens and a great mix of short and long holes. Mountain Ridge C.C. will host the tournament again in 2027 before the event heads back to Liberty National G.C. in 2028.

Tickets are available at www.MizuhoAmericasOpen.com. General admission tickets start at $35 for Thursday’s first round, $40 for Friday’s second round, and $45 each day for Saturday and Sunday. Good-any-one-day tickets (valid any one day Thursday–Sunday) are $50, and weekly general admission badges (valid all four rounds) are $130. For an elevated experience, Garden State Terrace daily tickets are $130. Veterans, first responders, active military and Juniors 17 and under receive free general admission.

The first three rounds of the Mizuho Americas Open will be featured on Golf Channel and the final round will be televised on CBS. More information is available at MizuhoAmericasOpen.com. For the latest tournament news, follow @MizuhoLPGA on X,Instagram and Facebook.

The Mizuho Americas Open is a purpose-driven tournament on the LPGA Tour. As title sponsor, Mizuho Americas created and drove the vision for a distinctive and premium event that celebrates women and advances the next generation, with a charitable focus on providing leadership and life skills to young girls from low-income communities.

“I think it’s really inspiring to be around other women who are driven, who work hard … it’s one thing to watch your idols on T.V., it’s another thing to watch them in person, but it’s a whole other thing to be inside the ropes with them, competing alongside them. From the young ladies who come to the [Mizuho] DrivHer Summit, there’s a lot of talk about leadership, taking control of what you can do, putting in the work. We talk a lot about work ethic and believing in yourself, networking, asking the right questions, and this is why the mentorship program is so special this week for the juniors and the pros. We want to make that connection.”

“We just really want this week to be a week of mentorship,” Wie West later added. “a week where juniors really throw themselves into the process and just learn a lot. I want them to soak as much up as they can over the week.”