by The FedEx Cup Playoffs are headed for the Rockies and the gravy train of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment fund may be slowing down, but our priority this week is the AIG Women’s Open at St. Andrews. If you’re in the U.S., set your alarms. This will be coffee golf of the highest order.
The Women’s Open has come a long way since 2013, when it last visited St. Andrews. As that year’s champion Stacy Lewis reminded me and Meg Adkins on Monday’s Fried Egg Golf pod, the championship was then run by the Ladies’ Golf Union, a governing body focused on the women’s amateur game. While technically a major, the Women’s Open sometimes gave off minor vibes. At the Old Course in 2013, for instance, the setup crew let the greens become a bit too frisky, leading to a suspension of play on Saturday and a chaotic 36-hole finish on Sunday.
When the R&A absorbed the LGU in 2017, the Women’s Open started on an upward trajectory. Insurance company AIG came on board as a new title sponsor in 2019, and over the next few years increased the purse from $3.25 million to $9 million. The venue choices also improved. In the 2020s so far, the Women’s Open has stopped at Royal Troon, Carnoustie, Muirfield, and Walton Heath. Woburn, the second-tier English club that hosted eight editions of the championship in the 1990s, seems to have been sidelined, thankfully.
So this week’s Women’s Open should serve as a confirmation of the tournament’s ascendance—a showcase for a major that has finally come of age.
A Better Fit
R&A setup chief Grant Moir seems excited about his job this week at St. Andrews. “It is actually more interesting setting up the course for a women’s event,” Moir told John Huggan of Golf Digest. “With the men I know I’m going to the back tees on pretty much every hole. With the women, every tee on the course is potentially in play.” He added, “I’m looking forward to seeing the women play the course in the way it was first envisaged.”
Moir’s comments tacitly acknowledge what’s obvious to any attentive viewer: the elite men’s game no longer fits the dimensions of the Old Course. At the top levels of women’s golf, on the other hand, hitting distances haven’t yet spiraled out of control. This week, we can look forward to long approaches into the Road green and perhaps some action in the Hell bunker on the Long hole. I’m particularly eager to see how the women attack the 12th hole, which the men turned into a bomb-and-gouge exercise at the 2022 Open. For the Women’s Open field, the various hidden bunkers in the middle of the 12th fairway will be more in play. From the back tee, some competitors may consider laying up as short as 150 yards from the green.
If you were saddened by the sight of a defenseless Old Course in 2022, this week’s event should be the pick-me-up you need.
Meteorological Speculations
First, a warning: it’s foolish to put much stock in the early-week forecasts leading into an Open Championship. Predicting seaside weather in Great Britain is more religion than science.
We can be reasonably confident, however, that the first two rounds of the 2024 Women’s Open will be influenced by wind and rain. The current forecast calls for blustery conditions on Thursday—20- to 25-mph winds with 35- to 40-mph gusts—followed by spells of rain on Friday.
In other words, Scottish golf. Can’t wait.
Nelly Korda prepares for the 2024 AIG Women's Open at St. Andrews (photo via R&A)
Five Players to Watch
The hottest player in the world right now is Lauren Coughlin, who backed up a breakout win at the CPKC Women’s Open in late July with a dominant victory at the ISPS Handa Women’s Scottish Open last week. Coughlin has also recorded two top fives in majors this year—a T-3 at the Chevron and a solo fourth at the Evian. In this week’s dodgy conditions at the Old Course, I expect her strong ball-striking to hold up well.
Rivaling Coughlin for current form is Ayaka Furue, who notched her first major victory last month at the Amundi Evian Championship and has racked up six top 10s in her last seven starts. Furue has previously seen success on the linksland, having won the Women’s Scottish Open at Dundonald Links in 2022.
After a back injury forced her to take a 10-week vacation earlier this year, Lilia Vu won her comeback event on the LPGA Tour and added a T-2 at the Women’s PGA Championship. She’s healthy and set to defend her Women’s Open title at the Old Course.
What’s up with Nelly Korda? Perhaps an unfair question, but one that’s hard not to ask after her dominant start to the year, highlighted by a Chevron title, gave way to an up-and-down, occasionally abysmal summer. As Korda’s apparel sponsor once proclaimed, however, winning takes care of everything. Winning at St. Andrews, especially.
In 2013 at the Old Course, a 16-year-old Lydia Ko tied for low amateur in the Women’s Open. Now she returns at the age of 27, having just qualified for the LPGA Hall of Fame with a gold-medal performance at the Paris Olympics. A win at St. Andrews would be the best possible capstone to a playing career that, as she has repeatedly indicated, will soon be coming to an end.
This piece originally appeared in the Fried Egg Golf newsletter. Subscribe for free and receive golf news and insight every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
