Minjee Lee during practice this week – image USGA
The Women’s US Open begins Thursday at the Lancaster Country Club in Lancaster, Pennsylvania where Australasia’s two leading players in recent years, Minjee Lee and Lydia Ko, are chasing a return to the sort of form that would see them as possible winners of the women’s game’s most prestigious event.
Lee began the year in 4th place in the world ranking but has slipped to 9th as a result of three missed cuts and just two top tens in her eight starts in 2024 but as a winner of this same event two years ago she knows that when right she has the game to win this great title.
Lee is playing her 11th Women’s US Open but interestingly she has recorded just one top ten in those starts, that coming when successful at Pine Needles Lodge and Golf Club in North Carolina in 2022.
Lydia Ko – chasing first US Open title – image USGA
Ko has also gone backwards in 2024 having started this year in 9th place in the Rolex Rankings but is now back in 14th place.
Both players have been surpassed in world ranking by Lee’s fellow West Australian Hannah Green who began the year in 29th place but has made a stunning move with two wins and a runner-up finish to be now in 5th place.
Green will play her 6th US Open, her best finish coming last year when 13th at Pebble Beach Links.
The three leading female players in Australasia will be joined in the field by the ever-improving Gabi Ruffels Stephanie Kyriacou, New Zealand’s Amelia Garvey, Victorian amateur Keely Marx and the late inclusion of Sarah Kemp who gained a start yesterday as an alternate courtesy of a withdrawal.
