That was not your mother’s U.S. Women’s Open last week.
Yes, it’s a play on the General Motors ad campaign for the Oldsmobile line of autos many years ago. And, yes, it’s a cliché.
But in the case of this year’s Women’s Open, played last week at Pebble Beach, it is a true statement.
Credit former USGA CEO Mike Davis and his regime for negotiating a deal with longtime U.S. Open partner Pebble Beach to host this year’s Women’s Open, announced in 2017. Credit USGA chief championships officer John Bodenhamer for advancing the notion of USGA anchor sites, of which Pebble Beach is one. Pebble Beach will host three more Women’s Opens in the next 25 years. Finally, credit current USGA CEO Mike Whan and his team for making last week’s 78th U.S. Women’s Open a happening, one with lots of off-course activities and developments.
Credit them all, and the USGA Executive Committee members who supported them, for making the U.S. Women’s Open bigger, more meaningful, more visible than it ever had been.
Let’s start with the purse. Despite parting ways with ProMedica, the presenting sponsor announced with great fanfare in January 2022, the USGA raised the purse this year by $1 million, to $11 million. That number is twice the payout in 2021, and it is the richest purse in women’s golf, at least for the moment. The champion, Allisen Corpuz, took home $2 million.
The USGA would like to see purse equality with the men’s U.S. Open, but the goal has become harder to achieve in light of the rapid growth of the men’s prize fund, now $20 million. “Equality takes on a lot of different meanings to us, not just the purse,” USGA president Fred Perpall said. “But I think if we keep working on that process, eventually we get more eyeballs. We get more interest. We have the economics rise. And then it's easier for the purse to rise, too. Some of this is part of the process, and some of it is part of the journey and not only the destination. I think we’re focused much more on the process to get to that level of equality.”
Thirty-nine champions attended a private affair hosted by Whan and Perpall. This was only the second time such a dinner took place at the Women’s Open; the previous one was held in 2014 at Pinehurst.
The week began with a dinner for past champions at the resort’s Beach Club. Thirty-nine champions attended a private affair hosted by Whan and Perpall. This was only the second time such a dinner took place at the Women’s Open; the previous one was held in 2014 at Pinehurst. The USGA’s Heather Daly Donofrio described the evening as one of “great friendship, great kinship, with lots of laughs and storytelling.”
Tuesday night featured a reception at Cypress Point for the amateurs in the field. Catherine Lacoste, the only amateur to win the U.S. Women’s Open, was a special guest speaker. Now 78 years old, Lacoste was 22 when she won the 1967 Women’s Open on the Cascades course at the Homestead Resort in Virginia. She captivated the attendees, many of whom sought her out toward the end of the evening.
Then there was the surprise announcement on Wednesday that the 2034 Curtis Cup will be played at Pine Valley Golf Club in New Jersey. Pine Valley – now with female members including three-time U.S. Women’s Open winner Annika Sörenstam and four-time U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur champion Meghan Stasi, among others – is thought by many to be the finest golf course in America. It is among Bodenhamer’s “cathedrals,” and the news follows a pattern set by the match’s male counterpart, the Walker Cup, of being played at those cathedrals.
Some 10-year-old girl in America or the British Isles had her world rocked last week, and she has no clue.
Finally, there was the announcement of a magnificent gift – $1.5 million – from the Pebble Beach Resort and partners across the business world to the LPGA*USGA Girls Golf program. The announcement came in a party atmosphere on the Tiger Woods-designed par-3 Hay course. Corporate teams included young girls from chapters across the country as well as 22 past U.S. Women’s Open champions and several celebrities in a scramble format with music blaring and food stations scattered about the course.
All of this joyful activity took place before the first ball was launched on Thursday morning. Pebble Beach presented the USGA with a big stage and big ratings, and Whan’s team did everything that it could to leverage it. Expect that to be the new norm for this championship going forward.
E-MAIL JIM
Top: Rose Zhang tees off on No. 16 during her first U.S. Women's Open as a professional.
DARREN CARROLL, USGA