U.S. Women’s Open Preview

The 65^th U.S. Women's Open begins this Thursday at fabled Oakmont Country Club near Pittsburgh.  This is the second Women's Open that Oakmont has hosted, the first being the 1992 edition which saw Patty Sheehan defeat Juli Inkster in an 18-hole playoff by two strokes.  Last year's Open in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (c'mon Penns!  Let somebody else have a turn!) was won with a birdie on the final hole by Eun-Hee Ji, defeating Candie Kung.

The "U.S." in the Open lately has often stood for "none of US are under par" as three of the last five women's events have fit that description.  Given Oakmont's reputation, I was surprised to see that Sheehan and Inkster finished -4 to make the Monday playoff.  I wouldn't count on anybody seeing -4 after Friday morning, much less late Sunday.  Speaking of that reputation - with NBC delivering six hours of weekend coverage, I'm putting the over-under of references to Johnny Miller's 63 in '73 at 7.5.

The Open is not an LPGA Tour co-sponsored event, although the Tour recognizes it as an official event and counts money earned as official.  The USGA runs this show - much like they do its male counterpart - right down to the qualifying rules.  They exempt from local qualifying the Top 50 of last year's money list, winners of Tour events over the previous 12 months, the Top 10 of this year's money list (which could almost never admit anybody who wasn't already in), plus major champions over the last several years and other international money leaders.  Everybody else here played their way in via preliminary events scattered throughout the country.  Because of this, the U.S. Open field always contains more amateurs than any other professional tournament - 28 of them this year.  The most prominent of these are Jessica Korda, Victoria Tanco and Jennifer Johnson.

There's plenty of pro talent on hand, too.  Everybody in my current Top 40 is here, aside from the retired Lorena Ochoa.  If you choose to toss her name aside, the top 43 players are here (Jimin Kang is my highest rated player who didn't qualify).  Even Michelle Wie and Natalie Gulbis made the field this time around so all of you who thought last year's Open was tainted by their absence can relax.  A couple of weeks ago I said I liked Jiyai Shin to win the U.S. Open and I still do.  But the majority of the primo candidates are coming in playing well so I'm not sure any choice is a bad one.