There is still a long, long way to go in getting equality for the women’s professional game with the men’s when it comes down to filthy lucre, which – aside from history and the trophies – is always very much on the line coming down the stretch in the Major championships.
But this week’s 77th edition of the US Women’s Open at Pine Needles resort in North Carolina provides some proof that things are, indeed, changing with a record $10 million (€9.25m) in prize money on offer for the 156 women in the field, two of whom – Leona Maguire and Stephanie Meadow – are Irish players with genuine designs on contending and winning.
The increase in the purse for this year – it was $5.5m last year, when Yuka Saso of the Philippines won at the Olympic Club – comes with the arrival ProMedica as a presenting sponsor of the championship. The plan by the USGA is to increase the purse to $12m by 2026.
Maguire, who is familiar with Pine Needles having attended college at Duke University, skipped last week’s Bank of Hope LPGA Matchplay in Las Vegas to prepare for this Major which has been one of her primary focuses for this season.
Already with a breakthrough win on the LPGA – at the Drive On Championship in February – this year, Maguire will be aiming to bounce back to form following on from a poor run of three successive missed cuts.
Maguire, currently 25th in the world, didn’t qualify for last year’s US Open but did feature in the other four Majors, where she demonstrated that her game is suited to those biggest of championships: she was tied-sixth in the Evian, tied-13th in the AIG Open, tied-15th in the KPMG LPGA and tied-28th in the ANA (now known as the Chevron).
For Meadow, who earned her place in the field through sectional qualifying, this marks her first appearance in the US Open since 2019. It brings her back to familiar terrain, however, as Meadow made a spectacular professional debut when finishing third in the 2014 US Open at nearby Pinehurst, which was won by Michelle Wie.
Nelly Korda, the world number two, is entered having last played at the Drive On Championship in early February. That was one of only three appearances Korda has made so far this season.
The 23-year-old American required surgery after suffering a blood clot in a subclavian vein in her left arm in March and has been in recovery mode since then. “Any Major is a Major, but the one that holds a significant meaning to me is the US Open,” said Korda of her desire to win the championship.
This week’s tour stop on the PGA Tour is the Memorial tournament at Muirfield Village, Ohio, where Rory McIlroy – who skipped the Charles Schwab at Colonial – returns to tournament action for the first time since his disappointing weekend at the US PGA Championship.
McIlroy is facing into a busy run of events with the Memorial at Jack’s Place this week followed by his delayed defence of the RBC Canadian Open next week and then a tilt at the US Open at Brookline the following week. Shane Lowry and Séamus Power are also in the field for the Memorial as the two take a similar playing itinerary to McIlroy in the run-up to the US Open.
The Porsche European Open in Hamburg is this week’s event on the DP World Tour, where Jonny Caldwell and Cormac Sharvin will each be looking to arrest a run of missed cuts. In Caldwell’s case, he has missed three successive cuts (Dutch Open, Belgian Open and British Masters), while Sharvin’s run of missed weekends extended to six with his failure to make the cut in the Dutch Open.
Niall Kearney, who is first reserve for the tournament, will hope to get a place in the field with any dropout. The Dubliner has had limited opportunities so far this year but, in the four events he has played in, most recently at the Soudal Belgian Open when he was tied-15th, Kearney has made the cut each time.
