No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - 1012: US Women's Open Preview

Episode Date: May 27, 2025

Randy and Cody are reporting for class as Prof. Perez details the history of the US Women’s Open ahead of this week’s championship at Erin Hills.  We begin the pod with a quick recap of the announcement of the new LPGA Commissioner, Craig Kessler, and a recap of Northwestern’s upset of Stanford in the NCAA women’s golf team championship match. From there Jordan takes us through the 79 year history of the US Women’s Open covering the notable winners and eras of dominance, the close calls and several stories that you’re likely never heard before.  Join us in our support of the Evans Scholars Foundation: https://nolayingup.com/esf Support our sponsors: Titleist Omni Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Be the right club. Be the right club today. That's better than most. How about in? That is better than most. Better than most! Expect anything different. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome into the No Laying Up podcast. My name is Randy. This is your United States Women's Open preview. It's going to be a fun one. We're going to dive into the history of the event led by our exceptional teacher, Miss Jordan Perez,

similar to what we did last year for the AIG Women's Open. So if you enjoyed that episode, hopefully this one will be right up your alley as well. Let me introduce my co-host, I mentioned Jordan. JP, how are you this morning? Are you prepared with your history lesson? I feel like I'm prepared. The pressure's on.

I just wanna do this championship right. It's my country's open. I feel a lot of pressure to get it right. Of course, of course. Well, I'm eagerly anticipating. And joining me in class today, of course, Cody McBride. Cody, are you ready to get your learning on today? I told JP just a little bit ago, I'm so excited for this.

I learned so much last year when we did her deep dive. I think the way that she goes about the research, preparing everything, and then presenting it to us, I just pick up so much. So I'm very, very excited, Big. I am too. I'm psyched. JP, I'm going to have you hold for just a second. Cody, why don't we thank our first sponsor, and that's our good friends at Titleist. That's right, Big. Thanks to Titleist and specifically the Vokey SM10 wedges. We all know how important wedge play, short game play, anything around the green is at

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Thank you to Titleist. Cody, before we do dive into the US Open, I think the big news that broke late last week, of course, the LPGA has named a new commissioner. That is Craig Kessler. He's coming over from the PGA of America. You were able to listen in on his introductory press conference. I was just curious, any big takeaways, thoughts from hearing him speak for the first time? Yeah, a lot big. I'm actually pretty excited, but I know it's very easy to get excited at introduction press conferences.

He hasn't really stepped into the job yet. That's not going to come until July 15th. So as you said, Craig Kessler, he's going to be the 10th commissioner of the LPGA Tour. He's currently the COO of the PGA of America running all, who could say 30,000, sometimes it's 31,000. It all depends on what day. No, not 3100, 31000. 31000, excuse me. Yeah.

And that's a lot of people. He came there from, so this is a thing is that everybody automatically defaults his background to being in Top Golf, which he was. He was the COO at Topolf and really helped grow that into the platform that it was. And I don't really want to say is because I think Topgolf also going through some weird stuff right now, but he did have a little bit of a gap in between

where he left and became the CEO of a soap company, Buff City Soap. But he, he, you know, he also has a ton of experience in private equity, wealth management, you know, he's worked for McKinsey. He's, he's bounced around quite a bit there before he came over to Topgolf. And that was kind of his first job in golf. We don't know exactly what like, I don't know if he grew up playing golf or like where his current skill is, but I'm reasonably certain that you can say like, he's a golf guy and he's been in the golf industry for a long time

that he has relationships with a lot of the key players that run golf, that work in golf, and he's going to utilize those relationships to their full extent. And he made that very, very clear. So he came in, he introduced what his four pillars or building blocks are going to be as how he kind of sets up his commissionership here. So the first one being trust. And he said that's what his players with the sponsors, with the fans and definitely trust within his own team at the LPGA tour. Obviously, this is you don't even need like little subtle hints here. Trust was broken under the previous commissioner specifically

between the players and the tour that she represents on behalf of those players. So very good job on him coming out right out of the gate discussing that the second one visibility. I love this. He openly talked about his broadcast, how people consume his product, his players, and what he wants to do to have the conversations to improve that. Only knowing that we have five years left on the current TV contract, there's a lot of things that are going to need to change. But with his relationship with those key players now, he made it very, very well known that it does not matter how much work

and effort they put into players development, you know, development of players, development of the tour itself, its structure, its staff, how it is perceived and presented to the world makes all the difference. And he knows that as lands solely at the feet of his broadcast partners. So I'm very, very excited to hear him openly talk about that. So the third one, building fans. He doesn't want people to just watch the LPGA Tour. He wants people to really root on the LPGA Tour members, their players, and really it as, you know, as a core, he wants people to become fanatics. He obviously has learned a lot of this from the growth of women's college basketball into

the WNBA now. And I'll say this big, I've watched more WNBA games at the start of this year than I have in my entire life. I'm caught up in it. And I think it's just because there's drama, there's intrigue, there's amazing players. And I think it's kind of like the NBA was before everybody just like either dunked or shot in three pointers from half court.

Like it's just an incredible time. And I think he's comes in from an outsider's perspective to be able to figure out ways to capture that. And he wants people invested in that he wants the fan clubs and not just like the fan clubs that we've seen in Korea and everything else like that. He wants people vocally being like Nellie is my girl. Like I ride or die with her or throw any other name that you want out there right now. And the last one, he talked about the financial future. Made it very, very, very clear. He is willing to accept phone calls and meetings with any organization or company that wants to work

with the LPGA Tour. He was asked specifically about Liv, PIF, their investment, he said, absolutely, I want to talk to them. So clearly seeing what's happening on the ladies European tour, the PIF's new investment, they're continuing to expand their Ramco series there into something that is new and, you know, the next iteration of that. So he doesn't really care who you are, what your company represents or anything. He is a hundred percent focused on if you want to work with us, we'll probably find a way to work with you. So that's kind of it for business. Yeah, very good.

Honestly, you know, a lot of great sounding things in there. Those four pillars really seem to talk to each other in a lot of ways. I think the one thing to note his first day is July 15. And unlike his predecessor, it seems like the expectation will be for him to really hit the ground running. I don't think there's going to be any, you know, fact finding tour six months, you know, get your feet under you. I have a follow up for you on that. So he, he talked about that. That's not just,

you know, hearsay or what people want to believe is going to happen. He said, no, my job starts, you know, day one is July 15th. And he gave massive credit to the LPGA community that they put together to go through this selection and hiring process to get to where he's at. He's been working on this and going through this through multiple conversations, not just with current staff at the LPGA tour, but really players since the beginning of the year. He feels that he is armed with information and will continue to

learn more and be armed with more stuff that he does not have the space to get his feet underneath him. He is going to make decisions right away. And he's very open and honest about the transparency of if we mess up on something, I'm okay with that as a leader, because at least we're trying to change things that's going to put this tour in a better spot than it was. And mistakes will happen, but you will get nothing but transparency from us along the way, which obviously, you know, we've had a couple stumbles the last couple years, if you want to talk about Solheim Cup and delays and bad press releases and really just like confusion about a lot of things that

are going on. He's ready. He's excited to get going. July 15th is his day. But again, it's a lot of words until you see some action, but I'm pretty excited about the direction that the LPGA tour is going to go. Awesome. I'm like you. It sounds great. The proof will be in the pudding. I'm eager to see just how aggressively and quickly we see any shakeups, changes.

It'll be certainly interesting as he gets going. We should say, you know, we'd love to have him on the NLU podcast. Hopefully that's something we can get done shortly into his tenure. So hopefully we'll have a chance to ask him some questions directly. Let's move, JP, I'm gonna bring you in here. Big news last week as well from women's college golf.

Summer calling it the biggest upset in women's golf history. The Northwestern Wildcats defeat the mighty Stanford Cardinal to win the NCAA team national championship. Tell me about it. Is this the biggest upset is put into context kind of the effort or the you know, David versus versus Goliath that was going on here between Northwestern and Stanford. Yeah, that no one had that on there being a card. And if they say they did, they're lying. It's a really impressive day of match play from Northwestern. I mean, they were the 10th best team in the country. So it's not like, you know, there were a bunch of randos showing up, but I just, I was stunned by Stanford and it's not like it was bad golf at all. It was very good golf, like legitimately, like great golf being played pretty much the entire day.

It's just Northwestern really took it to them. It's interesting because this Stanford team, and I feel like this really came full circle for me this year, this Stanford team is much better than the ones that have been so well marketed and so well publicized the past few years. Legitimately, every girl in their starting lineup would be the best player on any given team in the country. They are all within basically the top 20 in the world. They're so good. And so it was just so surprising to see them get beat. But shout out to Northwestern. That was phenomenal. It went all the way to the last hole. And that's what you want out of an NCAA championship. And

I know there was some debate this week. And usually this happens this time of year about is the match play championship the way to go? Does that really decide the best team? And I think, yeah, I mean, if you are the best team that day and every day, you're winning in a match play final, no doubt. And I think stroke play is very important too. But that takes into account more of an individuality. This tests the team in the most purest way and Northwestern evidently. And just as we saw on the broadcast and just a lot of those conversations that they had, they are a great team. At their core, they worked really hard to put that team together. I think it seemed like it was a very fairly new team that was assembled. I guess they were working a lot on trust within each other and they talked a lot about that

on the broadcast. But that, I guess over the year, they just came together really strongly and just made this incredible run that like I said, nobody saw coming. So that was phenomenal. I mean, obviously it's Stanford, so they're, you know, they'll be back. I mean, I don't think Stanford's going away anytime soon. But yeah, what a what a great year of college golf, truly. Congrats to Northwestern coach Emily Fletcher,

of course, her whole team, it's Northwestern's first title as a program. Yeah, just as you said, an excellent day of golf out there at Omni La Costa Resort and Spa. Cody, what can you tell us? Go with maybe a little bit more about Omni here. That's right. And now from a word for our friends at Omni Hotels and Resorts, the official hotel of no laying up. Spring is here, summer is here, man it's crazy. Summer golf knocking at the door and there's no better time to start planning your next bucket list golf trip than now. One course that we wanna put on your radar is the newly renovated Oak Marsh Golf Course

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Yeah, I'm excited big.. Of course they play it on the North course at Omni La Costa Resort and Spa. All right. A nice little second ad in the can. That's going to free us up the rest of the episode here, folks. Let's turn our attention. Main event, US Women's Open. I think one of the absolute marquee events

in the world of women's golf this year, every year, the USGA does a fantastic job with this event. It is at Aaron Hills, just outside Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The course is there. They're setting the course up to play as a par 72. I think it's going to be about 6,800 yards, give or take some change each day. We have a great project coming up. They're setting the course up to play as a par 72. I think it's gonna be about 6,800 yards, give or take some change each day.

We have a great broadcast schedule. That's one of my favorite parts about the US Open. We get to see a lot of golf. The schedule specifically Thursday, Friday is gonna be noon to 6 p.m. Eastern time on USA Network. And then two additional hours right after that, six to eight PM on Peacock. On the weekend, we're gonna get one to three PM Saturday on Peacock and then three to six PM on NBC.

And then Sunday, two to seven PM Eastern all on NBC. I think Tommy Roy is gonna have, you know, the full closet of toys at his disposal. It's going to look like a major championship broadcast. So should be a great week of golf. Our schedule for NLU purposes, of course, this is our preview episode. Wednesday, we're going to have a happy hour, mainly US Women's Open. Saturday, we're going to do a live show at the completion of play. And then of course, Sunday as well,

we're going to be back with a live show. So tune in, join us. It's going to be a fantastic week of golf. I can't wait to see how Erin Hills plays. We went there last year. If you have not seen our NLU club championship videos, we took the whole squad to Aaron Hills. So if you want to get a little view of the course, perhaps see how some mere

mortals played it. You can check that out on our YouTube channel. But guys, I think other than that, I'm JP, are you ready? I'm about ready to turn it over to you and let you drive here the rest of the show. I'm ready boys. Let's do it. All right. All right. So we are diving into the history of the US Women's Open, which is currently the oldest of the five women's majors. Now, it was not the first women's major ever, but it came at a really progressive time for women's golf. And you'll see a lot of parallels

between the US Women's Open and the Women's British Open. And I'm happy to point them out as long as we go. But if you listen to that episode, you'll be able to identify them along the way when it comes to kind of purse growth, venue selection, who's organizing it, how they're organizing it, that kind of stuff. So stick with me. We're not going to have any Weetabix sponsorship though. I don't think on the US. No, no, unfortunately, I know that's the only sponsor on the on the British Open side that sticks with me. I know there were some fun ones though. Anyway, sorry to interrupt teacher. Yeah, I'll let you get on with the plan here.

No, no, no, we'd have exponsed ships, but a lot of weird and wacky facts along the way. I was really committed to making this, you know, serious to a point of really illustrating just how important this championship is to women's golf history, but also fun because there's a lot of fun history in the US women's open. So without any further delay, let's get into it. I'm going to start chronologically. I kind of,

my notes are very organized by decade, but we're not going to go by every year because that would, that would be a lot. We're not going to do that. So do it in part series if you want, we can. Oh yeah. I mean, if we're really, if we're really it to do that. We can do a 10 part series if you want. We can move. Yeah. I mean, if we're really itching for that, yeah, let's do it. So anyway, 79 years ago, this tournament was established. It's out of time. It's post World War II, right after post World War II. We're like fresh into playing golf again.

We are, I wouldn't say getting back into hobbies, but it's like very much the infancy of professional women's golf. Because it kind of gets it started a little bit in the early 30s, but nothing too monumental yet. The women's Western Open is being played often. That's, at that time, the oldest women's major. So a lot of that's going around. But yeah, 1946, the inaugural US Women's Open. It's a match play event and it's a collab, right? So it was started by what is the WPGA and the Spokane Athletic Roundtable, which was a men's organization. And the WPGA is very important here. If you remember the Ladies Golf Union from the Women's British Open and how they started the Women's Open, some parallels here with that.

The WPGA runs the US Women's Open for about three years before the LPGA is founded and the USGA essentially takes over. But the WPGA, still groundbreaking, still monumental. It was tough, it wasn't easy for them. They were founded in 1944 by Betty Hicks, Ellen Griffin and Hope Sanious, I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly. It was the first professional tour for women in the US. It's pretty small, They only hosted seven tournaments.

In 1945, they tried to subsume under the PGA of America. They were turned down, subsequently asked for support from the Golf Manufacturers Association, also get turned down there. And a lack of capital caused them to fold in 1948, and then they go defunct in 1949. So my point is they tried. They really, really tried. But luckily there was enough interest and enough women that were excited to found the LPGA, which we'll get into a little bit more later. Which I find interesting that you mentioned the three founders of the WPGA. I don't believe any of them. None of them were then among the 13 original LPGA founders, which

Nope. Yeah, I guess it's just a little curious. Not curious. You know, just interesting, maybe. It is interesting. I guess they just were kind of like, Yeah, y'all got it. We don't want anything to do with that. No. Anywho, speaking of a lack of capital and purses and needing to get things off the ground, the Spokane Athletic Roundtable, which I mentioned earlier, collabed on this inaugural US Women's Open, had to fund a majority of the purse, which was $90,700.

The winner's check was $5,600. It takes place at Spokane Country Club, which no longer exists. And you'll see a theme throughout these US Women's Opens. Lots of courses that don't exist anymore. Lots of Wikipedia read for these courses. Just, you know, it's a bit of a tough start, but you know, it's not like that now. So two LPGA founders in Patty Berg and Betty Jamison compete in the final in a 36-hole match play final. I put because we used to be a proper country because I think that would be sick. Like, what? It's a long day at golf. I'm totally with you. Oh yeah. Don't make them like we used to. Nope. So yeah, they had to fight for that $5,600. They had to work for it. So Patty Berg wins. She wins $5,600 and Betty Jamison wins the $3,100 second place prize, all in war bonds

because this is 1946. That's amazing. Yeah, right? Both finalists, they win $100 for qualifying. So I guess like everybody in theory is winning money as they go through the bracket. So they won $100 for qualifying and were given various denominations for money as they go through the bracket. So they won $100 for qualifying and were given various denominations for victories as they advanced through the bracket. And then the final match was worth $2,500. And here's the even funnier part. All of it comes

from slot machines. What? Yeah. Like just local slot machines that they, somebody oversaw and ran and yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So weird. Unfortunately, this is about as prosperous as it gets for a little bit.

The winner share at the US Women's Open is substantially less in succeeding years and it was not exceeded until 1972, 26 years later. That's pretty crazy. So the initial purse was the highest it would be for the first 26 years of the event. Huh. Or the winner's share, sorry, the total purse. Huh. I also find it interesting. Had you asked me like where even what like part of the country the first US would have

women's open? Yeah, like I would have guessed Northeast, maybe Southeast, maybe Midwest, you know, getting over to like Pennsylvania somewhere, Ohio, Chicago would be the furthest west that I would ever think. Never would guess Spokane, Washington. No, that's really, really interesting. Roots in the PMW. This is one of those things I don't people can correct us. You continue to call it Spokane.

I'm pretty sure it's Spokane, but who knows? I did do some research. Spokane, but who who knows? I did do some research. Spokane Country Club. Okay, it's a long history. So that club was founded in 1898. It is now called the Kalispell Golf and Country Club. It was acquired in 2015. Because I don't know exactly which tribe it was, but it sits on native, native land. So they took it over in 2015, but it still sits there. Bigger, we should go play this. That'd be really cool. Honestly. Throwback. Yeah.

Get some hickories, go play it. All right. All right. All right, JP, keep going. Good stuff. All right. So we're not through this year. That was just me diving into the purse. All right. So we're not through this year. That was just me diving into the purse. The field, the field has 39 women and then they cut down to a 32 player match play bracket. There's a 36 hole qualifier on the first two days, six pros and 26 amateurs advanced to match play, which sounds crazy now, but there just wasn't a lot of professional golfers back then. All the top end talent, they were still playing as AMs. So, you know, basically, I mean, I think the best way to kind of illustrate it is like, almost like the Curtis Cup was the Solheim Cup when you think of the best players in the world going at each other and playing

in team events. Like, that's how you kind of had to think of it at the time. But 18 holes start the quarterfinals and then 36 holes for the semis and the finals, which is crazy. It's, it's real. We're playing real golf. It's proper. I think that's the only way you can describe it. For real.

In the final match, Betty Jameson leads by three after seven holes, but Patty Berg was the number one seed in qualifying, evened it up, and then they finished the first 18 holes all square. After their lunch break, Patty Berg needed only 14 holes in the afternoon to close out the match five and four. So pretty sick stuff. The win was later recognized as her sixth major championship out of her 15, which remains the most all time right now.

No one's come close. I think, sorry, I should have interjected with this earlier, but I was going down a little rabbit hole while you were speaking, but it's fascinating that you're talking about the Curtis Cup. The US women's amateur has a much more robust history than the US women's open. The amateur goes back to 1895. There were women playing golf, obviously big competitions for women.

But I guess all sports, you had this weird like everybody wanted to remain amateur, that was such a thing and then slowly, people started to turn professional and there was money involved, yada, yada. But yeah, just to go for nearly 50 years between the start of the US women's amateur and the start of like a proper US women's open is such a long time. That's crazy. Kaitlin Luna And the flip-flopping of the prestige is really fascinating too. But I mean, that's just

a pillar in women's golf history and how it's progressed and how it's advanced. I wanted to get into Patty Berg a little more. It's phenomenal. The more it's so cool, a lot of the backgrounds I would look into of a lot of these older champions were just like blew my mind. I learned so many random and wacky facts about a lot of champions, which I won't go into all of them, but Patty, I thought as our inaugural champion was worth diving into. She played quarterback for a rec football team. And right before she won the US women's open, was a reservist in the Marines from

1942 to 1945. Before she'd enlisted, she shattered her knee in an accident and questioned whether she'd play golf again. That was a lot of the narrative that I was finding in newspapers, but ultimately she did and then went on to be a founder of the LPGA and was also the first president. What a cool gal. Yeah. I know. The breadth and width of what these people were up to, you know, long ago. Like, it just, I think it highlights the specialization in our society now, especially with our professional athletes. I remember we did like one of the little mini dives and we did Patty one time. And I think if I remember correctly that,

so she's from Minnesota. I remember looking into trying to find more information about what she did in the Marine Corps reserves. But another thing that I found in there, like while she's playing golf and serving her country and doing all this other stuff, in the winter time, just being like a good Minnesota girl, she's also like a competitive speed skater.

So she would just be like out there like playing quarterback in the fall, speed skating all winter long, and then like just beating people up on the golf course in spring and summer. That's so awesome. I love that. The duality of women.

Yes, yes. So let's get it in 1947, because that's also an important year. Like I said, we're not going to go 1946 to 2025 each year, but we're, I mean, there are enough important years to call out. And both of them happened to the first two years or at least the first few years. So stick with me. Betty Jameson comes back, comes back with a vengeance and wins what's now a 72 hole stroke play event. So change in the format, no more 36 gold match play final. Very sad.

I also forgot to include some advertising for the first U S women's open championship. That was my bad. May I call upon that? Let me share a poster for the first one. You can kind of get an idea of what the branding was at this time for it. Uh, you'll notice something really interesting here. They don't call it the US Women's Open.

They call it the Women's National Open Golf Championship. I kept finding a lot of references for it being called that. This poster actually was signed by Patty Berg, which is cool, but this is such a cool piece of artwork. I would love to see a poster like this again. Which leads, begs the question for me, does the US Open still produce an annual tournament poster, I wonder? Because what a cool piece of merchandise memorabilia.

Right? We'll have to get some boots on the ground reporting this week. Yeah, seriously. Anyway, I hope they run something like this back because I thought it was really cool. Anywho, let's get into Betty Jameson's 1947 victory, wins the 72-hole stroke play event now. If you remember Hope Sanis, who was one of the original founders of the WPGA, who's still running this event, her father's cotton fortune funds most of the purse this year. So again, just any effort to fund this championship. I mean, it's not like the sponsors were knocking on the door. Okay. We've got to had to find money somewhere. A player named Mary Sargent had

like a really interesting qualifying story. I'm quoting this from Golf Digest. She said, or I'm sorry, the article says, she and Louise Suggs were paired and drove off in a near hurricane. A falling tree landed on Ms. Sargent's drive. So she drove again, taking a two stroke penalty. Only after failing to qualify by a stroke, did she discover that falling trees

do not constitute natural hazards. And she could have lifted her ball for free. So that was really funny. So she did not end up qualifying. She was SOL. No. Can you imagine that the people today just accepting, oh my, I tree fell on my ball. Nothing I can do. Gonna take my two-shot penalty and re-hit. Yeah, that's, I mean, what timing. Right. Bad timing. Bad timing. Anyway, let's get through the rest of the 40s, our WPGA era. Still, we're getting this off the ground, but we've got a lot of history that's starting to be made. Babe Zaharias begins kind of these dynasties. She wins by eight shots in 1948 at even par.

I found this interesting. This was like a weird fun fact. She missed a five foot putt on the last hole to lose a thousand dollars. Apparently a member of the club offered a thousand dollars to any of the 11 professionals in the field that scored less than 300. But the kicker is her winner's check was $1,200. So she could have doubled that essentially. Stinks. I wonder if she was a little nervy over that putt. Right? Yeah. I'll say this. Maybe we're going to get there, but Babe Zaharias, I mean, you want to talk about Patty Berg being fascinating. like, Babe Zaharias

is right there. She is incredible. And I think truly one of the best athletes of American history. Totally. I like when one of these nights when I was researching for this, I went on such a deep Babe Zaharias dive and I was like, this is the US Women's Open. I can't make this all about Babe Zaharias. But I did get some Babe Zaharias lore's Open. I can't make this all about babes of Harrius, but I did get some babes of Harrius lore in here. So it doesn't quite end there. Okay, all right, good. Following year after she wins her first,

is totally slaughtered 14 shots a year after her first US Women's Open. And then I kept seeing a lot of branding once again for this Women's National Open. I don't know what we were doing. I kept seeing US Women's Open in newspapers open. I don't know what we were doing. I kept seeing US women's open in newspapers too. I don't know. I applaud the WPGA and their early efforts

to get this championship off the ground, but I kind of wish they had just stuck to one name. Sure, that's fair. Also in 1949, Toast did a course that no longer exists anymore. And once again, kept seeing the trends of Wikipedia read and courses that no longer exist. Anywho, at the end of 1949, the WPGA is no longer.

They go away and they essentially have to forfeit the operation of this championship. But in 1950, we were moving on up. We found the LPGA and the USGA takes over this championship. So big leagues. It's not for a couple of years that the USGA doesn't take over. They don't take over until 1953. So in the interim, the LPGA is still, or I'm sorry, not the LPGA, not I have mixed up my organizations, lots of PGA as we are saying. The WPGA loses it, the LPGA takes over in the interim until the USGA takes over in 1953. Yeah, a lot of PGA. Yeah, that's Jordan, we won't hold that one against you. Thank you. Thank you. Sorry, it was a lot of word salad there. But 1950s, it's a decade

of lots of operational changes, like I mentioned, some more dynasties. And then we lose Babes of Harrius in this decade, unfortunately. And then we are breaking barriers later on in the decade, which was incredible. But yeah, so got a few years of the LPGA taking it over. Betsy Rawls emerges in the formation of more dynasties. She wins her first in 1951. In 1953, the USGA steps in, they are in charge. And like we mentioned, the US Women's Am was already a very established championship that they were running, but their goal is essentially to be the premier organization of running all of these open championships. And so they come in, they take over.

In 1953 also, Babes of Harrius is not in the field. She's recovering from cancer. Babes of Harrius comes back in 1954 and wins by 12 strokes while wearing a colostomy bag, which is just crazy. No, like truly crazy. I like truly imagine that today, you know, somebody in the field competing with that type of medical situation and not only just playing, making it to a US Women's Open, but to win by 12 shots. It's so, yeah, I just can't fathom it.

No, she would not defend her final major championship after back surgery in 1955. They discover that her cancer had recurred near her sacrum and that she passes away in 1956 at the age of 45. So, like a very short but dominant run and I mean, I can't believe she even competed through all of that. I mean, just probably one of the more stunning athletic feats of the past 100 years for sure. And I will just say, we did another like very mini look

at Babe's career when we were going through the LPGA founders but just to kind of underscore, you know, she Olympic gold medalist in both the 80 meter hurdles and the javelin, she was like an exceptional billiards player. She was a great basketball player, obviously a very good golfer. Played, I believe pitched in major league spring training games in the 1930s.

Like just incredible the width and breadth of her athletic achievements. It's really unbelievable. Okay, don't forget she also, was a very good singer and played the harmonica. Of course. Sick. Of course, yeah.

No, her run here though, so her first US women's open victory came in 48 and 49. She was runner up to Louise Suggs. In 50, you mentioned she did not play. She ends up coming back in 54. Obviously, there's just a ton of health stuff in here. It is phenomenal. The person that she was, just utter drive determination. somebody taken from this world way too early, but man, what a lasting impact she left. Olympic cold medalist turned professional golfer, billiards, you name it.

Whatever she did, she did it really damn good. And LPGA founder. Yep. Yep. And one, I think credited 41time winner on the LPGA Tour, like 10 official, yeah, it's unbelievable, and passes away at the age of 45. It's really amazing.

Yeah, that was- Obviously, people know a lot too, but just the amount of barriers that she broke down, first woman to compete in a PGA Tour event, people were mad as hell about that when she played in the LA Open, but it's just, it's awesome. She's a great person. I couldn't remember how many years back, but she also tried

to qualify for the US men's open as well. And they wouldn't let her. That's right. Yeah. I don't have God I feel like I Yeah, it anybody just just if you want to go down a fascinating again like rabbit hole Wikipedia just start reading about babe it's it's really unbelievable all this stuff unbelievable she was into and accomplished totally so let's keep going through the 50s I like I said we got so lost in the sauce of Babe's lore and her history, but definitely was important to spotlight as a part of this championship.

So in 1955, we have our first international winner, who's Faye Crocker from Uruguay. And then in 1956, we have an amateur in an 18-hole playoff, which was so sick. They have so many of these 18- hole playoffs throughout a lot of this championships history actually, which I just, oh, just me up reading. I loved that. I truly think the 18 hole US Open playoff was one of like the most unique and it just said, to me it separated the US open, both men, women, obviously, JP you'll probably tell us when it went away for the women's,

but that it's no longer a thing just disappoints me a little bit. Same. We used to be a proper country. We used to be a proper country. So more dynasties emerged. Like I mentioned earlier in the decade, Betsy Rawls won her first US women's open in 1951. But between 1957 and 1964, Betsy Rawls and Mickey Wright win a combined six times.

Very little parody at this time, but that's okay. I think that actually really helped this championship get off the ground. Their back and forth often got characterized as a rivalry, but it was really friendly. They were cool. They would room together and they were friends. It was pretty friendly more than anything. They each individually win the US Women's Open four times and remain the winningest pair in championship history. Some have come close. Anika actually has come close. And they actually asked Betsy

around that time in that era of when Anika was so dominant about her record being threatened. And she quoted saying, you know, a lot of times you ask a player about a record and they say, ah, records are made to be broken. But I'd kind of hate to see my record broken. I kind of like holding onto that record to be honest with you. I like it, I dig it. Some refreshing honesty.

I say the same thing. Yeah. Yeah. I don't want that to go away. I want my name right there. Exactly. I know she's no longer with us, but I wonder if she's sweating Miss Yuka Saso at all. Well, plenty of time to talk about Yuka, but yeah. Plenty. Plenty. So in 1956, this was a pretty monumental part of this championship as well. Anne Gregory is the first black American

woman to play in a USGA championship, playing at the US Women's Amateur and the US Women's Open. And that was only two years removed from Brown versus Board of Education and eight years before the Civil Rights Act was passed. So that was a tremendous deal. In 1957, we have a little bit of a controversy. Jackie Pung is best known for the tournament. She does not win. In 1957, they thought she beat Betsy Rawls by a stroke and then they find out she signs for an incorrect score and was disqualified. She was actually paired with Betty Jamison in the final round. And they thought they both made fives on the fourth hole

when they actually had made sixes, even though both of them signed for the correct, for the score that they thought. They had the correct total score, but they had the wrong score on the fourth hole. They were still disqualified. People were just mad, livid, so mad that this got taken away from Jackie. I actually have some interesting photos from this scoring controversy. You can see the scoreboard right

there disqualified. So shameful the way they've written this in chalk. I mean, geez. So yeah, what do you guys think about that? Where your total score, I guess it's just bad math or it sounds like they didn't have like wrong scores on two holes, but maybe like she knew she shot it, but the math didn't add up, but she's still signed for a total that was correct. But the individual holes, you know, one of the hole scores was wrong. That's a tough beat. I don't, I feel like that's, I don't know.

Makes me think like, what are we really doing here? I know, there's no malicious intent there if you're getting the total score, right? Yeah. It's part of the game. You're responsible for every box big, not just the one at the end. Yeah. But anyway, people are mad. They're mad as hell. They're just so, so angry. And here's another photo. Oh, poor Jackie. Is that her? Yeah. Oh, man. This is like one of like the... I mean, that's devastating.

Very like... Yeah, but an incredible photo and then you just look at the blower left and you're like, oh my goodness. This is so underrated of a sports photo. Like truly probably one of the most iconic pictures I've ever seen because you just have Betsy Rawls right there like with the hardware posing so happy and then you've just got Jackie like the bottom left corner just looking so distraught like she's the most upset she's ever been in her entire life. Also whoever the the lady there from the USGA that's handing the award out

it looks mad as hell like she doesn't look like she's happy about this decision either. I'm glad to see they have law enforcement there in the background. This is a lot that you could take out of this photograph. If you look at the lady directly behind the USGA angry lady, it looks like she's almost passing out. She kind of slunch back in her chair. Just a lot. Couldn't believe it. Stunned. That one lady kind of sitting between Jackie and who ended up winning? Who was the winner? Betsy Rawls. Between Betsy and Jackie, she just looks calm as hell. She's chilling.

She's looking right at the camera. Poor Jackie. All the proud members at the Wingfoot Golf Club in the background, which I'm sure you're going to tell us that they gave them some money at the end. They were mad as hell. They got a little kiddie together. Yeah. Oh yeah.

No, they, they, the whole collective of angry folks, fans, officials, and the members of WingFoot start collecting money for Jackie and they give her $3,000, which was more than the winners shared. So more than Betsy Rawls won. Wow. She only won $1,800 and Jackie walks away with $3,000. But no USP.

We're mad as hell. We're mad as hell. So in 57, we just said it's at Wingfoot. Obviously a lot of USGA influence there once they finally take over the event. But these locations that they have in the 50s, because as we started out this history, we talked about clubs that no longer are around.

But you have Wingfoot in 57. In 56, it was actually at Northland Country Club up in Duluth, which is sick. Like Northland, a whole set of US Women's Open, I could see that. Salem Country Club is in there. Country Club of Rochester, like there's some really good courses that they started to get this out as soon as the LPGA and then USGA came on board. Yep. And I think, like I said, just forming these dynasties and like the lack of parody, actually, at the time, I think really ended up kind of boosting the profile of this event.

So I want to conclude this controversy by including Betsy's response, who is ultimately the champion of 1957. She says, quote, I felt very bad for Jackie. It was a terrible way to lose. But then again, rules are rules. Betsy sound like a killer. I need to look at Betsy like stone cold. I don't want my record broken. Yeah, I don't like that. Jackie tough shit rules are rules. Yeah. Yeah. All right, Betsy. I see you.

Just epic. Like truly, like not one to minter words. Tough little footnote on Jackie. You know, she would not go on to win the US women's open at any point and she would not win a major. This was like truly, you know, her one good shot, which kind of makes it even tougher in retrospect. Yeah, that picture, that picture cuts even deeper, honestly, knowing that. So let's round

out the fifties. Mickey Wright ends this decade winning her first two major championships. She's second in all time wins, I should note. She has 82 behind Kathy Witworth's 88 and second in major championships with her 13 behind Patty Berg's 15. And yeah, like kind of going back to what you said, Cody, like we were really upping the ante on venues, but this, I think, believe this was 1959. It was hosted at another course that does not exist anymore, unfortunately. So yeah, we're kind of flip-flopping. We're going to some more prestigious venues, but then kind of running it back at some places that, who knows if they end up existing decades, decades beyond them. Well, I will. I do have some positive news here. So 59 was held at Church Hill Valley Country Club

in Pittsburgh. It closed down sometime in the 2010s. I think 2013 it says this door shut, but they saved it. They converted it into a green space big. So it's a walking path, beautiful wildflowers, everything. Car pass still in use, bridges, you and your pup, you wanna go out there and play. Good on them. At least it's not some condos or anything else out there. That's a happy ending. I like that. I don't know. I assume. Are we going to get more into Mickey Wright? She's another

just like, oh, G, oh, G, oh, G, oh, G. Yeah. Get a little bit more into Mickey, right? Are you ready for the 60s? Of course. All right. Purses are increasing. This is still a little bit into Mickey Wright and Betsy Rawls and their dominance. We're changing the schedule a little bit. And then we're finally on TV. So 20 years into this championship, we make it on television, which is very exciting.

So let's start with 1960. Betsy Rawls again. She's back, wins her fourth and final US Women's Open and then becomes LPGA president in 1961. So pretty good career for Betsy, I would say. Yeah, absolutely. I'd love her as president. She's probably great. Called it like she's called it. So this is, what'd you say, 1960 or 61? In 60, she won her last US Women's Open.

61, she becomes president. Yeah, which I think I'm only, I'm doing the math. She would have been 32, 33 years old at this time. Honestly, a little surprised this was her last US Open. You know, I would have thought. It wasn't, it was her last US Open win. She played in 61, she was runner up. Could you imagine the sitting like commissioner

of the LPGA Tour rocking up and be like, yeah, I'm here to play, like I'm still in this. But that's what they were doing. They were doubling up. It was awesome. Stacey Lewis. Exactly. Which honestly, I thought there was like a really good chance of that happening.

Yeah. All right. Sorry, JP. Keep going. No, no apologies. I love this. Uh, 61. Let's, let's continue on.

Um, they just kind of get beat up at Baltist roll, like beat up. The cut is plus 24. But Mickey Wright. We used to play proper golf tournaments. We used to play proper golf tournaments. We used to. Mickey Wright back, wins her third, US Women's Open. 1963, so I'm going two years ahead. Althea Gibson plays the US Women's Open three years after

she retires from professional tennis. So I thought that was a cool cameo. 1964, Mickey Wright wins her fourth and final US Women's Open in a playoff versus Ruth Jessen. And this concludes the Rawls and Wright era, which was just crazy, truly, to win six times between the both of them in that condensed amount of time. I mean, I don't think we would ever experience something like that again, honestly. No, and I guess I'm just also a little surprised that, I mean, Mickey was still in her twenties when when she won her last US Women's Open, you know, like you said, it was just a ton of winning and not like a very long, wide amount of time.

No, just crazy. That was a found footage of 64. That was the earliest I could find. And I thought it kind of felt like I was watching it like right out of like a little viewfinder that I had as a kid, like the little red ones that I'm looking through was wild. But speaking of being able to watch US Women's Open in 1965, the US Women's Open is nationally televised for the first time. The final round is shown on TV. We also have a schedule format change and a purse increase. So this was the first US Women's Open scheduled for four days since 1952 with the final round on Sunday. But from 1953, fun fact, through 1964, so this was the year before we're finally on TV,

the third and the fourth rounds were both played on Saturday. And the US Open also moved its final round to Sunday in 1965. Oh, interesting. The purse goes up substantially. The winner share goes up to 4,000 up from 2,200 in 1964. And the purse goes up to 17,780 up from 10,010 in 1964. So we're moving on up. We're elevating, guys.

We are getting somewhere. But we're not at a total purse equal to that very first 1946 national women's open, interestingly. Mm hmm. We're kind of back to where we started. Well, no, sorry. Total purse has gone up, but the winner share is still less. Okay. Yeah. Anyway, going to 1967, this was crazy.

Catherine Lacoste becomes the only amateur to ever win the US Women's Open. She has a five-stroke lead after 36 and 54 holes. Even though she shot a 79 in the final round, she held on and won by two strokes over Susie Maxwell and Beth Stone. This was also the first win by an amateur on the LPGA tour, but this is kind of a one and done thing. She just apparently really likes amateur golf.

And if her name sounds familiar, she's the daughter of Renee Lacoste, the tennis player who founded the Lacoste brand. Wow. Yeah, I'm thinking I don't know this as a fact, but my guess would be maybe they they had enough money. She didn't feel the need to turn pro perhaps. Yeah. Nope. She said never mind. Nope. Still the only French woman to win the the US Women's Open as well. Yeah. So 60s gets a little quieter. In 68, we have a winner who postponed her honeymoon just to win the US Women's Open in

Suzy Maxwell burning. And then in 1969, I thought this was interesting. Donna Capone won, but it was like 108 degrees in Pensacola, Florida, which sounds like the worst thing anyone could ever go through. So shout out Donna. And that includes the 60s. If you think Pensacola sounds... I joke Pensacola. Yeah. All right. Moving on. Let's get into the 70s. A lot of notable winners, not too much in terms of crazy championship history in terms

of first changes or format or whatever, but there's still some things of note that happen. Donna Compote comes back and wins in the 1970s. She goes back to back in 69 and 70. Joanne Carter, who many of us know as being an amateur queen, she won her first US Women's Open. Nancy Lopez. Okay, Nancy Lopez is so interesting in the context of the US Women's Open. And you guys are smiling and I feel like you guys know why, but gosh, I just, I love the Nancy Lopez lore as it pertains to the U.S. Women's Open. No, I'm smiling because I truly don't know it. I'm excited. You don't know it? Okay.

I don't think so. All right. Well, in 1975, she's an amateur and she contends this year. Just buckle up. Joanne Carter comes back, wins her second US Women's Open in 1976. Holla Stacey wins her first of three in 77 over Nancy Lopez and comes back, wins again. Purse is finally in the six figures in 78. So sorry, I should have mentioned that there was actually a substantial change. Our purse hit six figures in 1978. That's big. That's big.

All right. That rounds out the 70s, 80s gets a little crazy and we're getting a little popular too. Did I miss? When are we doing the Nancy Lopez stuff? I feel like we breeze past that. Are you just- No, the Nancy Lopez stuff continues. Oh, it continues. Yeah, we're not done with Nancy yet.

Hold tight there. Hold tight. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. All right. 1980, we kick off. Amy Alcott wins her only US Women's Open. In 1982, we set an attendance record.

I didn't have a note for that, but there's many years that I'd found that we were setting attendance records, but we're getting popular. More people are interested in women's golf in 1980, which is awesome. And we'll kind of see the fruits of that come about in the 90s specifically, but we're making moves. We're getting somewhere. 1984, Holla Stacey wins her third US Women's Open. 1986, guys, this one was her third US Women's Open.

1986, guys, this one was... Okay, this one was specifically chaotic. There's just a lot of weird stuff that happened that week, other than the fact that it ended in a Monday playoff. Just strange week. So I found this article from Jaime Diaz. And basically what happened is Tuesday of that week during the practice round, a railroad tanker loaded with phosphorus derailed in Miami's Berg, which was a city about 10 miles southwest of the course. When the tank ruptured, its contents ignited and a white

plume of noxious smoke rose into the air, leading to the evacuation of 30,000 people, the largest evacuation as a result of train derailment in US history. Several golfers had to change hotels because of the irritating fumes which lingered for days." Not good. No, that's not good. I bet you couldn't guess what state this happened in, Randy. Where do trains derail at.

Well, I know Ohio's had their fair share. It's Ohio, baby. Yeah. What are we doing? What are we doing? You tell us. Yeah. Well, we got to, yeah.

Not good. Not good. Not good. So other than poison of smoke, we had flies. We had a lot of... I don't know if they were flesh eating. It seems like that was the implication, but we just had a lot of really annoying flies. So Ayako Okamoto said she lost a shot on the 12th hole that Friday when a fly bit her on the leg as she

was trying to chip. Her interpreter and business manager said, Ayako says the flies here eat you. So it's really pesky flies. That's tough. God, just when you're making the stroke to get to get bit by a big ass fly. It's tough. It's rubber the green stuff. Maybe they were related to the smoke. I don't know. Just annoying stuff. So it doesn't end there. That Saturday of the championship, there's an earthquake at 420 in the morning. The quake was felt in four states and measured a 4.2 on the Richter scale. Just weird stuff. Then three hours later, a security guard at the course skids and crashes his motorcycle into the scoreboard in the press tent. And then there's a thunderstorm later in the day and there was a cart that was supposed to bring Ayaka Okamoto back to shelter, which skidded and smashed into a tree.

She hurts her head, hurts her thigh. Didn't seem too serious, but enough to be noted in this article. I thought this quote was great. She was more scared than when she saw Poltergeist too. So our poor girl, she got bit by a giant fly that she thought were like, you know, flesh eating. And then she gets slammed into a tree while riding on a cart. Yep.

When the thunderstorm comes through. That's a tough day. Yeah. All in Kettering, Ohio at the NCR Country Club, which is kind of Southwest Ohio. It's like Dayton area. So I'll own this. I apologize. Thank you. This is on me. Thank you. That's big of you.

Yeah. I want to talk about Pat Bradley, who is the best player in the world at this time. And there is like a really sick quote that she says about just being goaded. She goes, I guess they're talking about Greg Norman and how good he is at the time and just making parallels and comps and things of the like. So they ask her and they compare her to Greg Norman. And she says, yeah, but he lost three of the four majors. I won them. So sick. Okay, all right, Pat. Well, you gotta understand too,

like she wasn't just like, good. 86 was her, that was the year that she almost won the Grand Slam. I'm pretty sure. Okay, so this is the only tournament that she didn't win that year. If I remember correctly, she won women's PGA championship. She won the A&A, Dinosaur,

whatever it's called at the time, Chevron, and then won the Canadian Open as well that was also professional. One of my favorite things about Pat Bradley is that her ultimate, like just utter refusal to travel over for the women's open never played in the women's open. So in her world, there's only four majors and she won three of them was going for the fourth here at the

US Open. And she finished like top 10 or something like that. Right? I mean, she was up there. It wasn't like she was out of it. Yeah, she was very much in this thing't like she was out of it. Yeah, T5. She was very much in this thing, but she was like the boss. It's incredible when you look at it. Yep. She was the money leader. She also had a lucky number 13 on her license plate

and she would only use golf balls numbered one or three. Yeah, she just was a dog. So good that year. And yeah, like you said, this was the only major that she didn't win that year. Jane Geddes had won in 1986. So just was a dog, but I love that quote. I thought that was so sick. Well, and Cody, back to Pat Bradley not traveling over for the women's British. Like it wasn't a major then, you know? So it's like, why am I going to go over there just to play? I think it wasn't even, I think in 94 it got co-sanctioned for the LPGA.

So yeah, just kind of in the wilderness at that point. I go to Canada, that's far enough. Exactly. Yep. All right. Let's move on to 1987. Laura Davies wins her first major in an 18-hole Tuesday playoff. We had tremendous delays this year. Massive rain delays caused a six-day event, and the tournament ends technically on Monday.

This is also referred to as the longest ever US Women's Open. So Laura Davies, first English woman to win the US Women's Open. And I do find it interesting up until this point. So going back 1946, it just completely dominated by American women. You had Faye Crocker in 1955 won it. We mentioned Catherine Lacoste in 67.

Australia, Jan Stevenson won in 1983, and then Laura Davies in 1987. But just the, and then you'll get a lot more international winners going forward. But man, the first 40 years of the event where America had it on. Yeah, yeah. So we had it on lockdown. On lock. Totally. Yeah. That was significant.

So at that point, really only three international champions through 1987, which is so crazy. Let's wrap up the 80s. Let's let's wrap up these and get into the 90s. It continues to get more fun. Betsy King wins and becomes the first player in LPGA history to exceed five hundred thousand dollars in earnings for a single season. That's yeah. That's money. Good for her.

Big. I believe Nancy Lopez finished runner up again to Betsy King this year in 1989. We're getting to Nancy. We're getting to Nancy. I promise. I promise. We're teasing them. It's a long tease. Thank you.

Thank you for noting that. 1990s. We get a lot more TV time. Some weird ones kind of end up in the mix too. We're continuing to play better venues and then we see the emergence of Onika and we see more money. So Betsy King goes back to back 89, 90. Yeah, take us into the 90s. Where do you want to drill into here? I want to start at 1991. This one gets a little out of pocket, but this one's at Colonial.

So let's go first off, let's note that there's a tremendous purse increase. Meg Mallon wins 110,000 out of a $600,000 purse, which was an increase of 30% over the previous year in 1990 and double that of just four years earlier. So that's important to note. And then there's a really funny slow play controversy in the first round. So while playing the 14th hole, very notorious outspoken, I put like bad girl just for fun, but she was just a very outspoken person. Laurie Garbusy has her caddy go to the closest payphone to order a large pepperoni and mushroom Domino's pizza that she wanted delivered to the 17th team. So she's

ordering this on the 14th hole, wants it to get to her by the time she makes it to the 17th tee. Pita was waiting for her by the time she gets to 17 tee, where she shares it with her playing partners and the group ahead of her that was still waiting on the tee. She was quoted saying, I was just trying to make a statement. The round took five hours and 20 minutes. Five, 20. God, that'd be, you know, that's kind of flying by today's standards. By today's standards, right. I was like, oh, can you imagine Laurie today?

No. And if there was a player who would order pizza to the golf course, I think I'm first pick, I'm taking Charlie Hall to do something like this. That's exactly what I was thinking. I'm taking Charlie Hall to do something like that. That's exactly what I was thinking. I'm calling on Charlie to do this too. If she wants to make a statement about her disdain for slow play, she will order a pizza. That's great.

I love that. So sick. 1991 US Women's Open held at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, July 11th through the 14th. I can only imagine how steaming hot that was. Oh, God. I want none of that. No. Yeah. No, thank you.

We don't get out of July for a while, by the way, so lots of hot US Women's Opens to continue. I think about some of these in like in the context of like scorching hot temperatures or just weird stuff like Laura Davies winning in a Tuesday playoff and I'm like you should probably have half a US Women's Open attached so you're winning one and a half instead of one just for whatever you've had to go through that week. Certainly, I think, Colonial in the middle of July would qualify as well. Weirdly, I was thinking as the men were just at Colonial, what a great golf course that

would be for an annual LPGA stop, right? I would love to watch the women play around Colonial. Just not in July, yeah. We're good there. Or late August. Remember when the, man, what was the Dallas LPGA event? Volunteers of America. It just, they just struggled in kind of finding a home for it. But you're right, I mean, why not?

And there's a rich history at Shady Oaks as well, that's right up the road from Colonial. And I bring that up because there's a rich history at Shady Oaks as well. That's right up the road from Colonial. And I bring that up because there's such a big rivalry. Maybe the Colonial members that listen to our podcast will get a hair up their ass or something like that and be scared and jump on it. Plus new LPGA commissioner from Dallas. Right, Dallas boy. Yeah. You don't know. Just not in July or August, please. Yeah. Hope he's listening. Listen good. All right. 92, Patty Sheehan defeats Julie Angster, who also has an interesting lore with this championship in an 18-hole Monday playoff

at Oakmont. This was considered the second longest setup in US Women's Open history. Sheehan's victory is notable because she blew a nine shot lead just two years before in 1990. So she comes back with a little bit of vengeance on her own. I love this theme of vengeance and comebacks and returns in the US Women's Open. I think that's a pretty cool through line here. So shout out, Patty, for getting it done. Shout out, Patty. And shout out to a name that's going to become pretty regular here

coming up. It's the first US Open appearance for an amateur named Annika Sorenstern, 21 years old at the time, made the cut on the number, a plus nine. Finished at 24 over, tied for 64. But it's onyx season, it's starting. It's onyx season, it's onyx season, it's the 90s. 1994, we have a single round record set by Helen Alfredson at 63. This is also the first year that the US Women's Open is on both ESPN and ABC.

So getting some prime time coverage. I love it. Yeah. 63 doing work. Good on Helen. I feel like guys, this is where I kind of pick up some very hazy, vague, just US Women's Open memories. My grandma was a huge golf fan. Like I feel like

I probably started watching some US women's open around this time when it was ABC ESPN. Please insert any personal history because that like hyped me. Well, I don't have anything specific yet. But I guess when we get to Annika, you know, it's like just like vague enough memories where I'm like, yeah, I probably watched that. But I don't have any like super specific yet. I guess what we learned there big is that coverage matters. If you're able to get in

front of the eyes of a little, little Phil, you never know who you're going to get to pick up the game. And I mean, ESPN, ABC, God, I feel like we we kill for some of that now, you know? Totally. Yeah, let's run that back. I hope the right people are listening. We want the right people to listen a ton today. So, jumping in 95, ESPN still has the rights, but for the first time, the US Women's Open air is on NBC. Also significant, we have the first seven figure purse in event history, which is double that of 1990. So not only is the purse increasing, but it's increasing more substantially in quicker segments. So just awesome how much the championship has grown,

especially the 90s and all the momentum. And again, I feel like almost that lack of parity, I mean, again, it becomes there's so much more parity than there was in the 50s and 60s at the start of the championship. But you're seeing more familiar faces, you're branding around popular women's golfers. And like we said, coverage matters. And so people are pwning up the money and that's great. We don't have to ask for our dad's cotton fortunes or for slot machines to fund purses. So we're moving on up. Yeah. No, I think that's right.

A point, a good point about just when you have familiar names that are kind of going back and forth, winning, you know, going back to back, I do feel like it makes it much more appealing from a marketing standpoint. It's not like a random winner every year. Totally. Also thought this was significant. This starts a dialogue on pregnancy in sports. The low end this year and the seventh place finisher are both pregnant. And just notably, this is 1995, this was two years after the LPGA opened their daycare program. So it kind of just opens up longer timelines for women's careers. They don't have to shelve their careers. They can still manage

motherhood and being an athlete at the same time. So that's pretty progressive as well. And to cap that off, Anika wins her first U.S. Women's Open. Big year. Yeah. Huge. This would be, you know, this Anika train is barreling down the tracks. Barreling. This was out in my neck of the woods at the Broadmoor out here in Colorado Springs. Yes, I should I should have mentioned that.

Yes, at the Broadmoor, that is where she gets her inaugural U.S. Women's Open title, which is very significant, because I mean, she has one of the most dominant runs ever in this championship. And I mean, came close to matching that of the four ultimately ends up with three, sorry, spoiler alert. I kind of let that one run there. But yeah, just truly one of the most willingness players to play in a US Women's Open and would get her second in 1996. Also following that Onika hype, the purse becomes the biggest in women's golf and surpasses that of the LPGA championship. It's really interesting. This timeframe, Onika

obviously would do so much for Swedish golf and women's golf. Not to spoil, but 1998, we get Se-ri Pak, who obviously has done so much for Korean golf. And then in between in 1997, a completely, I'll say random winner, England's Allison Nicholas, who I say random, not only is this her only major championship, but she never finished in a top 10 in another major championship. This was a true outlier for her and just a funny random name to be sandwiched between Anika and Sari Pak.

Now, finally, Big, you know who finishes right behind her? I don't. Nancy Lopez. Oh, poor don't. Nancy Lopez. Oh, poor Nance. Nancy, yup. So this is the fourth time Nancy finishes second. And this is the most disappointing of all of them. At 40, she came as close as she ever had

to winning the US Women's Open. Yes, so she loses to Allison Nicholas. She had a downhill birdie putt, 15 feet, goes past the final hole while Nicholas sinks a three-footer for par to win. Yeah. Just probably one of the biggest disappointments of her career because it was the one major that she came close that many times to winning and just couldn't do it. I mean, she'd been poking her head at this since 1975 when she was an amateur and finished second place. So I mean, imagine just having a championship like that on your consciousness for like 22 years being like the one thing you're chasing and a matter of that. Like just by a hair, you miss the final pot

to lose to, no offense to Alice and Nicholas, a slight rando. Yeah. God. I didn't realize Nancy was kind of the Phil Mickelson of the women's side when it comes to the US Open. But you're right, four runners up there and actually three runner ups at the Demoria, another major that she never won. I mean, she, yeah, she left some on the table. Nicole Forrest I'd also like to know, she was the first player to ever shoot four rounds in the 60s in the US Women's Open.

So like theoretically, she like really deserved this. Like should have got one at some point. I mean, just, I just couldn't make it happen. So yeah, heartbreaking stuff, truly. That's a great little tidbit. First woman to shoot in the 60s. I like that. Yep.

All right. We're in the sixties. I like that. Yep. Um, all right, we're in the late nineties. Um, 1998, as you mentioned earlier, say repack one of the most, you know, transformative winds in the history of this event because it starts an entire movement in South Korea and inspires so many women and girls to take up the game. Sarah Park wins in a 20 hole Monday playoff. Just crazy stuff. Guys, I wish we had more of these like Monday, even if Laura Davies wanna run back this Tuesday playoff, but that's just so crazy and cool.

I don't know. I mean, I love more golf, but like just in the context of the championship lasting that long, because I mean, I love more golf, but like, just in the context of the championship lasting that long, because I mean, I always get to Sunday and it's like, you wake up and you're like, oh, there's 18 holes left. Oh, today's gonna be so great. But then you just know it's so disappointing. It's so bittersweet. And so knowing how spoiled these people were getting so many Monday finishes, I'm a little jealous. So 98. This was a US Open I very specifically remember watching. I can definitively say

I was watching this Sunday round from Black Wolf Run. I remember Kohler, you know, kind of that whole area was really just coming online as an interesting golf destination. Obviously, Sayri Pak. But I think I'm going to mispronounce her last name, but she defeated an amateur, Jenny Chaza-Reporn. I apologize. I'm sure I mispronounced that. I find it fascinating. Jenny was at Duke University at the time, would return to Duke University after losing in a playoff to say Repock,

one of the goats of women's golf, would help the Blue Devils to win an NCAA title in 1999, but never made it never really cracked it in professional golf after that. I mean, she would go around playing some mini tours but never established on the LPGA tour. I don't think played in another major. Certainly, I didn't make a cut, let alone, you know, come anywhere close to that 1998 performance. Her brother was caddying for her. I mean, this was a true like Cinderella, Cinderella story that I'm sure I didn't appreciate at the time. But with the, you know, now being 27 years on, like, God, what a, what a unbelievably, you know, potentially life changing moment that this was for Jenny.

Yeah, struggled. She turned professional, bounced around mini tours, ultimately, like just hated the mini tour life, didn't like professional golf at all. And I remember when they went back and like, the mid 2010s or something like that, they I think they invited her back to the championship for something. And she turned it down. And they found out that she was like, went to nursing school, after playing professional golf for a little bit and trying to make it and it's just like, living her life and was a nurse. So completely moved on. But you're right, Big. Forever Black Wolf run, those images, every time they would talk about whistling straights,

I always, the first image that comes to my mind is Black Wolf run. And it wasn't until the Ryder Cup and we were there a couple of years ago that like now I have these new whistling straights memories. But still when I think of Kohler in that area, it defaults back to that, say repalk, drive in the water, drop situation, brother caddying for the amateur and like this whole event. It's such a lasting memory for me as well. Unfortunately, I just made it to this earth. So like I have no recollection of this major championship, but it sounds like it was sick. Yeah, it was it was a it was a great championship. I Yeah.

There was just a video produced all about more from like, say, repox perspective, but on this 1998 US Open, if you search YouTube, I forget if it was the LPGA that produced it or the USGA, but some really good kind of look backs and deep dives into this championship for anybody interested. I just can't imagine also going to the hospital and then you find out the nurse that's treating you has won an NCAA championship and also almost won the US Women's Open. Yeah. I think I would be really startled and then I'd ask like, get back out there.

What are you doing in here? Yeah. I am always fascinated by those people that kind of have amateur success, close calls, and then are able to like, you know what, put that chapter of my life behind me and I'm going to go in a totally different direction. That's really fascinating. Which is the theme here of women being good at so many things.

Yeah, exactly. I got to go back and take some more stuff up against about this US Women's Open too, because I remember the first two rounds like the winning score, I think they finished at six over is what they got to the playoff with. But there was plenty of people under par the first two rounds, then something happened. I don't know if it was weather or wind. I remember it just being like overcast and rainy too, but everybody shot super high in the third round to set up the final round there. So fascinating that championship changed the lives of so many people,

so many people, and both men's and women's golf outside of our continent, really, and I would say of greater Europe, like had this explosion that I don't think, like we talk about it, but I don't think we even know the true context of like, what actually happened there. It's phenomenal. And, you know, we were able to go over to Korea a couple of years ago and just see that part of it. And there's so much more that's still left to explore, but everybody goes back to that date, which is so cool. Yeah, I'm just looking on YouTube, the USGA,

you can watch this entire final round, plus the entire playoff on YouTube from Black Wolf Run that's available. And yeah, like I said, there are many videos kind of breaking down Seripak, but Cody, you're exactly right. Like we're still living in the, like the tale of consequences from Seripak and what this championship was. Yep. All right.

Let's round out the 90s with another person who had a ton of close calls, but actually got it done. Julie Engster in 1999 wins her first U.S. Women's Open on her 20th attempt. Becomes the oldest champion since 1955. It wouldn't end there. She would pop up a little bit later, but yeah. You wanna talk Nancy chasing it? Julie was hunting too.

Yeah, I feel like Julie though has, you know, Nancy I feel like had outside of her PGA championship wins and she won everything else. The majors truly did not happen for her. And at least for Julie, she had the majority of them under her wing already. And I know this is really when she started picking up majors in a in a tight, you know, clip talking about us women's open here, she's gonna win another us women's open as you won PGA championship the same year. We'll go back to back for the women's PGA

championship. Canadian the DeMaurier in 84. Like it feels like for some reason, or like it feels like for some reason you can't compare the two because Nancy just had so many close calls that should have happened. Like truly the Phil Mickelson character. Yeah, that's fair. That's fair. I mean what just like prestigious names. I don't know if it's a product of I was just a certain age, but

God, it just seems like this timeframe is just littered with like very important women in the history of like the LPGA and women's golf. Yeah, I just, you know, I guess we'll need another 20 years to look back on like the current time to really understand, you know, how many Hall of Famers. But yeah, it just seems like a lot of these women winning here in this straight. It's like, oh yeah, no Hall of Famer, Hall of Famer, Hall of Famer. And it's like, I, you know, you look at the current tour and it's, yeah, I think there are going to be some Hall of Famers like Nellie, but you don't know until, you know, you look at the current tour and it's, yeah, I think there are going to be some

hall of famers like Nellie, but you don't know until, you know, we're going to need another 10, 15, 20 years to really look back and be like, oh yeah, no, these, this, you know, was either chock full of them or maybe not. Yeah, you don't know. And I mean, we don't know, right? Like it's so interesting to see the waves of parody and then it just tightening up into this girls club of people who are picking them off one by one. And it almost ebbs and flows in such an interesting way. And yeah, that kind of was the 90s. But again, we're going to prime time coverage. We kind of need that. If you want to elevate women's golf at large and the most important major championship

that it has, yeah, you need some familiarity. You need some consistency. And it was nice to see that it happened. And it actually continues for a little bit longer too, past the 90s. I guess just to put some detail on this, starting in 1990, right, the beginning of this decade, Betsy King wins. She's a Hall of Famer, 34 LPGA career victories. You go to Meg Mallon, who won 18 times, is a World Golf Hall of Fame member.

You go to Patty Sheehan, you know, we've talked about her, but she won 35 times on the LPGA Tour to Annika. Obviously, we know her story, Sayri Pak, Julie Ingster. We're going to get to Kari Webb. Like this is just a murderer's row of several different women who had outstanding careers. Yeah, I just, you know, getting runs like that, we just don't quite have that now, I think, which I guess speaks to more parody, I would guess. Yeah, but also I know we bounce between World Golf Hall of Fame and the real LPGA Hall of Fame.

And the fact that like the selection and how you get into them is such starkly different is that I want us to remember this because we go back and we applaud the LPGA and how their points-based system works. But also being able to throw for some of these people, yeah, they're a Hall of Fame member. It does elevate it. And I think that's one of the things where we start to look at big, like you said, like if you look at today's current day set up, like people aren't going to get the points that have won multiple majors that have done a ton to grow their game. I think Anna Northquist, you know, she's going to be go down as a multiple major

champion, Solheim cup captain, Solheim cup stalwart, changed the game really was that in a horrible, you know, a difficult spot being pretty much the next supposed to be the next Annika and did it and lived it, you know, through the yips and everything. And she will not like she's not going to be in the Hall of Fame, which I think there's like, you know, discussion to be had. I think that's absolutely right, Cody. That's very interesting whether they need to look at either doing away with the points, lowering the threshold. I hadn't really thought about

that, but you're exactly right. Cause I mean, yeah, cause there's an argument to be made relative to skill. Like it's gotten harder to do. Huh? Anyway, let's get back to it. But it does, you know, the, the women now who are able to reach that threshold, I think it underscores like how freaking good they are. Yep. Yes. Which, you know, Lydia Ko, like she deserves, that deserved to be like really celebrated last year.

100%. Very much. Totally. Totally. All right. We ready to get into the new millennium, guys? Yes. All right. You mentioned her already, but Kari Webb, this is the emergence of Kari Webb. You mentioned her already, but Kari Webb, this is the emergence of Kari Webb. 2000, she starts winning her first of two consecutive US Women's Open. She also gets to take home a good amount of money. We have a massive purse increase this year. It's 2.75 million with a winner's check of 500,000, which was over 57% from 1999. So just, you know,

fitting prize for a fitting champ. I should also note she got a bonus, a $250,000 bonus for winning two majors in a year. She had won the craft Nabisco earlier that year. So that's a nice, nice little take home. Also very annoying to read this in my research. The 2000 US women's open took place at the same time as the men's British open, which I'm sure you can imagine literally the 2000 men's British Open, probably where the viewership was. And totally underscores just how good Kari Webb was and how significant winning that championship was. Yeah. So disappointing to read.

Going back to our conversation about goats and Hall of Famers and just incredible players winning these US women's opens Kari webs more and I honestly had so much FOMO reading about and I did during the British open the women's British open as well But like when I started researching for the US women's open, I'm like, oh my gosh, what an era truly Yeah, Reese, Kari is a really fun on the course, off the course. I think a ton of personality. I think she's somebody that would make a great podcast guess.

Uh, if we could track her down one day, because I'm, I'm sure she's got all the stories, track her down big. Do you remember, uh, this is a little behind the curtain action, but she was actually- No, I do. Yeah. She was actually with Marina last year when I can't remember if it was US Women's Open or maybe KPMG. But we had Marina and Jane on the halfway through live show and Kari was like there in the background

and we're trying to convince her to be like just come on the live show just come on please do it and she's like I can't I don't want to do it I've had a couple classes of wine we're like even better but you're right I mean that would be we got to hunt that one down big. Yeah, there are quite a few here that we, that's, that's going to be our goal. End of this year, next year, we got, we got to get some of these, these goats and legends on talking, uh, their experiences and careers. Hope, I hope this, uh, run through is inspiring the list. I hope the list is growing.

No, truly. Sick. All right. Back to Kari. In 2001, she wins at pine needles, eight shots over Sayre Pock for the largest margin in championship history. And I put a note in my notes saying

if I could go back in time and experience a US Women's Open in real time, it would have been that one for sure. Really? What makes you say that? Just the two names there on top or? That was a lot of it, but it's like, how do you do that? Especially with how elevated the talent had become defending your title at that venue. I was so impressed by that. How much coverage exists of it? I don't know. I actually did not get to dive into that. But if I could experience it in real time, whether that would be as a fan on site or just watching the whole thing, truly, I think that was the one I would have picked.

Well, super impressive. Kari said one by eight. She was the only player under par. She finished at seven under. Saripak was plus one. The top like, what is it? Five names on this final leaderboard. Obviously, Kari Webb, Saripak, Dottie Pepper finished third. Katrina Mass. Shout out. there. Katrina Mast finished tied for fourth with Christy Kerr and Sherry Turner, who was a major champion in her own right. So yeah, JP, you could do a lot worse. This was a stacked impact US Women's Open here at Pine Needles. Stacked. Stacked. I also invite the both of you to call out any championships you either wish to relive

or wish you would have experienced in real time as well. Because that I think that's fun. It's fun to have a little FOMO. Yeah. Okay. All right. Well, we'll keep it going and I'll yeah, we'll call some stuff out here. Heck yeah.

All right. Let's get to 2002 because there was an important championship change. We changed the way that we are qualifying for the US Women's Open. So we're going to two stages now. 18 holes for local qualifying and 36 holes for sectional. This year, Julie Anxer is back. She wins again, two strokes over Annika, who was the 54 hole leader. She also joins Babe Zaharias as the only two women to win two majors after 40. So that's a cool club to be in. That's honestly pretty awesome.

That is sweet. Also, I wanna say the only time that Prairie Dunes has hosted the US Women's Open. What a great venue. Yep, again, you put that, think I know we're going to get there but like Inverness jumps out at me. There's a ton of these clubs that were like, what are we doing? Like, come on. But I get it. What are we doing? All right. 2003, Hilary Lunkie, she or Lunk, I don't know, I hope I'm saying her name right. 2003, Hilary Lonkey, she or Lonk, I don't know, I hope I'm saying her name right.

She becomes the first qualifier to win right after we changed the qualifying formats. That's pretty sick. That's a pretty long road to the US Women's Open. So shout out Hilary for her one and done. That's pretty significant. Well, and I was going to say nothing against Hillary, but kind of truly another like very random winner in the grand sense of, in the grand scheme of things. That's what I'm trying to say. This win would be not only her only top 10 in a major, I believe her next best finish would be a tie for 37th at the women's, I guess this is the LPGA championship, what would be the KPMG. Didn't win anywhere else on the LPGA tour, like truly a career week for Hillary, which is both cool and, you know, I think even more impressive as we're in this string of like Hall of Fame women kind of trading the US Open. It makes

it more that much more shocking, I guess. Can I fast forward two years? Please. All right, let's go to 2005. This one's crazy because Lorena Ochoa almost wins a US Women's Open. So let's get into Lorena real quick before we get into our winner, Bertie Kim. Lorena almost wins by making four birdies on the back nine and she led with one hole left. She makes a quad on the final hole to finish four strokes behind Birdie Kim, who would hold out from a greenside bunker to win her only major in LPGA title.

Yeah, like really her only decent showing in any major as well. I do, I remember this vividly. I remember very, very young, I think she was 15 years old. Michelle we west at the time tied for the lead going into the final round. Who'd you have? Paula creamer who was like, barely 18 Morgan Pressell in contention. Brittany Lang, like this is really when you started to see like, everybody was talking about this young wave of players who are coming. And the growth of women's golf. And this was the first time Cherry Hills that

I remember, like, very much living through this. This Leraino Ochoa would never win a US women's open. No. So this Yeah. That was as close as she got. The Lorraine Ochoa would never win a US women's open. No. So this, yeah. Huh. That was as close as she got. Interesting.

Yeah. And I didn't realize Bertie Kim was such a one and done either. Truly. I would have thought, oh, she probably won, you know, some LPGA titles, maybe contended elsewhere. But God, yeah, this was a true. I wonder how successful she was. I assume she probably went back and played a bunch maybe in Korea. Probably nothing

stateside. She gave her half a US woman. Well, I'm sorry. I just clicked into it. I'm seeing it. She was involved in a 2009 car accident, which I think played a big part in limiting her golf success. So, they didn't explain it. Okay. That's terrible. Yeah.

Oh, all right. Let's get into the rest of the late 2000s. We have a weird start to 2006, but I like his back and she's back for one more. Probably a roided out, right? That's when she comes back and she just pounded it. Of course. I cannot stress it. Of course. Alleged.

Allegedly. Yes. Allegedly. All right. First day, we're delayed by fog for an entire day. So the first one actually does not get started until that Friday. And the last two rounds take place on Sunday, which I know you love, Big. I know you would love to hear.

We're running back a 36-hole day at the US Women's Open. Newport Country Club. We talked about this one with Jane. She was tied for the U.S. Women's Open. Newport Country Club. We talked about this one with Jane. She was tied for the lead. She was her first U.S. Women's Open as an amateur, tied for the lead. As an am. After day one.

Big showing for her. So, Onika wins over Pat Hurst in an 18 hole Monday playoff in her last U.S. Women's Open title. And that gave her over $20 million in career earnings up until that point. So that was crazy. That was the final 18-hole playoff. That format actually ended up changing in 2007, which we'll get into. But it changed to a three-hole aggregate, and that actually only took place in 2011. But the last 18 hole playoff of the US Women's Open, Annika took part in over Pat Hearst,

which is pretty crazy. Massive Pat Hearst fan. We got to know her a little bit when she was Solheim Cup captain. I'll say Pat had a career 0-4 LPGA Tour playoff record and three of those four losses were to Annika, which is tough. Tough. Yeah, that's not good. I also want to say again, just because I mentioned earlier the year prior, but we're again here in Michelle We territory. Now a professional finishes T3, two strokes back there tied with Sayre

Pock. And this is like every year. You know, I think it's very weird. And I know we get into this and we talked about this while we were getting ready for Pebble Beach and her retirement. We talked about it the year after that. We talked about it last year. And I think people forget how good Michelle was, how much she put herself in position at US Open, the toughest test that they see every single year, and how much her 2014 win actually meant because it's a lot more than just the single

major. Yeah. Yeah, this this was kind of in the stretch 2005 2006 for Michelle where you know she finished runner up as low am at the KPMG. She's tied for third low am at the women's British to end 2025 comes back as a pro T3 at Chevron T3 at the US women's open will finish T3 at the KPI or T5 at the KPMG. I mean, she is just constantly putting herself in contention at majors, both as an amateur. And then as a pro. It's like the Michelle mania is full swing at this point.

Yeah, 2006 I remember it was the first time that I, you know, outside of 98 when I can't even remember her name was in the playoff that was still in college going to Duke. But this was also Amanda Blumenhurst was like the it player in college women's golf. And she qualified as an amateur. She was still at Duke playing. She ends up finishing T 10. But from Scottsdale at the time I was in college in Scottsdale and she practiced at Greyhawk. And I remember her like grinding. And I'm like, Oh, man, like, what are you doing?

You just got done with like NCAAs and stuff. She's like, oh, I have like the US Open this week, like just getting ready to leave. I was like, oh, that's sweet, man. Like, have fun. I actually want to pose a question to you guys. I see your thoughts. Can we kind of and not their careers. This is definitely not a career comp by any stretch,

but contending for Nancy in 1975 to Michelle contending and coming in second place in 2006. You know, is there one that's more impressive than the other? You know, are they equally impressive? They're both amateurs. Yeah. Tough for me to say, because I obviously wasn't around when Nancy was first contending. So I didn't have a great sense.

But I do like the parallel. I think there's probably between just the excitement that their rivals created in and around the game of golf. I do like the comparison. The only thing, so where we're at in Michelle's very young career still is that as an amateur, she had already received sponsors invites to the Sony Open. She played

in PGA Tour event. You know, she had played in multiple majors already, specifically like, I remember Kraft Nabisco, like she got, she was in there very, very, very early. This is when she started trying to qualify for the US Men's open. And I think it's a little bit different, maybe just because of exposure based off of the times. Phenomenal finish because like she truly was the person who was supposed to win anything that she touched, which is crazy to think about these expectations that we put on a 14, 15, 16 year old girl.

Like, what are we doing? Versus Nancy at the time, who was a little bit older, still very much an amateur, but like, seemed to have life a little bit more figured out and wasn't so much just thrust into the spotlight the way that Michelle was. Just such a different time to be an amateur golfer, to be a popular amateur golfer doing time to be an amateur golfer, to be a popular amateur golfer doing record breaking things. I don't know, just was totally nuts. Yeah, not a lot of that like you said, the youth wave helps characterize those late 2000s, early 2010s, the resulting Solheim Cup teams and so forth. the resulting Solheim Cup teams and so forth. It's crazy the way that the amateurs were really

elevating and putting a lot of pressure a little bit on the professional players at this time. I think, I don't know. We see it now too in a lot of ways, but I think it really actually had a lot of momentum again at this point, which is just funny to consider. So many of the top end players in women's golf, around the start of this championship, a lot of them were amateurs. With the women who were turning professional, they were very good, but not

many of them. Many of them still elected to stay amateur, not play professional women's golf because you just really couldn't make a career off of it at all for a long time. And you know, just speaks to how difficult it was and still is. But yeah, I'm sorry that got super tangential, but I think it's an interesting call back to what this championship and what women's golf once was. Well, and sorry, just to kind of connect, we were talking about how illustrious the 90s were for winners, right? In Hall of Famers and, you know, Annika and Sayre, I think the amateur wave is probably no small result of that, you know, that wave of like great champions in the 90s, I'm sure influenced a ton of girls to get in the game and really push forward, you know,

the work and the instruction and I don't know, I don't have any like solid evidence to support that, but it would seem like, hey, you enjoy this period in the 90s, where it's, you know, just banger after banger, Hall of Famer, Hall of Famer, it's gonna influence kind of the next generation. And we see that bubbling up into the mid 2000s, late 2000s. Yeah, just go look at it. I have to think that's related. Go look at the 2007 final leaderboard. There's two American flags on it. Christy Kerr, who won and Morgan Pressell, who finished T10. You have Japan. You have, let's see, a ton. There's six, seven Koreans, Lorraine Ochoa, and then Angela Park from Brazil.

uh, Lorena Ochoa, and then Angela Park from Brazil. Like that's the first, we've truly gotten international now. That's the first like final us women's open board where you're like, Whoa, that's a lot of, of Korean flags to include Sayre still right there, leading the way. And you have in B finally on the scene and GI. And you know, it's just, it's crazy.imee Isato who's going to be continuous through the 2010s. It's phenomenal once you actually look at it. Shall we wrap up the late 2000s?

Please. All right. Kristy Kerr wins in 2007. The first of two titles. We have a lot of weather delays this year too. I know that's been a pattern of late, but the third round is forced to be played on Sunday morning. That's significant. And in 2008, we have a young winner step onto the scene. Embi Park at 19 years old wins the US Women's Open and remains tied for the youngest winner to win a US Women's Open.

I did not realize that. Yeah. I'm not sure I would have known that had you asked me as a piece of trivia. And Helen Alfredson, she was the runner up. Helen, great career in her own right. Yeah. Helen's back. She was back for more. Love that. Finished runner up at the US Open, what is it? 15 years apart. That's pretty crazy. Pretty crazy. All right. Let's get into the 2010s. Let's round this out.

We are a little bit threatened as a major in terms of purse size. Another major steps onto the scene in the early part of this decade. We also changed the schedule. So we're not going to play in July anymore at a certain point. And we also see a little more parody. So once again, all that youth, all those inspired individuals are on the scene and they're just plugging away at these championships. We see that trend now, a lot of sentences. I feel like, I don't know, we don't have to get back into a parody discussion,

but I think the 2010s helps kind of bring that parody home. All right, let's get into our second to last decade. 2010, first time since 2001 where qualifying for the US Women's Open takes place in a single 36-hole sectional qualifier instead of two stages. Also important, Annika, I put an asterisk here, Anika and Lorena announced that they're retired. That's big. Interesting. I just want to say we are fully in the Korean revolution

right now, too. I mean, Cody, you hinted at it there, but between 2008 and 2017, Korean women would win seven of the 10 U.S. women's open with you have Paula Kramer, Michelle Wee, and Brittany Lang. Kind of three of that young expected so much of them from an American perspective, they were able to get some wins there. But other than that, it was Koreans just dominating this event.

And the ones that they didn't won, they finished runner up at. Yeah, like it is holy shit. Related. 2011, Soya Nyu wins in a Monday finish. So still got a couple of those Monday finishes left. Envy Park is back in 2013. She wins her third consecutive major of the year. I feel like I was really experiencing this on the periphery. Like I kind of knew that that was happening, but I wasn't into golf yet.

It would be a few more years until I actually started following golf. But I'm curious what that experiencing that in real time was like, because that's crazy. Yeah, it's one of those things where like truly I wish I had more of an appreciation for it in the moment. I wish I was paying quite honestly, like more attention to it in the moment. I can certainly remember the discussion and the buzz, but I just don't think I was as tuned in

as I should have been, quite honestly. I remember this. So this is 2013, what we're talking about. And I was, of course, deployed this summer. And thankfully, the Armed Forces Network, it doesn't matter. They basically, if there's golf on any TV, they're gonna have a channel dedicated to it.

What sticks out to me is that it was the first time in a long time that they're back in New York and they're out on Long Island at Sabonik. And that course absolutely slapped. And I remember like just big blimp shots of a pretty cool spot and being like, oh wow, there's like Shinnecock next door and National Golf Links of America.

And then you have MB Park, like just stunting all over everyone. You had a young Paul Ackremer out there. You had somebody who had played in a couple US Opens already, but is now a professional in just quarter. Coming onto the scene here, Brittany Lang, Shang-Shang Fenn, who becomes like everybody's favorite is right there in the top 10.

It's pretty stacked from top to bottom. I do remember some of that buzz about Sabonic, Cody. You're right, because it was a relatively new club and they were getting this big event. It was out on Long Island. Yeah, I do remember that. That's so dope. All right, 2014. It finally happens. Michelle Wee wins the US Women's Open after many attempts, many efforts, and this would be her lone major championship. And gosh, that I was so I had a professor in college who wrote a book about Michelle Wee.

And that was probably the first time that I really took a dive into women's golf history. And I didn't know much about Michelle Wee at the time. I mean, I kind of knew. I was like, oh, she was really, really famous, but I didn't know exactly know for what I was like, okay, she played in a PGA Tour event. Cool. Seems like she was a good player. Let me dive in. And this book was actually published before Michelle had won the US Women's Open. So I think it was published a couple of years before that. And it was kind of in the midst of her efforts and triumphs and attempts and failures and battle with injury and everything

and the media coverage. I think to finally do that and to have that stamp on her career at the most, arguably and there's plenty of debate about it, but arguably the most prestigious women's major to that be that be the one that you capture? I think, I don't think that, I'm sure if you ask Michelle, I mean, she'd probably pick that one out of all of them to get, for sure. Yeah, I totally agree.

Pinehurst number two, very fitting place to win your lone major championship, your lone US Open. That of course was the year the USGA did the back to back women's and men's events at Pinehurst, which was cool. The women being a week after. So there was a lot of speculation going into this and I think it worked out and it was a lot cooler than people give a credit to.

I don't think it helped that both winners basically ran completely away, the men and women. CYTA wasn't too much of a competition. It was so baked out. A new Pinehurst number two that people hadn't seen before. So, you know, native areas and not a lot of green grass and super fast greens. Guys, I lived in Pinehurst.

I experienced all this. Of course I was deployed. But we rented our house to Golf Channel. So like Golf Channel production people stayed in our house and they moved all of our furniture out and put like bunk beds in every room possible. And I think they slept like 22 people in that house. That week, which is crazy.

I remember, I say it's, there was a lot of like, oh, is this a good thing or a bad thing? Because supporters of women's golf, they were very much concerned because the men were a week prior that like, hey, how are you gonna handle like divot patterns and stuff like that? The course is gonna be like completely chewed up from the men and, and gallery traffic and everything. And that turned out not to be the case at all. Like everything was completely

fine and ready to rock. And I'm excited for them because they're going to do it again. And there's no other location where, you know, that has kind of the balls to take this on like Pinehurst does. And I think it's going to be really, really, really cool. Honestly, having the women play in, you know, the local area got get spoiled because a lot of people like the US women's open when they think of North Carolina naturally that everybody thinks of Pine Needles, which has done everything possible to welcome the US Open, you know, US Women's Open there, you're going to hear it's going to come up as another venue as the years go by once we get in the 2020s. And this was kind of like a shock because the Pine Needles, Mid Pines, you know, the Miller family was like,

what the hell, man? Like we're, we've been here supporting the USDA and all of this. Now of a sudden, like the big brother up the hill that gets anything that they want, like are they're taking our national championship away. So there was a lot more to it than just, you know, it being on number two, at least locally, but a huge success overall. Two AMs to note here, Minji Lee and Brooke Henderson, both had good tournaments this year. And Lydia Ko, who I think a lot of people thought would be an AM still at this event,

had turned pro the fall prior October 2013. So she was competing here as a professional now. Not only that you're missing another am that made tons of of news that we could of course that's Lucy Lee talking about eating ice cream and everything else. Yeah, yeah. How could I forget that big girl Steph Meadows bursting onto the scene finishing third Stacey Lewis ended up taking second here to Michelle finishing at even. Michelle wanted to under.

But you're right, Cody. The final results look a lot closer than this final round actually was. Amy Yang, who went in tied, she kind of went away early and Michelle was just really protecting a pretty sizable lead for most of the day. Yeah. I mean, she got it to like three under at one point in time and then gave a couple back on the way in. But it's phenomenal. And anybody who visits Pinehurst, you can walk through the halls there and the history lives on. It's really, really cool. So dope. All right. Let's keep it going. So the hype and you know, the Michelle

mania follows in the year after because they set, they go to Lancaster and they set attendance record of 135,000, which is really, really cool. I think this is just props to Lancaster. What an awesome community and an awesome host course. We would see them in 2024 again, but God, just a great place to have this tournament every decade or so. Yeah. I should have mentioned in 2014, that was the final year that the US Women's Open would air on ESPN because this year in 2015, Fox Sports has the rights. Also in 2014, they introduced international qualifying, which I think was a little bit

overdue, but they did it. And in 2015, our winner is NG Chun. Who of course, hopefully people were paying attention last year, developed a very strong bond with the local Lancaster community, has funded scholarships. You would never think maybe Inji Chung in central Pennsylvania would forge such a deep bond, but some really cool stuff resulting from her victory here. Very cool. All right. I'm going to skip ahead a little bit to 2018 with a player named Erija Jutanigar wins. It was kind of in the mass of her just being so dominant too. I think, gosh,

just like mini stretches of dominance for people. It's almost like the dominance for people and maybe we kind of see this trend a little bit now, but the dominance is so condensed between these players instead of lasting between back to backs and all that. I mean, with the exception of Envy Park who won twice,

I mean, just these condensed crazy years. Yeah, this was a crazy, we touched on this during the Chevron recap, but this was a crazy championship, a final round for Aria. I don't know Jordan, if you have more to go into it or if you'd like me to lead this. Please lead the way. I mean, she, let me refresh here. She entered the final round. She was four shots up.

And at one time I think had, yeah, like midway through a round had like a seven shot lead at least making the turn. She had gotten it to 16 under the next closest was nine under and then just started slowly bleeding out tripled ten eventually got to the point where she was tied at the end of where she was tied at the end of 18 holes with Hu Jue Kim, went to a playoff and ended up winning in the playoff. It was a, I guess it was a two hole aggregate, but they tied the first two holes. And so then they played a third and tied.

And then finally on the fourth, Aria won that hole by a single stroke. But I think is both great. She obviously won the US Open. You can't take that away from her, but would just point towards like some massive closing issues, which would of course rear its ugly head again this year, a couple months ago at the Chevron.

Yep. All right. Notably, we don't play in July anymore. We play in May now. So, still hot. Still hot. US Women's Open. We're still in the summer, but not as hot. So, let's open things up a little bit more.

Not, yeah, there's a little bit of backstory there too is that move not necessarily at the direction of the USGA or HEAT or anything, but at the direction of the host club, which would be Shull Creek. So basically, if you want it to be here, this is the time that you have available. If not, you're not going to have it here. I feel like Wolfie probably made that declaration.

Probably. We'll have to hit him up. But first year, the prize fund, JP in 2018, we finally get to a second year at 5 million bucks. But it seems like we're, we're peaking here until we like explode when we talk about money in the women's game. Yep. Yep. And I did forget to mention back in 2013 was the first year of the Evian. And in that year, the Evian and the US Women's Open both had the same size purse of 3.25 million. And then in 2014, the year that Michelle wins, the purse goes up to 4 million. So the US Women's Open once again regains its spot as the biggest purse in women's golf. Which, props to Evian for helping to force that issue, I think.

I think that's obviously why Evian was bestowed major status. I think as we're a decade on now, though, it's like something we talk about, like, should Evian still be a major? But at the time, you're exactly right. You know, they were they forced the USGA, at least to really start up in the purse. Yep. Also to note in 2018, the playoff format is changed. So instead of three aggregate holes, we have two aggregate holes followed by sudden death. So that's the wrong direction. Yeah. I know I hate it. I hate it too. That was that actually funny enough that it was kind of a sweeping change. They did it for not just the

US women's open, but also the US open senior open and then the senior women. So we just did it all on a batch, which I thought was interesting. All right. We're getting close to wrapping. We're getting to the 2020s. So 2020, I'll say first US Women's Open that I attended down at Champions Golf Club in Houston. It was COVID affected. I believe it was in the fall, Jordan. I don't know if you have the specific dates, but Tron and I went down to Houston for a couple of days and spent, we weren't there for the whole weekend, but we spent at least Thursday. I forget if it was Thursday

and Friday out at Champions. So some personal history with this one being the first one that I attended. Yeah, that US Women's Open. I remember, I kind of remember being on the periphery because that's when I was just getting into golf. I was like, I just, I kind of remember like hearing about it and like all of the championships being moved that year and being like, oh, like interesting. And then when Alim Kim won, I'm like, oh, who's that? Again, was barely into women's golf at this time, was still really deep into the college golf and amateur scene.

So yeah, I just, it's just a strange year, but I can't imagine the onsite experience that probably was really unique. Well, and don't I'm sorry about heat. It was, it was in December and everybody was bundled up. And there's, there's some incredible images. If you go back and look at it and, or watch it on YouTube of like truly how cold some of these

players were first time ever that the, the first two rounds were played on two different golf courses. That was the other thing I was gonna note. So good catch there. Champions Golf Club, just a really good host and a lot of history in the Houston area, but really doing everything that they possibly could

just to get the championship in in 2020. This was also the first time we were exposed to Ling Grant. She threw the first two rounds as an amateur was solo second. And I remember watching her a little bit. Tron and I were obviously very impressed. Still waiting for the full Ling Grant breakout. But this was the first time I remember seeing her swing a golf club and hit some shots. All right. 21. Let's get into Miss Yuka Sasso, who at the time played for the Philippines

but now plays under the country of Japan. She now defeats, which interesting to revisit the context of her playing for the Philippines at the time because she doesn't defeat a country woman, but now she does. She beats NASA Hataoka on the third hole of a sudden death playoff after they both tie four under par. This is also kind of the famous Lexi implosion where she ends up finishing third. She had a five stroke lead just before midway point but drops back five on the back nine. Bogeys the last two holes and misses the playoff by one stroke. Yeah. This was tough for old Lexi. She was through the 13th hole, she was four shots up on both Yuka and Nasa Hataoka with

bogey 14, bogey 17, bogey 18 while both Yuka and Nasa found a couple birdies. This was a great championship. Not only, you know, you had Lexi kind of choking it away. Yuka was this just young, fearless, weren't quite sure who she was, but hit some amazing iron shots. Nasa, great competitor. It was a really good leaderboard also at Olympic club.

I thought this was a great tournament. You don't remember what you were so fired up about this week? No, remind me. You were beside yourself about the coverage and run that young Mega Gane was getting. Mega Gane. Oh, that's right. This was the Mega Gane tournament. Yes. That's right. We're in prime NLU season when we're really, you know,

deep into the women's game here and you just, you were beside yourself. I think that was TC a little bit. I may have joined him for some kicks and gigs, but yeah, he was upset at how much shine she was getting. So much shine, oh my gosh. Yeah. It's hard to-

She had a hell of a week though. Yep. Incredible week. And it's crazy to think. She wasn't in college yet. She was committed to Stanford. Now she's finishing up. As we started this podcast,

she was one of the two points that mega kicked ass in her final match in the championship and excited to see what she ends up doing as she starts playing full-time here. But looking at this leaderboard, of course, Yuko wins. Nasa is right there in the playoff loses. Lexi, like it's people joke about it and people are, you know, I don't, unless you go back and watch it, you don't realize how big of like, it's just a straight up choke job. It was. Yeah.

And like there's so much from that tournament that is still running to this day of like, you can see herself like having flashbacks when she gets into that moment. It's it's crazy, crazy to watch. And to see it playing out like in front of you. I remember just like being put driving herself in the center of like fairways and just like duffing chips. And then I heard like going to putt and like having 100% confidence in the world,

it's not even finished four feet around the hole. That's the thing I remember. This doesn't have a chance. So as much as we say, a couple of years back talking about Aria and the struggles that she had closing, this is that times 10. Times 10. I had no idea until I'm looking back on it. Now I had no idea that Yuka started the final round at six

under and then doubled the second hole and doubled the third hole. Yeah, that's how Lexi opened up that huge lead. Yeah, I got I blacked that out. They started one off. So Lexi started the third or started her fourth to seven under. Yuko was at six and then a little bit of space back there. Mega was at three under.

But if you look at this final leaderboard again, you know, Lexi Shang Shang right there at T4 with Megan Kang again. I would love honestly, if it's ever possible to have a real conversation like what's going on with Megan Kang? I don't know. Angel Yin, young Angel Yin at the time, sixth place, tied for seven, Brooke Henderson, Arya Jatannikarn, Jung Young-Ko, Lee the Sixth, MB Park still like, it's phenomenal. Like this tournament at an incredible venue, venues matter so much. And you know, I just remember it popping.

Like it was, it was glowing on TV. Popping. All right. So getting to 22, we're back at pine needles with Minji Lee winning a pine needles. Gosh, she went over it was Mina Haragai. I remember and I remember that weekend that weekend was tremendous. And like the way that like Mina also collapsed in the final round at pine needles that was also really crazy. So like two pretty big collapses back to back. It's made for some really interesting US Women's Opens.

Also another interesting low-am Ingrid Lindblad finishes tied for 11th. She has a crazy week this week. She beats the amateur scoring records over 18.36 in 54 holes and ties the 72-hole amateur record in the tournament. I mean, just what a crazy breakout for her. And was in the midst of one of the best college golf careers on the women's side that we've seen for sure. So that was a really interesting time in her amateur career. But yeah, 22, 22 I thought was a cool year. I am glad you thought it was a cool year. I got to be totally honest. This was a bit

of a letdown tournament for me. I thought pine needles played way too easy. I wanted it to be more difficult. And I just thought the leaderboard wasn't, the early rounds were great. Like you said, you had Ingrid, but yeah, I felt like it was a bit disappointing in the end for me, JP. They did not agree to disagree there. Yeah, we totally can.

I was at this tournament and they did not cut and roll the greens as they had said because they were worried at the time it was very very dry that spring and this was a early summer beginning of June event and they were worried that they would get away. You mentioned Ingrid, Ingrid was on fire she was had a morning she. She was early late for tea time. So when she started, she was the first round leader and people are like, Holy shit. And then obviously, Meanie came, came out and they afternoon and shot a one better than her. But Ingrid came out hot. You had a young amateur, another young amateur in the field by the

name of Rose Zhang, whose dad was caddying for her. We are just coming off at this point in time, filming a week in the life with the Stanford women's golf team. What else happened that week? Oh, it was very, very weird,ive because, uh, we had, I'm going to say Danielle Kang back again, uh, this is the first tournament that she played in a couple of months because she said that she had a tumor on her spine, but nobody actually, or actually didn't even call the tumor a mass that was taken care of on her spine. There was a lot of, uh, weird stuff going on there.

And really, I know it doesn't show up on the final leaderboard, but this was kind of like Megan Kang's US Women's Open coming out party, like absolutely stomping around that place, hitting incredible shots, getting up and down from everywhere. And was just a ton of fun to watch. But I'll meet you there big. The end, even though we had a very deserving champion in Minji absolutely went out and took it one by four, the rest of it was kind of like, eh, okay. Minji shot even par in the final round to win. Like literally nobody went and like

tried to get it. That course could have been fiery all week. And like you said, they backed off of it. And I was very disappointed in that. Yep. The Minjee's 271 total I think is a US women's open record for low four round score. You mentioned Rose, I think I look back with rose colored glasses for lack of better term at this event, because this

was right before the Curtis Cup at Marion. And that was, that was, that's been my favorite week on site at an event ever. So I think I was just very fired up for amateur golf in this month. That's fair. Yeah. I think just coming from the Olympic Club the year before where it was just wild and tough and you know that that final round drama to to this event was it was a bit of a let down for me. Funny thing is that I spent the first uh I can't remember if it was Thursday or Friday round so obviously we were a couple years into Anwar then, but Anna Davis was playing this is the year that she won Anwar. You know, she's still, she was a high school

kid and it was a, you know, a couple months later at the U S women's open, but I walked like it was, had to have been Friday. I walked almost the entire round with her dad and her twin brother and just shot the shit and learned a ton about them that the following year would come into play when we're at Pebble. That's right, that's right. It was so crazy also for the Curtis Cup that year, Anna was only an alternate. That was an incredible Curtis Cup US team, but yeah, she won the animal

that year and was only the alternate. So 2022, real quick, big purse jump. Total purse gets to 10 million. That's almost a double from the year before the winner share 1,800,000 almost double from the year before. So this is really, I think part of Mike won his initiative to even out the purses between the women's and men's open. So wanted to note that significance. 2023 Jordan, I'll tee up the, we all went out to Pebble. We enjoyed a great week out there. I believe this was your first US Women's Open in person.

This was my first US Women's Open in person. And I cried so much before because I was just so nervous. I was so nervous. Like I was so excited, but I like had such the biggest bundle of nerves. I remember I cried before the night before my flight, I just had like a total nervous breakdown because I was so just, oh, I don't know, just very nervous, but like had the best week truly. I mean, Pebble was incredible. I, gosh, I think back to that week all the time,

but yeah, that was the first time we all met in person. My first US Women's Open. And what, like Pebble was unreal. Like what a venue to really elevate this championship. Yeah. This was, besides all of that, you'll remember Bailey Tardy was blazing the field. She was a 36-kilometer. I don't remember her. I only remember her dog. You hate none. I made the very bold call that she would not win. What else was this week? Of course, Charlie Hall played some magnificent golf, especially Sunday as she was trying to run down Alison Corpuz. And just shout out to Alison Corpuz. She played such good, steady, solid golf.

And just shout out to Alison Corpuz. She played such good, steady, solid golf, very deserving champion. I remember this week too being so much Rose Buzz because this was her first US Women's Open as a professional. And this was where she also had shot, I think it was the women's course record of 63. And that she was getting asked a lot about that. Like that was very

much the dominant narrative that week. Yeah, she'd finished tie for ninth this week. And it almost felt like a disappointment. Yep, which is kind of crazy. And in retrospect, considering she'd won the Mizuho just like maybe not even two months before. Yeah. Yeah. And then last year, I don't know how much we got to go into that, but Yuka wins her second one at Lancaster. Anything you want to note there, Jordan? No, she's playing under the Japan flag now, so she officially beats another country woman in Hinako Shibuno. But yeah, I like the rest of us are wondering if Yuka will win anything besides the US Women's

Open because she just really loves winning those. I also didn't mention when she first won the US Women's Open back in 21, she had tied in B for being the youngest player to ever do it, which I think is significant. Yeah. Yeah. She, of course, this was Nelly Korda, Nelly Mania last year, and that quickly disappeared on that. What was it? Like her second hole of the day, that part three where she made an astronomical number. Um, Yuka was so good. I mean, the lasting images are some of the iron shots she hit coming down

the stretch to, to seal the wind. She was, she's so good and we still can't figure out how that doesn't translate more week to week on the LPGA tour. It's crazy. You guys want to know something crazy is when we got to the 90s and we really centered around 98 and everything that that kind of meant. And we did a pretty good job of calling out countries represented in the top 10 following the years that we hit. This is the first year in like, I think 22 years or something like that, that there was not a Korean in

the top 10 at this major championship. Whoa. You have Japan, you have Thailand, you have the United States, and you have Australia. Zero Koreans finished in the top 10. So it scatters. Yeah. Around the East. Wow.

So JP, here we are, 2025, Erin Hills, first time that the women will play this venue. I don't know about you guys, I am super excited to get another look at it under US Open conditioning and just as a major venue for the women. I couldn't be more excited. We talked about good broadcast. I think NBC is going to put their absolute best foot forward,

which will be nice to see. But yeah, JP, awesome history. Thank you very much. Enjoyed taking a stroll through the history of this event. Guys, I think we just end with some quick predictions, if you don't mind. Let's go around and just predict the winner. I'll go first. I can't get away from my girl, Gino.

I'm just going to keep picking her. I'm taking Gino Titicum. Last time we saw her, she won the Mizuho. Really, really convincing solid play from her. I'm taking her up in Wisconsin. Cody, how about you? I'm going to meet you right there. It's very hard to say anybody outside of Gino right now. I don't know. We could play this game, but sure. Let's do it. JP? Then I might have to stick my neck out a little bit. I think I'm going to go Minji. You guys were not giving her her cred earlier. She's playing really well. She's leading a strokes game right now.

Yeah. Are you guys shocked that I told you last year at this time in 2025, none of us will pick Nelly Cordero win. I think that would be pretty shocking. In the moment it's not, but yeah, it's wild how that is. How about JP, leave us with a low am who's your low am pick? Kiara Romero. Okay. What's her deal? Refresh me.

Oregon, uh, Oregon gets out in the semifinals, but she had a phenomenal year, made some incredible scoring records. I think she has a really diversified game and I think she could play pretty well depending on the setup, if it sets up pretty fair. I think Kiara could make a pretty big move this week. I don't know. I am always banging the Kiara Romero drum because I just don't think she gets the credit that she deserves. deserves. She's made a lot of good runs in USGA championships. And I truly just, if you're a junior winner, maybe I'll show a little bit of bias to you, but I think she could have a good week. All right. Well, we'll be back. Like I said, happy hour Wednesday, live show Saturday, live show Sunday, happy hour.

We'll have some more predictions. But JP, this was awesome. Thank you very much. Thank you to everybody listening. Thank you to Titleist. Thank you to Omni. Thank you, Cody. I hope everybody listening and watching enjoys the hell out of the US Women's Open.

It's going to be a good one. Let's go.