Riviera Country Club is a marquee venue to host a women’s golf major. Will a marquee name meet the moment?
The U.S. Women’s Open is the first women’s major championship to be held at Riviera, in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles. The course is home to the Genesis Invitational, the annual PGA Tour event hosted by Tiger Woods, and it will be the site of the golf competitions at the 2028 Summer Olympics.
“It’s amazing out here,” Nelly Korda said this week. “I mean, the vibe of the place, knowing that so much history has been played out here. It’s a great place for us to play.”
Korda’s torrid start to the LPGA Tour season makes her the favorite entering the week. She recaptured the World No. 1 ranking from Thailand’s Jeeno Thitikul when she won the first major of the year, the Chevron Championship. In seven starts, Korda has three firsts, three seconds and a T8.
But she has had a mixed relationship with the U.S. Women’s Open. She tied for second last year but missed the cut as recently as 2024, when she made a 10 on one of her first holes of the week.
“It was just like, there’s no better place to be in than in the hunt on a back nine on Sunday at a major championship, especially at the Women’s Open,” said Korda, 27. “It would have been a lifelong dream (to win last year), but there’s more chances.”
The difficulty of this major has produced a variety of winners. Starting with Michelle Wie in 2014, nine of the last 12 U.S. Women’s Open champions were first-time major winners. Lydia Ko of New Zealand has never won, nor has former World No. 1 Jin Young Ko of South Korea.
Thitikul is one person who’d be happy to see that trend continue. She’s only 23 and has collected nine top-10 finishes at majors since 2021, but her talent level is so high that it’s becoming a wonder how she hasn’t broken through for a title yet.
“I don’t think (the way) I approach anything change,” Thitikul said. “Like I just talk to my coach what we have to do different, but in a major he’s just like, ‘We don’t have to do anything different because like when you change your routine, that’s when you change your mindset.'”
Last year at Erin Hills in Wisconsin, Sweden’s Maja Stark seized the 54-hole lead after shooting under par for three straight rounds, then shot an even-par 72 and held on to beat Korda and Japan’s Rio Takeda.
It was a promising moment for the now-26-year-old, but she hasn’t won a tournament since.
“I feel a little bit more pressure than I usually do, I guess. Then I just think, ‘What are the odds of winning it again?’ So the pressure, that just kind of takes the pressure away,” Stark said.
The subplot of the week will be the last hurrah for a child prodigy-turned-women’s golf icon.
Wie, now known as Michelle Wie West, had one more year to use her U.S. Women’s Open exemption and it was kismet that this year coincided with Riviera’s turn to host. Her husband Jonnie is the son of Jerry West, the late Basketball Hall of Famer who was a member at Riviera and served as the Genesis Invitational’s executive director for a time.
“The fact that it’s here at Riviera means so much to me and my family,” said Wie West, who has a daughter turning 6 this month along with a 2-year-old son. “It feels really magical to be on property playing the U.S. Women’s Open, and I feel so honored to be here.”
