The US Women’s Open is set for its 79th staging in 2024 as Allisen Corpuz attempts to defend her title at Lancaster Country Club in Pennsylvania.
Corpuz won by three strokes in 2023 to claim not only her maiden Major but also her first LPGA Tour victory after turning pro two years previous.
The American follows in a long line of 55 different past champions of the oldest and arguably most prestigious Major competition in women’s professional golf, with 40 one-time victors and 15 others sharing the remaining crowns.
Patty Berg is a member of the one-win club, succeeding in the very first US Women’s Open – which was a matchplay contest – against Betty Jameson. The beaten Jameson would gain her revenge the following year, however, claiming the very first strokeplay event in 1947.
The third-ever winner was Babe Zaharias, and she remains one of only four players to have lifted three US Women’s Open titles – along with Susie Berning, Hollis Stacy, and arguably the greatest female player of all time, Annika Sorenstam.
Four-time US Women’s Open champion, Mickey Wright
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Zaharias failed to triumph in consecutive years, though, unlike her three peers. Sorenstam went back-to-back in 1996, Stacy did the same in 1978, and Berning completed her double in 1973.
The defending champion has retained the title on seven occasions in total, most recently in 2001 via Karrie Webb. The others to do it were Betsy King (1990), Donna Caponi (1970), and Mickey Wright (1959).
And it is Wright who holds the joint-most US Women’s Open titles alongside Betsy Rawls. The pair have four victories apiece, and they all arrived in a dominant period between 1951 and 1964.
Rawls won her first three before Wright had even scooped her maiden US Women’s Open, with eight-time Major winner Rawls standing on the top metaphorical step in 1951, 1953, and 1957. Wright’s successes were highly concentrated, too, with wins in 1958, 1959, 1961, and 1964. The 1960 champion – Rawls, of course.
The record scores at the Women’s US Open are owned by Minjee Lee and Juli Inkster. Australia’s Lee won at Pine Needles in 2022 with a record 271 total, while Inkster set the lowest ever score-to-par of -16 in 1999 at Old Waverly.
Four-time US Women’s Open champion, Betsy Rawls
(Image credit: Getty Images)
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