What do Stacy Lewis, Lorena Ochoa, Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Seve Ballesteros, Sam Snead and Sir Nick Faldo have in common?
I am going to ruin it for you. They have all won The Open at St Andrews and shortly, one more star will add themselves to this roll of honour at the final women’s major of the year.
But notice Lewis and Ochoa are the solitary pair of players to have won the AIG Women’s Open at the home of golf. The coming week is just the third time the Old Course has hosted the event since 1976, seven years after the R&A merged with the Ladies Golf Union and took the tournament under its wing.
Ochoa won her first major in the sport’s most famous town in 2007, a time when the use of Open Championship Rota courses was well underway.
Royal Lytham and St. Annes held Sherri Steinhauer’s first of two consecutive victories in 1998 and in the next nine years, Royal Birkdale and Turnberry entered the fray. Carnoustie, Royal Liverpool, Royal Troon and Muirfield have all been used in the last 12 years, while still preferring the non-links settings of Woburn in 2016 and 2019, and Walton Heath in 2023.
I peered back at some transcripts from the 2007 Women’s Open where four-time major-winning icon Dame Laura Davies discussed the fact she had never even played the Old Course until that week, and Annika Sorenstam was benefitting from the use of Tiger’s yardage book as a two-timer Claret Jug lifter at St Andrews.
Catriona Matthew was asked if she saw the Women’s Open heading to R&A HQ as a breakthrough for women’s golf to which she replied:
“No, I really don’t think it’s a breakthrough. There’s really no issue at this course. Ladies play on it and have just as many rights as the men, so it’s really no big deal.”
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AIG Womens Open: St Andrews should become a regular host of the tournament
Davies and Sorenstam were among the first seven women invited to join the R&A Golf Club in 2015, a group including Princess Anne, Renée Powell, Belle Robertson MBE, Lally Segard, and Louise Suggs. This was the first time in 260 years that women could join the club. In February 2023, construction began to add a female locker room to the clubhouse for the first time.
While the course’s history of hosting the Women’s Open precedes these landmark changes, surely there is now a clearer, wider path for the Old Course to welcome the world’s best female players on a regular basis, as it does with the men’s sphere.
Between 1990 and 2015, The Open returned to St Andrews every five years and before that, only six years separated Seve’s victory in 1984 and Nicklaus in 1978. The COVID-19 pandemic scuppered the continuity of the five-year gap.
There was no event in 2020, Royal St. George’s waited another year to host in 2021, so it finally landed on St Andrews in 2022. At that championship that Cameron Smith won, both Jon Rahm and Woods alluded to 2030 as the next time The Open would return to the Auld Grey Toon.
Anyway. We know all of this. The Open is held at the Old Course all the time. What I am saying is why can’t St Andrews be a regular stop for the AIG Women’s Open?
I want it to become ingrained in the tournament’s history to allow the stars of the LPGA Tour and the Ladies European Tour to take the same walks across the Swilcan Bridge as legends of the past, hoisting the fluted trophy.
There’s no doubt Lewis and Ochoa are the subjects of green envy among their peers. They are the only two women who can say they’ve holed the winning putt at The Open on the Old Course, and part of a handful who can say they’ve had the chance.
Royal Porthcawl is the stage for the 2025 championship, with no venues pencilled in beyond that. Let’s take the opportunity to book a slot now. Five years is 2029, and then The Open Championship could be held in 2030.
What a 12 months that could be for a region that needs no excuse to get buzzing about golf.
In 2029, Pinehurst is hosting the US Open and the US Women’s Open in consecutive weeks. Maybe some food for thought too…
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What do you make of this Womens Open St Andrews plan? Should the Womens Open-St Andrews pair be a regular thing? Tell us on X!
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