In 1946, Patty Berg won the inaugural U.S. Women’s Open at Spokane Country Club, beating a field of 39 players for a first-place prize of $5,600, paid entirely in war bonds.

She might not recognize the event today.

Eight decades on, the 81st U.S. Women’s Open presented by Ally arrives this June at Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles, where 156 of the best female players in the world — whittled from a pool of 1,897 entries — will compete on one of the game’s most storied stages for a total purse of $12 million.

Do the math. The numbers alone tell a striking story about the evolution of women’s golf. But as with most good stories, statistics only go so far.

Golf is booming as never before, and female players have helped power that surge. Nearly 8 million now play the game in the United States, according to the National Golf Foundation, a 46-percent increase since 2019. They account for a record 28 percent of all golfers and contribute significantly to the billions spent in the game each year.

And yet, for many women from all walks of life, golf still often seems like someone else’s pursuit: governed by unfamiliar rules, elusive codes of conduct and a culture that falls shy of feeling fully inclusive. For all the strides that golf has made since Patty Berg was in her prime, a divide remains, limiting women’s access not only to the camaraderie and competition of the game but also to the relationships and opportunities so often forged around it.

That was the gap a recent gathering at Riviera set out to close.

Presented by the USGA and Ally, the presenting partner of the U.S. Women’s Open, an event called “Golf with Us” brought together 40 female business professionals, many of them newcomers to the game, for an immersive day of instruction and conversation. On the range, participants worked with eight teaching professionals across three stations covering full swing, short game and putting. They flushed some shots and bladed others. No one was keeping track. The goal was not to produce scratch golfers. It was something more impactful: to help women gain confidence and comfort with a game that carries profound benefits both on and off the course.

“I’m someone who has been in (golf) my entire life,” said Tisha Alyn, a former professional golfer, media host, trick-shot artist and entrepreneur, who moderated a panel discussion that followed. “Every opportunity, the majority of friendships, the majority of connections and employees I’ve made in my life have been through this game.”

Alyn knew that made her an outlier in the room. A quick show of hands confirmed it.

“How many of you had played golf before today?” she asked.

Most hands went up.

“And how many of you have made a business deal on the course?”

Most hands stayed down.

Alyn’s three panelists had plenty to say about that gulf, which they’d each confronted in one form or another in their own winding paths into the game. Lauren Campbell, director of sports and entertainment marketing at Ally, was introduced to golf as a child through father-daughter outings to a PGA Tour event in Michigan and has spent much of her career since trying to make the game more accessible and inviting for women. Kat Harwood, U.S. sports practice leader, Deloitte Consulting LLP, got her start as a passenger in a cart, riding alongside her husband, taking in the fresh air and scenery, until curiosity finally got the better of her. When play ground to a halt, she began taking swings. She realized that she liked it. What’s more, she discovered, “I wasn’t terrible at it,” she said. Katie Conway, the USGA’s senior director of partnerships, grew up as a fan’s daughter, her childhood weekends structured around Jack Nicklaus’s tee times. She even worked at golf courses along the way, yet somehow never thought to pick up a club. Eleven years into her career at the USGA, she’s still early in the learning curve. She has yet to break 100.

Which, as the panel made clear, is beside the point.

As Alyn teed them up, the speakers took turns sharing experiences and counsel. Conway talked about treating every round as a chance to learn something: a swing tip, a point of etiquette, a better feel for the rhythm of the game. She recalled playing Pebble Beach in a USGA outing, posting a score that was not the course record, but walking off focused on the positive: a single hole she’d played particularly well. She recommended adopting that mindset. “Women are less exposed to golf,” she said, “and we’re probably harder on ourselves than we should be.” Find the one good shot. Carry that with you.

Harwood offered a companion thought: Don’t make a production of the bad ones. No anguished post-shot commentary, no apology to your playing partners. “I realized I was drawing attention to my bad shots,” she said. Most of the judgment golfers fear on the course exists only in their imagination. Fact is, no one cares how you play as long as you’re not slowing down the pace. “Just pick up the ball and move on,” Harwood said.

Another pearl of hard-won wisdom: Don’t hesitate to go all in. For a while, Harwood said, she’d never taken a lesson, which she used as a built-in excuse, until she realized how absurd that was. “I wouldn’t do that in any other aspect of my life,” she said. If she wanted to learn to cook, she’d take a cooking class. Golf deserved the same respect and attention.

The women in the audience weren’t beginners off the course. They were accomplished professionals, mothers, wives. But Alyn was candid about how long it can take to feel truly at home in the game, and how to reframe the moments that feel most daunting. Being the only woman in a golf outing, she said, isn’t so different from being the only woman in a boardroom. Both can be intimidating. Both can be flipped with some mental gymnastics. “You might think, ‘Holy crap, there are only two or three women in this room,’” she said. “I’m like, ‘Heck yeah, I’m here.’” Confidence on the course, she added, can also be a matter of faking it until you make it. “You all are badasses in this room. You have so much conviction in whatever you try.” Apply that same mentality to golf, and eventually the feeling becomes real.

And whatever you’re feeling on the course, remember: It’s a game. It’s supposed to be fun.

Trouble is, it can seem so serious, walled off by barriers — some real, some imagined — that the industry is bent on bringing down. As evidence, take the U.S. Women’s Open presented by Ally itself, the oldest championship in women’s golf, and a tournament whose growth over eight decades is a shining reflection of the game’s changing face.

As Conway made plain, you don’t have to be a pro to be part of the picture. She has no illusions about her game. She still has her sights on breaking 100. But her broader ambition can’t be measured in strokes. When work outings have come up in the past, she’s found herself asking hesitant questions. Would she be the only woman in the group? Were others aware of her skill level? She’d like to let go of that self-doubt.

“I’d love to get to a place where I just say yes,” she said. “I’d be happy to play with those clients without any caveats.”

She encouraged the women in the room to do the same, whether the invitation is to a driving range, a mini-golf outing or a company scramble.

“Just say yes to golf somewhere in your life,” she said. “It will change your life personally and professionally.”

HOUSTON — Nelly Korda’s major championship season opened with stress and everyone holding their breath.

Starting on the par-4 10th at Memorial Park, Korda faced a six-foot sliding putt for par. Miss it, and the World No. 2 would start the Chevron Championship with an inauspicious bogey and be behind the eight-ball out of the gates, leaving everyone wondering if a repeat of a shaky 2025 major season was on deck. She took a deep breath and calmly rolled it in the heart. Another seven-foot par putt awaited her on her second hole of the day, the par-3 11th, and once again Korda answered the bell.

Just as the LPGA needed her to.

It’s unfair to put the tour on Korda’s shoulders. But she’s the biggest star in the women’s game and if the LPGA is going to make inroads with new audiences, it needs their biggest needle to be a draw on its biggest weeks.

The LPGA needed Nelly Korda to provide electricity this week at Memorial Park. After two gritty par saves to start her championship, Nelly Korda delivered.

She birdied No. 12 and No. 16 to turn in 2-under. Then, she hit the gas. Korda stuffed a wedge into the par-5 first to get to 3 under and then hit a 5 iron on the par-3 second hole to five feet for another birdie.

“I hit that one good,” a beaming Korda said after her round. “Those are the shots that you’re like, oh, God, I love golf.”

Another birdie followed at the third to get Korda into a tie for the early lead. After three straight pars, Korda arrived at the par-3 7th hole and hit a towering 6 iron to five feet for another birdie. A final birdie at the par-5 8th meant Korda signed for an opening round of 7 under and a two-shot lead. It was the second-lowest opening round in a major of Korda’s career and her first bogey-free round in a major since the second round of the 2024 AIG Women’s Open.

A year ago, Korda was going through the early part of a “weird” and winless 2025 season. It was a campaign that saw her truly contend at only one of the five majors. It was frustrating but also served as a reminder for Korda that she already has all she needs. She has long held the key to her own success and has the support system around her to keep her stable in the downturns that naturally arrive in the world of professional golf.

“I would say that you receive a lot more criticism when you’re on top of the game, and having a tight-knit circle, you’re very grateful for the people you have around,” Korda said at last year’s CME Group Tour Championship. “The circle does get a little smaller, but I think I have an amazing circle. I would say I’m extremely, extremely lucky for the people that I have around me. At the end of the day, the life that we live and performing in front of people, it is super important to have that stability in your life.”

That circle, and the consistency in it, have helped Nelly Korda find Nelly Korda so far this year. After constantly finishing on the wrong side of golf’s “fine line” in 2025, Korda got back to work. She refined her schedule, kept the pedal down practicing with her longtime coach David Whelan in the offseason, made sure her body was ready for the grind of another season and kept her circle the same.

All of that has seen Korda start the year with a win at the weather-shortened Tournament of Champions, followed by three straight runner-up finishes heading into the year’s first major. Her game and mind are where they need to be.

“With golf, I feel like you can put in the work,” Korda said on Tuesday before the tournament. “Like I always say, control what you can control, and am I working hard? Am I putting in the effort every single day mentally and physically? Other than that, I can’t control anything. I can’t control the weather. I can’t control what other girls do, what other girls shoot. I can’t control if I hit a good shot, and I’m in a divot.

“Like there are so many things on this game that you just can’t control. I try to just take that all out of my mind and be like, Okay, I am going to focus on what I can control, and that’s it.”

Nelly Korda controlled all she could to be ready for this week. She took last week off to work more with Whelan and brought her putting coach David Angelotti out to Houston for the week. She played 18 holes on Monday and then putted on wet greens on Tuesday once the thunderstorms had passed. She saw a long, demanding golf course that played to her strengths. All that was vital to what transpired Thursday.

But Nelly Korda is also free and loose. The frustrations of last year are flushed. She’s opened the season on a tear and is now already two shots ahead on a course she just ripped apart in the opening 18 holes.

“I’m just happy,” Korda said after her round, about the different feelings this year brings before praising every member of her team, from Whelan to longtime caddie Jason McDede. “I think just there is a comfort and happiness inside me that makes me happy on the golf course.”

A free and easy Nelly Korda has been unleashed this week in Houston. That’s bad news for the rest of the field but exactly what the LPGA needed.