SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. — If you were worried about whether Rory McIlroy, the reigning Masters champion, would find suitable partners for some Wednesday-afternoon tune-up golf, here on the eve of the sixth U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills, you can stop worrying.

McIlroy went off the 10th tee a little after 2 p.m., playing with Mason Howell and Hamilton Coleman. Both are 18-year-old native Georgians who will matriculate at the University of Georgia at the end of summer, where they will be roommates. Both had tour bags every bit as big as Rory McIlroy’s bag.

The fellas chatted easily with McIlroy, 37 and bound for the World Golf Hall of Fame. Both are McIlroy’s match for swing speed and ball speed and get-on-with-it speed. If they were intimidated at all, there was no outward sign of it. McIlroy made a subtle nod when Coleman, who looks to weight about 138 pounds, smashed a driver off 10. Coleman nodded back like this — a practice round with one of the best golfers in history — is an every day. Kids these days. Kids!

Waiting to play a hole, McIlroy started doing the bouncing ball thing, turning the face of his wedge into a trampoline, bouncing his ball again and again of its scoring lines until one bounce got away from him. McIlroy watched as his ball went right into his golf bag, falling straight to its bottom with an immediate and audible thud. He offered a rueful laugh and he and his caddie, Harry Diamond, started to pull the clubs out of the bag, with a plan to retrieve the ball, before giving up. McIlroy put out his hand for a new ball.

All the while, Howell kept doing his own bouncing ball routine, stopping the ball in the face of his wedge whenever he felt like it. A kind of magic trick, really — fun-and-games, on the eve of the U.S. Open. Howell was wearing an embroidered belt with ANGC stenciled on it. That is, the Augusta National Golf Club. In April, Howell played in his first Masters, earning a spot in the field, and a spot in Rory McIlroy’s Thursday-Friday threesome, as the U.S. Amateur champion.

If Mason Howell and Hamilton Coleman are two of the prominent faces of elite American amateur golf for the next couple-three years, elite American amateur golf will be in a good place, for skill, for poise, for a do-it-right ethos. In case you were worried about it. Rory McIlroy didn’t agree to join these kids, half his age, out of happenstance.

If you were worried about the quality of the greens, here at Shinnecock Hills, based on Michael Kim’s comments or anything else, don’t be. The Korean-born golfer, with a notably active social-media life, described the greens as “spongy” and “quite bumpy” and pockmarked with “aerification holes” in a post on Tuesday. The greens were not spongy by Wednesday afternoon, and Rory & Friends went around. They were not bumpy. The teenagers were rolling one tumbling putt after another. The greens were dotted with dark healed aerification holes. They will do nothing to a well-struck end-over-end putt.

These beautiful and sloping William Flynn greens here are a variety of colors, as exposed greens on windblown courses near open water often are. You can see shades of poa and rye and bent on the greens, along with the aeration dots. These are not Oakmont greens or Augusta National greens. They’re Shinnecock greens and they are more than ready for the test.

If you were worried about the USGA and how it will handle the demands of putting on a U.S. Open on an exposed and hilly course with four days of wind in the weather forecast, don’t be. For starters, golf is an outdoor sport (with all due respect to TGL indoor play) and the challenges of weather are elemental parts of the game. More to the point, this current USGA regime — the president, Kevin Hammer, whose father was a club pro; the CEO, Mike Whan, who made his way in golf as an effective LPGA commissioner; John Bodenhamer, who runs the USGA’s championships and has obsessively watched previous Shinnecock Opens to learn what he could — is comfortable reducing green speeds and keeping the greens moist in the name of keeping balls on the green in the wind.

In other words, we’re going to get 72 holes of golf in, over these next four days, and it will be good, by which we mean it will be interesting. So don’t worry. As the kids say, or used to, it’s all good.

Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com

SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. — Do you, dear reader, have any idea how difficult this golf course is? In the last four U.S Opens here at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club — from 1986 to 2018 — exactly three players have finished under par. Phil Mickelson played hockey on the 13th green in 2018. Lee Trevino once called the 156-yard par-3 11th — with its tiny green that was already driving players nuts on Monday — “the shortest par 5 in golf.”

Although the only thing harder than the golf course — besides battling traffic to actually get to it — might be trying to predict who wins the 126th U.S. Open. But we are going to try anyway. Welcome to our biased, slightly erratic but mostly logical U.S. Open tiers, where we’ll dig through the contenders and, ultimately, pick a winner. And away we go…

The obligatory mention of the two favorites

Scottie Scheffler
Rory McIlroy

Do you know when Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler last finished outside the top 20? The Players Championship, back in March. In the time since, Rory won the Masters and Scottie has four top-three finishes. Scheffler needs a U.S. Open win to complete the career Grand Slam. Rory is looking for his second U.S. Open trophy. Shinnecock sets up well for both players, who are excellent ball strikers and rarely play themselves out of majors. They are the top two players in the world for a reason. Also, Scheffler’s 30th birthday? It’s Sunday.

One guy we really like who shot 63 last time he played here

Tommy Fleetwood

Before Tommy Fleetwood really became Tommy Fleetwood, he closed the 2018 U.S. Open at Shinny with a brilliant final-round 63, which ended up being a shot shy of winner Brooks Koepka. He finally got his first win on the PGA Tour last year and has six top 10s this season. A superb iron player who knows how to play in the wind, this is the perfect setup for him. Is this major No. 1?

Some other favorites we really like

Matt Fitzpatrick
Wyndham Clark
Cameron Young

This group has been cookin’, people. Fitzpatrick and Young are the front-runners for Player of the Year (five combined wins, including Fitzpatrick’s win with his brother at the Zurich, which we aren’t sure should really count but whatever). Young has tuned into a legit threat every week — he also dominated 60 miles away at Bethpage Black during the Ryder Cup last fall — and Fitzpatrick has already won a U.S. Open and loves these types of tests while everyone else seems to get more nervous around them. Clark, another U.S. Open winner, sparred with a locker this time last year and had been searching for better results since, but he’s turned things around and might be the hottest player entering the week. After his win at the Byron Nelson last month, he finished third at the Memorial and was in contention at the RBC Canadian Open last week before ultimately finishing 11th.

One sneaky pick I specifically like

Tyrrell Hatton

He tied for sixth here eight years ago. He’s wayyyy better now. He tied for 4th at Oakmont last year. U.S. Opens — especially ones at Shinnecock Hills — drive players mad (see: Mickelson, Phil). But Hatton’s already mad.

Shinnecock Hills greens

Nos. 1-18

By rule, someone will win this golf tournament, but the big winner until then (or even after) could be Shinnecock Hills and its devilish greens that are running slightly slower than usual due to anticipated strong winds but are actually still very hard. Fitzpatrick, who likes these kinds of setups, said he was disappointed they watered greens Monday. Regardless of who wins, the course, and greens, will always be a story here.

LIV guys we are bullish on

Jon Rahm

A 2021 U.S. Open winner at Torrey Pines, Rahm has played well this year and you could even argue he’s out to prove he should not be forgotten about despite his league’s ongoing concerns.

LIV guys we are less bullish on

Bryson DeChambeau
Cameron Smith

Bryson has missed the cut in both major starts this year and we aren’t sure Shinnecock is the perfect fit for his brawny game. (The fairways are wide, but if you miss them, it’s dead.) Smith played well at the PGA, but was that too little of a sample size?

Defending champs with injury issues

Brooks Koepka

Koepka won his second straight U.S. Open the last time this tournament was played here and he’ll tell you he’s mentally (and probably physically) stronger than most of these nerds. [Cue Brooks stuffing the 20 amateurs in the field in Shinnecock lockers.] But Brooks withdrew before the final round of the RBC Canadian Open two days ago with a hand injury and on Tuesday said it’s getting better by the day. Still, will it bother him? “I don’t know what I did,” he said Tuesday. “It just felt like it was very weak and kind of a tingly feeling as if you kind of hit your funny bone. That’s kind of how it felt in my ring finger and pinky finger.”

Other U.S. Open winners we didn’t mention yet but think they have a shot to win

J.J. Spaun
Justin Rose
Gary Woodland

J.J. Spaun is this week’s defending champ and has already won this season — and, ahem, excuse the shameless plug, also has the most interesting coach in the game — and Justin Rose continues to play excellent golf well into his 40s. Woodland has been solid and his win earlier this season has been one of the better stories of the year.

Guys playing in their 100th consecutive major

Adam Scott

One-hundred straight. Cheers to Adam. That’s remarkably impressive. Here’s a breakdown of his insane major longevity: 74 cuts made, 45 top 25s, 20 top 10s and, of course, that 2013 Masters win.

3 guys we didn’t mention who finished in the top 10 here in 2018

Dustin Johnson
Patrick Reed
Daniel Berger

While we don’t think DJ is about to turn back the clock and find that form, we do like P Reed this week. You should too.

2 guys trending?

Bud Cauley
Viktor Hovland

Cauley won the RBC Canadian Open Sunday, just his first as a pro, and Hovland finished third — his best finish of the season by far. But is it a sign of good things to come or an outlier?

The Jordan Spieth tier

Jordan Spieth

My first major I ever covered was won by Jordan Spieth, back at Chambers Bay in 2016. I don’t think he will win this week but boy time flies.

Other guys who are intriguing and have already won majors

Xander Schauffele
Collin Morikawa
Justin Thomas

Would it surprise you if any of these guys won? No, it would not. Xander has played nine U.S. Opens and never finished worse than 14th.

Other guys who are intriguing and have not yet won majors

Viktor Hovland
Akshay Bhatia
Patrick Cantlay
Russell Henley
Ludvig Aberg
Chris Gotterup

Aberg might be the most intriguing name among the intriguing names without majors. Henley won a couple of weeks ago, is ranked 5th in the world and can walk into basically any restaurant outside of his hometown and not be recognized as Russell Henley, which probably makes Rory and Jordan and Tiger extremely jealous.

Guys we should probably mention but they didn’t fit into other categories

Shane Lowry
Rickie Fowler
Brian Harman
Robert MacIntyre
Hideki Matsuyama
Aaron Rai
Sam Burns

A flier on Lowry, anyone?

Guys we like who are playing in their first U.S. Opens

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Bad news, rookies — the last player to win a U.S. Open in their first attempt was Francis Ouimet… in 1913. Not gonna happen.

Interesting Alexes

Alex Smalley
Alex Fitzpatrick

Both have played well this year and one (Smalley) had a taste of major contention already this season (and finished T3 at the Charles Schwab two weeks after his PGA close-call). The other Alex has continued to prove he belongs on the Big Tour after becoming a full-time member a couple of months ago.

The oldest and the youngest players

Padraig Harrington
Miles Russell

I don’t necessarily think either of these guys will win but it’s always fun to point out the oldest (Padraig Harrington, 54) and youngest (Miles Russell, 17) players in the field. The oldest Open winner was Hale Irwin at 45 and the youngest John McDermott at 19.

The Jacksons

Jackson Koivun
Jackson Suber
Jackson Van Paris
Jackson Herrington
Jackson Ormond

The Jackson 5 is a mix of professionals and amateurs, although it’s mostly notably because 3 percent of the 156-player field is named Jackson. One, however, is worth highlighting for now, and that’s Koivun, who turned pro Monday to put a bow on a sensational three years at Auburn. In his nine PGA Tour starts as an amateur, he made seven cuts and finished in the top 10 three times. There’s a lot of intrigue surrounding him and we’re about to see him lots more on our TVs. A fine Jackson indeed.

And the winner is……

The last time we had a European win the U.S. Open, Matt Fitzpatrick lifted the trophy at Brookline in 2022. Now he does it again, finishing one-over par and edging guys like Scheffler and Fleetwood to claim his second major title. Scheffler was my pick up until Sunday, but after Fitzpatrick finished second in Canada, it was enough to persuade me to go with the hot hand who loves these gritty conditions. Will it actually happen? Now, we wait.

SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. — Golf’s next big thing had a pre-U.S. Open press conference on Monday. Because he’s golf’s next big thing. And golf’s next big things have pre-U.S. Open press conferences. 

In front of the cameras, golf’s next big thing smiled at most every question, and every answer was delivered as if a grin had a tone. On the left side of golf’s next big thing’s black polo was a cursive M, the logo of Malbon, golf’s next big thing’s new clothing sponsor. Golf’s next big thing sounded and appeared like golf’s next big thing. 

Of course, you must see golf’s next big thing do his thing, which is to play golf, and it is something.  

His move is electric. His putting stroke is hypnotic. The accomplishments are many. [Deep breath now …] He’s the world’s top-ranked amateur. This season, while a junior at Auburn University, he played in 13 tournaments — and won six. His Tigers just won their second national title in three years. He’s the first player in college golf history to win all three player of the year awards (Haskins, Hogan, Nicklaus) more than once. The list of what he hasn’t done is shorter than the list of what he has. 

But if you really want to know golf’s biggest thing, let Jackson Koivun tell you about a bogey. A scorecard square in a sea of circles. 

The plus-one came earlier this month at the NCAA national championship’s match-play team final, where, on the par-4 9th hole, Koivun was stuck after two shots. “I hit myself in probably the worst spot, just short-sided,” he said Monday. “Like one out of 10 it stays on the green.”

He went right. Safe. Bogey. Smart, smart, smart.  

From over the green, Koivun’s opponent “kind of messes up.” Double bogey.

Koivun won the hole. Koivun won the match. The Tigers won the title. 

“So that was definitely one I kind of lucked out on,” he said.

Maybe.

Maybe not. Listen more to Koivun. He’s 21, but could be mistaken for a number somewhere around the age of this week’s 135-year-old host, Shinnecock Hills. Last week, he announced he was turning pro, joining the PGA Tour through its college program — but thing is, he could have done so last year. 

But the then-college sophomore said he wasn’t ready. 

“I think my golf game was there,” Koivun said. “I just think I wasn’t ready to leave college, and mentally just wasn’t ready for the potential hardships and the travel and everything like that.

“But taking another year to really wrap my mind around that was good for me, and now I’m definitely ready.”

What did he learn over the past year?

What he needed more of, he said. 

“Just maturity,” Koivun said. “That’s pretty much my answer. I just gave myself another year to grow, grow as a human being, mentally and physically and everything like that.”

These, of course, are just words, and Koivun is well-spoken. 

But Shinny makes no exceptions, and it takes no prisoners. Its mounds confound. Its wind slaps. Koivun said he watched when the U.S. Open was last played here, in 2018 (when he was 13!) “I just remember it looked really hard,” Koivun said. “Obviously, guys are hitting moving balls on the green; it’s dicey. You watch some guys just hit some shots in places, and when you’re younger, it’s easier to say, well, how did he do that? Now you come out here, and you’re like, OK, well, that makes a lot more sense now.”

Which is to say Shinnecock is hard hard. And there’s his play at last year’s U.S. Open, his debut at the national championship. He missed the cut at Oakmont, another one of golf’s cathedrals. “Oakmont was hard, for sure,” he said. 

But remember, this is golf’s next big thing. 

And golf’s next big things aren’t easily made small, no matter the challenge, no matter the venue, no matter the tournament. That’s why they’re golf’s next big things.  

And Koivun is that. 

“For me, it’s just finding acceptance in golf,” he said. “Obviously coming into any event, I’m going to try to win it, but not pushing too hard and accepting that, like you said, it’s not a game where you win every week. 

“So understanding that and getting that through the head and just keep on going.”

PURCHASE, N.Y. — James Nicholas, the former Yale biology major who chose Q School over med school, has played all over the world in his 29 years, including Kenya and Qatar, across Europe and South America. But on Monday, he played in his childhood backyard, in a manner of speaking. He grew up in nearby Scarsdale, had breakfast in his childhood home on Monday and then made the short drive to the Golf Club of Purchase for the first part of his 36-hole one-day qualifier for the U.S. Open — the national Open, at Shinnecock Hills.

Nicholas — with his wife, America, caddying for him — shot a morning 68. Seventy-nine players for four spots. So far, so good. Husband and wife made the five-minute drive to Century Country Club, a Golden Age jewel. Purchase is a Golden Bear (Jack Nicklaus) showpiece moderne. 

Nicholas made four straight pars to start at Century. On to the 5th, a 460-yard par-4 where you can’t miss right. Nicholas has played in 13 Korn Ferry events this year and made six cuts, though not his last two. That was then, this is now. Though now in golf is always, to some degree, shaped by all that has preceded it.

He stepped in, driver in hand. America, a psychology major and a dancer as an undergraduate at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., held her husband’s carry bag in the locked and upright position. You might know the couple, together since high school. They share their lives on golf’s back roads on social media in a way few golf couples, if any, do. Shrimp and an orzo salad for a recent dinner and the rest. You want healthy, disciplined living, find James and America on all your favorite platforms.

At the 5th, Nicholas drove it wildly right. His Titleist ball went into some deep shrubbery not meant for man or ball. His provisional was worse, 20 yards right of his first and totally gone. If you and I were playing were playing for fun, we’re done then and there, right? Your hole — just put me down for 7. But you can’t, of course, do that in a U.S. Open qualifier.

Young James Nicholas, who played in his first U.S. Open last year at Oakmont (played the fourth round with Brian Harman — how fun is that?), was looking kinda stressed. His mother and brother and caddie, ditto. The dozen or more spectators with a rooting interest, ibid. His former college coach, Colin Sheehan, was following the action via his laptop while on a family vacation in Athens. (How Yaley is all that?) Finally, Nicholas’s second provisional — his third drive from the 5th tee — was right down Broadway. A par on his third ball would mean an 8 on the hole. Hard to recover from that.

One of the spectators went running down the 5th fairway. You get only three minutes to search for a wayward ball but the clock doesn’t start until the player gets to the scene of the crime. A marshal was out there, in the land of the lost, with only a vague notion of where the first ball went. The running spectator — okay, jogging, the man is 58 and is not on an orzo salad diet — was no ordinary spectator. It was Phil Mintz, a comically profane former Duke tennis player, retired partner at Apollo Global Management and, notable in this context, a four-time club champ at Century who has played golf with Nicholas since Nicholas was at Scarsdale High. A local high school golf coach, Mark Canno, was right behind Mintz. Both are Nich-o-philes. “Not only one of the best players I’ve ever seen around here, but the nicest kid,” Canno will tell you. Mintz will say the same. He had taken Nicholas out for a practice round just a few days earlier.

Nicholas grew up playing at Westchester Country Club and Winged Foot. So, yes, high cotton, New York style. Mintz describes Century as “the Jewish Winged Foot.” Totally different and one of the same, if you know what I mean, and you may not. Century takes in a handful of new members a year, if that. 

You could write a book about upper crust golf in Westchester County. In all of golf, across the United States, there’s nothing like it, the vastness of the wealth, the beauty of the courses, the tribal affiliations, the timelessness of it all. Before Monday, I had not been to Century in 40 years, since caddying in the 36-hole qualifier on the eve of the 1986 U.S. Open, also at Shinnecock Hills. The whole place seemed unchanged, except there’s a new single-stall men’s room off the clubhouse, convenient if you’re making the turn, with a black-and-white photo of Ben Hogan in follow-through on one wall and a color one of local boy Cameron Young, doing the same, on another. 

Back to the 5th, mid-afternoon on Monday. Phil Mintz could not believe how thick the vegetation was. Nobody hits it where Nicholas had hit it, except righty 100-shooters from the forward tees with wicked slices. Mintz was pushing back the plant life with two arms and two feet, a desperate needle-in-a-haystack search, with the clock running. Where is MacGyver when you need him? But even Angus MacGyver, wielding his Swiss Army knife as a machete in this jungle, would have been lathered into a panic state. “That ball could have been anywhere,” Mintz said later. “It was hopeless.” 

And then — wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles — a vision appeared before Mintz’s eyes: a white shiny golf ball, obviously a new arrival.

Mintz turned around. Nicholas was now in the vicinity. “You got an American flag on it, right?”

How do you spell relief?

M-I-N-T-Z.

Nicholas almost laughed at his good fortune.

He took an unplayable lie — there was absolutely no chance of advancing it from where he was — hit an indifferent third shot (after the penalty stroke), pitched beautifully from eight yards off the green and made a short putt for a 5. That bogey meant the difference between making it to Shinnecock and not.

“And now we’re off to the Hamptons,” America said when golf’s longest day was over. She looked jubilant and not exhausted in the slightest. Neither did her husband. These are fit people in every way. On more than a few occasions over the course of Monday, she gave her husband a one-word pep talk before he played a shot: “Commit.” This week, Nicholas will be playing at the Korn Ferry stop in Amarillo, Texas — with his regular caddie, not America, on his bag.

From there, off to Southampton, on the basis of Nicholas’s morning 68 and his afternoon 72. His 140 was good enough to secure one of the four spots. One more stroke would have potentially been one too many — there would have been a playoff with the veteran Australian golfer Matt Jones. Ben James, who grew up in Milford, Conn., also shot 140. The medalist was Kevin Roy, who grew up in upstate New York and shot 134. The Tour player Max Greyserman, from Short Hills, N.J., finished second, two shots behind Roy. Four qualifiers from the Northeast, playing in the heart of it.

“I played well in the morning,” Greyserman said. “But this afternoon I was driving it all over the place, and these greens are as fast and firm as anything we see on Tour. It was stressful.” It had to be. Trying to qualify for your national championship is stressful. Greyserman’s parents emigrated to the United States from Ukraine as teenagers. What are the chances? What are the chances of this guy playing his way into his third U.S. Open?

P. Mintz got a text late Monday night from J. Nicholas.

I owe you.

“He’s a great kid,” Mintz said. “He doesn’t owe me shit.” 

Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — There’s a statue at Riviera Country Club that lords over the entire place. From high on its perch, just outside the clubhouse on a hill, a dark brown bust of Ben Hogan overlooks the 18th green. The course is nicknamed Hogan’s Alley, for his three different wins here in the 1940s, and at the base of that statue are the names of other winners at Riv. In a few months, here in the club’s centennial year, that statue will finally add a woman’s name to the plaque. This is the first women’s tournament played at Riviera Country Club.

“I say it all the time,” Morgan Pressel said Wednesday morning, along the 1st fairway. “I say it literally every chance I get. I believe very strongly about how important venues are.”

It has been a bit of a crusade for Pressel, the idea that some of the biggest events in women’s golf have long struggled to access the courses where men have made golf history. It’s why Pressel signed off from her week of analysis on the 2021 USWO broadcast on NBC in such a giddy mood. She had just watched Yuka Saso chase down Lexi Thompson at Olympic Club, which had hosted five U.S. Opens, but never the women’s. 

“To add our own history to the already storied history at Olympic Club — it was a really special week … I remember when Pebble Beach was announced [as 2023 host]. I was like ‘Ohmygoodness. We get to play Pebble Beach.’” 

Pressel would have loved to compete at Riv during her days atop the pro game. But she played during an era where the biggest event in women’s golf was played at less-heralded courses. The reason why would never be clear, but instead of playing Pebble Beach, in Northern California, the USWO went to nearby Cordevalle. Instead of the game’s best taking on Merion, where the most famous photo of competitive golf was snapped — yes, more Hogan — the ladies played 70 miles west in Lancaster. Instead of taking on big and burly Shinnecock in 2013, they went farther out on Long Island to Sebonack. And instead of making that weird distinction forever and ever, the USGA made a pivot. 

“Eight or nine years ago, our strategies changed,” John Bodenhamer, USGA chief championship officer, said Wednesday. “We put at the top of our pyramid going to America’s greatest venues. When we say that, we mean it, and we start with the golf course, and [Riviera] is one of America’s greatest venues.”

The implementation has been somewhat sporadic, as Lancaster hosted again in 2024 and Erin Hills last summer, but the USGA’s run of bringing the women to the game’s most iconic haunts starts in earnest this week. 

From Riviera, the ladies will head to Inverness Club, a Donald Ross classic in Toledo that has hosted six men’s majors, zero women’s. Then it’s off to Oakmont, where last summer J.J. Spaun made one of the most memorable putts in USGA history. Then it’s Pinehurst in 2029, the week directly following the men’s U.S. Open there — and, no, the timing is not by chance. Oh, you tuned in to watch Rory and the boys rip around the waste areas? Nelly and the girls will do the same in just a couple days. 

The USGA has announced 17 of the next 22 USWO sites, a number of which will host the women for the first time after decades of hosting the men. We’re talking Oakland Hills, Merion, Shinnecock. 

“If we’re going to talk about equality and equity, we have to talk about the playing fields,” Pressel continued. “When you talk about golf specifically, there are historic venues that withstand the test of time. They’re far more famous than any single player and any era. Every era they have their moments and their history and their fame.”

At Riv, it goes back to that statue on the hill. Hogan’s 18-month run through the 1947 LA Open, the 1948 LA Open and then the 1948 U.S. Open. But in modern years it’s much more than Hogan or majors — it’s been the Genesis Invitational, annually one of the top events on the PGA Tour, where Dustin Johnson seemed to perfect the sport in 2017, and where Hideki Matsuyama shot a winning 63 in 2024, and where Adam Scott and Phil Mickelson and Jon Rahm all won as well. 

The women are experiencing all their peers have been able to throughout the decades — using the same locker room, the same workout facility, scheming their way around the devilish 10th in similar and different ways than the men ever would. Some of them have been quizzing their PGA Tour friends about how to work their way around the course. They’ll snap photos from Riviera’s epic 1st tee, where a 16-year-old Tiger Woods hit his first shot in a professional event. And at the end of their week they’ll summit that mountain of stairs behind the 18th hole, where each of those winners were celebrated en route to sign their scorecards. Yuka Saso carried her clubs up that hill Monday afternoon, almost out of breath, but still having enough to shout, “I just climbed Mount Everest!” 

That’s what the women’s game has finally been allowed to do, slowly but surely change its elevation. Royal Troon, in Scotland, hosted its first Women’s Open in 2020. Muirfield, on the other side of the old country, made its debut in 2022. Both clubs existed for more than a century without female members, let alone host women’s majors. It still took the Old Course in St. Andrews until 2007, during Pressel’s second year as a pro, to host the Women’s Open. It’s done so three times now and has delivered three legendary winners: Lorena Ochoa, Stacy Lewis and Lydia Ko. 

Pressel calls it all an “arms race” between golf’s governing bodies — both the recent history and future lineup. The PGA of America has Congressional, Hazeltine and Bethpage Black on tap. In 2027, the R&A will bring the women to Royal St. George’s for the first time … after already hosting 15 men’s Opens — with victories from Vardon to Hagen to Norman. 

Pressel believes in the connection between winner and venue. She thinks about the feeling NBA players get winning at Madison Square Garden. She thinks about that time she flew to see Taylor Swift play at Wembley Stadium. She thinks about her friend, Paula Creamer, not just winning a U.S. Open, but winning an Open at Oakmont.

“Everybody wants to either be the competitor there, or be the person there watching it,” she said. “It all just elevates women’s golf the more they can be on that playing field.”