{"id":836451,"date":"2026-07-31T21:24:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T21:24:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/836451\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T21:24:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T21:24:19","slug":"nelly-korda-charley-hull-are-the-notable-chasers-as-haeran-ryu-attempts-a-majors-3-peat-at-aig-womens-open-australian-golf-digest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/836451\/","title":{"rendered":"Nelly Korda, Charley Hull are the notable chasers as Haeran Ryu attempts a majors 3-peat at AIG Women&#8217;s Open \u2013 Australian Golf Digest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[Photo: Morgan Harlow\/R&amp;A]<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jeeno Thitikul, Charley Hull and Nelly Korda are among the big names at the AIG Women\u2019s Open within striking distance of history-chaser Haeran Ryu, the South Korean who remains on a path towards a third straight major win.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On the second day of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.australiangolfdigest.com.au\/opinion-a-hemisphere-shift-is-the-key-to-a-less-lopsided-global-golf-calendar\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">final major of the year<\/a>, Ryu struggled on her front nine at Royal Lytham &amp; St Annes, mixing a double-bogey and a bogey with two birdies to make the turn in one-over-par. Ryu steadied the ship with three back-nine birdies and a 69 that elevated her total to seven-under. She leads at the halfway mark by one shot over Japan\u2019s Shiho Kuwaki.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Only two of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.australiangolfdigest.com.au\/complete-guide-to-aig-womens-open-2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">nine Australians in the field<\/a> made the halfway cut, with Robyn Choi the best placed at one-under, tied for 14th. Hannah Green (two-over, T-31) was the only other Aussie to make the weekend.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ryu, 25, was grouped in the opening two rounds with world No.1 Korda and fellow multiple-major champion Lydia Ko. The world No.3 said she learned plenty from the star duo as she seeks to become the fifth LPGA player to win three consecutive majors and the third to do so in the same season. The most recent was Inbee Park in 2013. Ryu would not have played any event other than majors during that streak.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cYeah, they\u2019re such great players, Nelly and Lydia,\u201d Ryu said. \u201cI learned a lot with Nelly and Lydia the last two days and I want to get more experience for this golf course and the major on the weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">A new solo leader at the \ud83d\udd1d<\/p>\n<p>Haeran Ryu birdies 18 for a round of 69, setting the clubhouse target on -7. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/YLbjY9iezF\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/YLbjY9iezF<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 AIG Women\u2019s Open (@AIGWomensOpen) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/AIGWomensOpen\/status\/2083250810020872552?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">July 31, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">World No.2 Thitikul shot 73 but at five-under was only two shots off the lead. The 23-year-old Thai is chasing her first major victory after several close calls \u2013 notably, a crushing playoff loss to Australia\u2019s Grace Kim at last year\u2019s Evian Championship \u2013 and urged patience on the unpredictable links turf.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cYou have to think on every shot,\u201d she said. \u201cYou hit it and it\u2019s bounce like either left or right. So I feel like patient and then commit to the shot and the wind that you see.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Home favourite Hull backed up an opening-round 69 with a 71, combining three birdies with as many bogeys to remain at two-under and five shots behind the lead heading into the closing rounds. Fellow English player Lottie Woad is also two-under.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ko and Korda remained in contention at one-under.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Korda was impressed by Ryu over two days at Royal Lytham, having won the first two majors of the year before Ryu took the reins of women\u2019s golf by winning the Women\u2019s PGA and Evian.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cJust really solid,\u201d Korda said of Ryu. \u201cYou can tell she\u2019s a very confident player right now, as she should be. Just won the past two majors. Just hitting it really good. Putting really, really well, too.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A victory from either Hull or Korda, whose results on links courses were not great until a T-2 at St Andrews in 2024, would be the most resounding outcome for the event given they are women\u2019s golf\u2019s two biggest names. Korda is chasing a fifth major title and is poised to make a weekend run.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Korda is also seeking a maiden Women\u2019s Open title to compete the career Grand Slam of four different major victories among the five.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cYeah, 36 in, 36 holes to go,\u201d Korda said. \u201cYou never know what\u2019s going to happen. It\u2019s links golf. Just going to try to have the same attitude I had today going into the weekend, yeah.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>    <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[Photo: Morgan Harlow\/R&amp;A] Jeeno Thitikul, Charley Hull and Nelly Korda are among the big names at the AIG&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":836452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[28634,4225,64,63,36444,755,138747,327243,121700,30658,21225,115133,301647,406652,408547,85],"class_list":["post-836451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-aig-womens-open","tag-article","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-charley-hull","tag-golf","tag-golf-digest","tag-haeran-ryu","tag-jeeno-thitikul","tag-lydia-ko","tag-nelly-korda","tag-ra","tag-robyn-choi","tag-royal-lytham-st-annes-golf-club","tag-shiho-kuwaki","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=836451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/836452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=836451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=836451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=836451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}