{"id":834119,"date":"2026-07-29T17:29:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T17:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/834119\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T17:29:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T17:29:11","slug":"aig-womens-open-preview-history-on-the-line-in-final-korda-ryu-showdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/834119\/","title":{"rendered":"AIG Women’s Open preview: History on the line in final Korda, Ryu showdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

The LPGA Tour has never seen the kind of major season like what has unfolded over the last four months.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With one final major left on the calendar, it feels like the whole of 2026 has been building towards a final showdown between the game\u2019s top player and an up-and-coming star who has had a hearty summertime breakthrough.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For the first time in history, multiple players have won multiple majors in a single season, with Nelly Korda \u2014 far and away the No.1-ranked player in women\u2019s golf \u2014 winning the Chevron Championship and the U.S. Women\u2019s Open to start the year, and Haeran Ryu winning the KPMG Women\u2019s PGA Championship and the Amundi Evian Championship.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now the LPGA Tour\u2019s best returns to Royal Lytham & St Annes for the 50th playing of the AIG Women\u2019s Open \u2014 and even more history on the line.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Korda has won two other tournaments alongside her major trophies and had one of the most impressive starts to a season in LPGA Tour history. Through her first six events of 2026, Korda\u2019s worst finish was a tie for second. She had only one finish outside of the top-8 on the leaderboard through July.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Korda missed her first cut of the season at the Evian Championship, however, and just barely found the weekend at last week\u2019s ISPS Handa Women\u2019s Scottish Open. Korda\u2019s best finish at the Women\u2019s Open came in 2024, when she was tied for second.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She finished tied for 42nd in 2018, the last time Royal Lytham hosted the major and Korda knows there is a unique challenge ahead on the Lytham links. But, she said, she\u2019s ready for what\u2019s to come.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s always the goal, right, to contend in major championships. My attitude this week is control what you can control,\u201d Korda said. \u201cSometimes with links golf you can kind of get pretty agitated with the bounces that you get. You hit a good shot, get a bad bounce, end up in a pot bunker, have to pitch out unfortunately and save par. So, this week my attitude is going to be control what you can control.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

If she was to win this week, she would win her fourth different major \u2014 and not only would she complete the career grand slam, but she would also earn enough points to lock up a spot in the LPGA Hall of Fame.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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There hasn\u2019t necessarily been a Korda-Ryu battle yet this season as Korda finished tied for eighth at the Women\u2019s PGA Championship after she struggled in the final round. But both Korda and Ryu are looking to become the first golfer since Inbee Park in 2013 to win three majors in a season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ryu had had a steady climb to the top having won once on the LPGA Tour in each of the last three years. She had three top-10s in majors in 2024 and has long been known as one of the very best ball strikers on the LPGA Tour. She is second in both strokes gained: off the tee and tee to green, while sitting first in strokes gained: approach.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With a laugh, Ryu said Tuesday she is \u201cstill a little uncomfortable\u201d doing interviews as a two-time major champion but is looking forward to trying to continue her major momentum again this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She finished tied for 23rd at the Women\u2019s Open last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a lot of confidence,\u201d Ryu said. \u201cI got a lot of confidence after two major (championships), and then but this is another golf course and another golf (tournament)\u2026 but I\u2019m so happy to come back here.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In both of Ryu\u2019s major wins this summer, Canada\u2019s Brooke Henderson had a front-row seat. Henderson was in the final group Sunday at both the Women\u2019s PGA Championship and the Evian Championship where she fell to Ryu in a playoff. She finished T3 in the former. This year marks the first time Henderson has notched two major top-10 finishes since 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Henderson finished tied for 11th the last time the Women\u2019s Open was hosted at Royal Lytham but has struggled with links golf over the last while \u2014 she hasn\u2019t made the cut at the Women\u2019s Open since 2022 where she finished tied for seventh.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Alas, Henderson (who will be one of two Canadians in the field alongside teen Anna Huang) has had a completely renewed outlook on golf \u2014 and life \u2014 this summer. Her sister Brittany gave birth to a healthy baby girl in June and, just a few weeks ago, Henderson announced she and baseball player Ricky Castro were engaged. Castro is a pitcher in the Minnesota Twins minor-league system.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 14-time LPGA Tour winner\u2019s return to form has come at a perfect time in the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really grateful for how things have been off the course for me recently,\u201d Henderson told reporters in Edmonton last week when she was in town as part of the CPKC Women\u2019s Open media day, where Henderson will defend her title from 2025. \u201cTo have the run that I\u2019ve had in the last month is really exciting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like my ball striking is in a much better place again. It kind of feels how it used to feel when I was younger. Mentally, off the course a lot of great things are happening, which I think has relieved a lot of pressure on the course.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ah, yes \u2014 the course. Royal Lytham is as tough as it comes in terms of the Women\u2019s Open rotation, boasting nearly 200 bunkers. But the prize at the end of the week is a significant one, with players competing for a US$10 million purse. This year marks the sixth consecutive increase in the prize pool and is triple what it was a decade ago.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Miyu Yamashita is the defending champion, winning in 2025 at Royal Porthcawl. England\u2019s own Georgia Hall captured the Women\u2019s Open title the last time Royal Lytham played host \u2014 becoming just the third British winner of the championship in its major history. The 22-year-old not only won her first major in front of a home country crowd, but it was also her first LPGA Tour title.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While the end of major-championship season is upon us, there\u2019s a big opportunity for someone to make history. Korda and Ryu are looking towards doing something so very rare in women\u2019s golf, while other challengers, like Canada\u2019s Brooke Henderson, could swoop in and spoil the history party at the very special 50th edition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The LPGA Tour has never seen the kind of major season like what has unfolded over the last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":834120,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-834119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=834119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/834120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=834119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=834119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=834119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}