![\"Haeran](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/WC7A7BTYWRBODJ4QBJ4NNWOA5M.jpg\")
Haeran Ryu at Royal Lytham & St Annes on Tuesday. Photograph: Charlie Crowhurst\/R&A via Getty Images <\/p>\nNelly Korda hasn\u2019t had it all her own way of late. It had looked as if the American world number one would dominate the LPGA Tour this season after her wins in the first two Majors, but all of a sudden she had company in the feat when South Korea\u2019s Haerun Ryu then claimed the next two.<\/p>\n
So, for this 50th edition of the AIG Women\u2019s Open at Royal Lytham & St Annes, the fifth and final Major of the women\u2019s professional season, both Korda and Ryu face off with a duel of their own to fight out, even if the other 142 players in the field also have winning thoughts on their minds.<\/p>\n
Three Irish golfer will tee up: Leona Maguire, who returned to form with a tied-8th finish in the Scottish Open last week; Lauren Walsh, who earned her place in the field through her standout performance on the LET last season; and Anna Foster, who came through a playoff in final qualifying earlier this week.<\/p>\n
Of the trio, Maguire is the most experienced, playing in what will be her 41st Major appearance. It also marks her 10th AIG Women\u2019s Open, her previous best finish of tied-fourth coming in 2022. She enters the fray after glimmers of green shoots finally showed last week in Dundonald Links, finding her rhythm again having changed coach and altered her swing in her attempt to get greater length off the tee.<\/p>\n
Korda\u2019s wins in the Chevron and the US Women\u2019s Open gave her the first two of the Majors of the season before Ryu claimed the KPMG Women\u2019s PGA and the Amundi Evian, although the South Korean admitted she still feels \u201ca rookie\u201d when facing the challenges of links golf.<\/p>\n
In contrast, Korda is competing in her 10th AIG Women\u2019s Open, her best finish being two years ago when she was runner-up to Lydia Ko.<\/p>\n
Haeran Ryu at Royal Lytham & St Annes on Tuesday. Photograph: Charlie Crowhurst\/R&A via Getty Images <\/p>\n
\u201cI would say I have a little bit of a love\/hate relationship with (links), depending on the bounces that I get,\u201d said Korda. \u201cIt can get a lot sometimes when like you feel like you\u2019re hitting it good and then you kind of get really bad bounces.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith it being the fifth Major, and coming off a lot of condensed Majors in a packed schedule, I feel like you\u2019re a little bit more on edge because you\u2019ve been in these high pressure moments throughout this middle part of the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re coming off a big part in our season, so I always feel like maybe I\u2019m a little bit more tired, so the bad bounces get to me a little bit mentally.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cI\u2019m just trying to really not get into that state of mind, and that\u2019s why I said I\u2019m going to control what I can control. Obviously, sometimes it\u2019s easier than others. It\u2019s easy to say; harder to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Korda said she doesn\u2019t intend to use her driver off the tee as frequently as usual, as part of a new strategy. \u201cProbably four or five max\u201d she estimated, \u201cI have put a 4-iron into play this week, which I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever done in a British (Open) because I\u2019ve just never really hit it that good. I have a little bit of a lower ball flight, so always worked with my hybrid. But I really like this 4-iron.\u201d<\/p>\n
Norda and Ryu have been drawn in the same group for the opening two rounds, with their three-ball completed by Ko.<\/p>\n
LowdownAIG Women\u2019s Open<\/p>\n
Purse: \u20ac8.8 million (\u20ac1.3m to the winner)<\/p>\n
Where: Lytham St Annes, Lancashire, England<\/p>\n
The course: Royal Lytham & St Annes \u2013 6,601 yards Par 71. A links course by the Irish Sea which has previously hosted five Women\u2019s Open. It\u2019s a challenging course which demands accuracy off the tee, with 167 bunkers across the terrain. The overall par has been reduced from 72, and the yardage on the 15th has been reduced by 36 yards, now playing as a 428-yard par-four.<\/p>\n
The field: World number one Nelly Korda headlines a stellar 144-player field. Japan\u2019s Miyu Yamashita, sixth in the Rolex world rankings, returns as defending champion, aiming to become the first back-to-back winner since 2011. The field also includes 12 past champions and all 19 LPGA Tour winners from the 2026 season.<\/p>\n
Irish in the field: Anna Foster (10.48am) with Bel Wardle and Pia Babnik; Lauren Walsh (11.14am) with Agathe Laisne and Jing Yan; Leona Maguire (2.04pm) with Pajaree Anannarukarn and Youmin Hwang.<\/p>\n
Quote-Unquote: \u201cIt\u2019s really cool. I had a picture with him on 18 and that will definitely be my screen saver … I\u2019m really grateful that I kind of made it back here and everything went well enough in the birth to allow me to play\u201d \u2013 Georgia Hall, who gave birth to her son Conor just eight weeks ago, on returning to play in the Women\u2019s Open where she won in 2018.<\/p>\n
Betting: Nelly Korda, with four wins on the LPGA Tour already this season is installed in a familiar position as market leader at odds of 13\/2 ahead of defending champion Miya Yamshita, who is 12\/1. However, Haeran Ryu\u2019s 14\/1 price looks more tempting having won back-to-back in her last two outings, the KPMG Women\u2019s PGA and the Amundi Evian. Hannah Green looks decent each-way value at 50\/1, as does Leona Maguire at a tempting 125\/1.<\/p>\n
On TV: Live On Sky Sports from 9am.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nelly Korda hasn\u2019t had it all her own way of late. It had looked as if the American…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":717786,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,13801,40019,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-717785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-leona-maguire","tag-lpga-tour","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=717785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/717786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}