The 2024 Women’s PGA Championship features a return to Sahalee, near Seattle, where Brooke Henderson won her first major title. Henderson defeated Lydia Ko in a playoff, and the tournament featured play over the club’s North and South nines. This year’s tournament will showcase the same 18 holes, with expectations high for another dramatic finish.

Sahalee runs against the grain of golf’s current championship trend. The northwest USA course is known for its well-treed fairways and its narrow fairway corridors. You’ll not find the land-and-release style of architecture and conditioning that featured so prominently last week’s US Open at Pinehurst. Instead, players will have the opportunity to strategize carry-and-hold distances, more closely associated with the American style of play.

Regardless of your preference, welcome to another major championship week. The Women’s PGA championship celebrates its 10th playing this year, and it won’t be too heavy a lift to learn a quintet of news items each day from the field’s play. Settle in with a nice cup of coffee and enjoy the five things we learned on day one at the 2024 Women’s PGA Championship.

1. Lexi will not go quietly into that good night

Lexi Thompson has been, on many occasions, the featured competitor in the resolution of major titles. At far too many of those events, victory has fallen away, to the opposition. In Lexi, we see ourselves. She experiences in front of the camera, what often happens to us each weekend. She rises, time and again, to confront the impossibility of closing a tournament, of claiming glory. No matter how easy it may seem, it isn’t remotely easy to do.

When Lexi announced that the 2024 season would be her last, we both understood and regretted. She has taken time away from competition over the last five years, to recenter her life and balance her emotions. She has been vocal and public about the challenge and the struggle of growing up in competitive golf, and playing so hard, for so long. The announcement, and fate, have made us desperate for one final and great victory for the Floridian, so that she might ride off into this sunset with a triumphant smile.

On Thursday at Sahalee, Lexi rose to the first-round lead, thanks to six birdies. A pair of bogeys brought her back to minus-four, but she stands one shot clear of Nelly Korda and Patty Tavatanakit. Lexi isn’t one to fear the bogey lady, so her performance this week will depend on her ability to seek the birdies, and not hold back. Aren’t all of our fingers crossed?

Lexi Thompson with the field high!

Make it 6?? birdies on the day ???#KPMGWomensPGA pic.twitter.com/VZTp8qlslD

— KPMG Women’s PGA Championship (@KPMGWomensPGA) June 21, 2024

2. The Chasers

Nelly needs no introduction; she is the top-ranked player in the world, with six wins (one of them a major) thus far in 2024. Tavatanakit burst onto the LPGA circuit with a 2021 major championship win at the ANA. Her second tour title came this year, at Honda Thailand. Last month, Nelly missed the cut at the US Open, while Patty did not figure in the outcome. One is at the top of her game, while the other seeks a return to the elite tier of women’s professional golf. Sahalee plays right into both golfers’ hands, so expect both to around through Sunday.

Like Lexi, Nelly had six birdies on the day. Her engine was momentarily derailed by a double bogey at the fourth hole, but she returned to the tracks and finished off a minus-three 69 on day one. Patty offered a streamlined round of three birdies and zero bogies, to match Korda’s performance. That’s what makes Sahalee so compelling: there will be rounds of high drama, with many birdies and a few others, alongside others with clean cards but fewer shots saved. We have no idea how this one will play out, and we’re engulfed by intrigue and mystery.

Nelly Korda looked comfortable in Round 1??

She takes the lead with a birdie on 9?#KPMGWomensPGA pic.twitter.com/anLXAi9CaR

— KPMG Women’s PGA Championship (@KPMGWomensPGA) June 20, 2024

3. Eleven is a lucky number

Eleven golfers are tied at two-under par, a pair of shots off the lead. Among that assemblage are European golfers Celine Boutier (the Nelly Korda of wins in 2023) Leona Maguire, Charley Hull, and 2023 US Open champion Allisen Corpuz. That quintet of golfers sits at either one or zero major championships over their career arcs. As aficionados of the game know, majors elevate you to a higher strata, and each opportunity offered is a chance to ascend.

Among the Sahalee’s Eleven, Madalene Sagstrom offered the most interesting tour of the high 18. She posted five birdies, offset by three bogeys. Hinako Shibuno arrive next, with four birdies on the day, including a run of three in five holes, over the second nine.

Charley. Hull. ?

We’ll let the audio do the talking here ?#KPMGWomensPGA pic.twitter.com/ANFbxp5V3E

— KPMG Women’s PGA Championship (@KPMGWomensPGA) June 20, 2024

4. Who struggled?

That’s the part of tournament coverage that no one relishes … finding out who didn’t have her best game, and what the second day might have on offer. Minjee Lee appeared to have one hand on the US Open trophy last month, only to lose her way over the final nine. She opened with 74, and has work to do to make the cut and contend.

Lydia Ko is one win away from the earned LPGA hall of fame, a hall like no other. Votes don’t get you in; wins do. 75 in round one doesn’t help her cause, but she has history with Sahalee, going back to that runner-up finish in 2016. A comeback from Ko would be an amazing story for the Return to Sahalee.

Lilia Vu has been on the PUP list for a few months, and was champing at a return to competition. Like Ko, she posted 75 and will need to reverse course to be around for the final 36 holes. Most confusing of all is the 76 turned in by Rose Zhang. Despite bursting onto the tour with a first-event win in 2023, and following that with a victory at the 2024 Founders Cup, the former, world top amateur has struggled to find her game in major championships. Perhaps that’s part of the learning curve. The curve continues this week for Zhang.

WHAT. A GROUP!

Brooke Henderson.
Lydia Ko.
Ariya Jutanugarn. #KPMGWomensPGA pic.twitter.com/wrtxZnxQr4

— KPMG Women’s PGA Championship (@KPMGWomensPGA) June 20, 2024

5. What’s in store for round two?

Despite hosting major championships adjacent to the LPGA, PGA, and Champions tours, Sahalee is an unknown commodity. Out of the public eye for vast stretches of time, it doesn’t boast signature holes and familiarity, as happens with other tracks. What is known is this: the putting surfaces will reward a true roll of the rock, so the emphasis will continue to be on the driver. Bomb and gouge doesn’t play well in Washington, due to the influence of the abundant tree population. Your accurate driver will have the best opportunity to stand tall through 36 holes. We’re going to pull out a surprise, second-round leader, by the name of Cheyenne Knight. We see the Texan reversing course in round two, with way more birdies than bogeys, with her reward being a place at the main table.

Have a day at the beach, Cheyenne Knight! ?? She birdies from the bunker!

Coverage of the @KPMGWomensPGA continues on @GolfChannel pic.twitter.com/mFIMph6s7F

— KPMG Women’s PGA Championship (@KPMGWomensPGA) June 20, 2024

Editor’s note: This is an excerpt of an article our Andrew Tursky filed for PGATour.com’s Equipment Report. Read the full piece here.

While this is the world’s first official look at the final versions of the Opus line of wedges, Callaway staffers have actually been involved In the prototyping and design process for around two years, according to Callaway Tour Manager Joe Toulon.

“The Tour launch is basically when we’re introducing it to the Tour players officially for the first time,” Toulon said on Tuesday at the 2024 Travelers Championship. “We’ve done a lot of work with this wedge in the prototyping stages. It’s a project that we’ve really kicked off 2 years ago, when we really started digging into this category and understanding what the best players in the world look for in a wedge.”

Of course, Callaway’s research and design team has been studying the wedge category for decades, but this time around – during the design of the new Opus wedges – Callaway put more power than ever into the hands of PGA TOUR players. Toulon and team paid close attention to everything Tour players wanted from a wedge, including the look at address, the shape of the leading edge, how the club sits on the ground with the face open, the shaping of the sole, the sound, the feel, and how the wedge interacts with the turf at impact under various conditions.

Although all factors were considered, the most significant barrier to entry for Tour players is their first impression of the shape of the wedge at address.

“The shape is really something we spent a lot of time with, and getting it to look good to the majority of players – it’s something that you may not hit everybody’s eye exactly right, but this is something where we got countless hours of feedback and testing from Tour players, and this is kind of the final product,” Toulon said. “…I think one of the things that players really focus on when they set a wedge down for the first time is what it looks like at address, and what it looks like when you open the face, and we did a lot around that; the shaping and the roundness of this wedge.”

Toulon calls it the “final” product, because there were various iterations of the Opus wedges before this. Actually, these final versions of the Opus wedges are based on the sixth prototype, specifically.

“[The Opus wedge] was code named ‘S6’ during the process,” Toulon said. “We stamped every wedge out here (on the PGA TOUR) in this shape with S6, and that basically just stands for some of the shaping designs we went through. That was the sixth shape design that we settled on based on what the player feedback was. That’s really the whole story behind this wedge; tour-inspired, tour-driven. These guys out here designed this wedge. This is just the final cosmetic and final design that we went with.”

Read the full piece here.

Opening Act: The Amateurs

There’s a balance to the universe, as Shipley gets a top USGA medal

Despite their given name, Neal Shipley and Luke Clanton played like the main attraction on Sunday. That’s not to say that their games were more elite; just similar. Case in point: Clanton played the final four holes bogey-bogey-par-bogey and lost the silver medal by two shots. Shipley closed in bogey-birdie-bogey-par and won a silver medal, to go with his runner-up silver medal from the 2023 US Amateur.

For fans of the amateur race, three were fortunate to qualify for the weekend’s 36 holes at Pinehurst. Gunnar Broin was in fine position at +3 through 36 holes, but a day-three 81 took him out of the running for the no-pay honors. He did close with 72, to finish at +16 and a tie for 70th place. Shipley and Clanton, as if scripted by Hollywood, were partnered in the 12:04 game, and would not have to look beyond their own fairway, to determine how they stood.

Shipley opened with a birdie, but gave the stroke back to Old Man Par at the very next hole. A double bogey at the tricky 8th brought him to the halfway house in 37 strokes. Clanton had bogeys at four, six, and eight, but a birdie at seven kept their low-am match even as they turned for home. Clanton found a pair of birdies at 10 and 13, but a bogey at 12 kept him even with Shipley, as they headed for the closing four. No stretch of holes could be any more disconcerting than this quadrilateral. Two par threes, sandwiched around a par five that plays as a par four, concluding with a par four that climbs uphill to a massive closing surface.

THAT close to a hole-out for eagle on 18 for @FSUGolf sensation Luke Clanton, and a well-deserved ovation. pic.twitter.com/sWdS3tqsPL

— U.S. Open (@usopengolf) June 16, 2024

After both amateurs missed the 15th green and took three to get down, they both drove the fairway of 16, and faced 210-yard approach shots. Clanton put his shot some 50 feet from the hole, while Shipley rifled an iron to five feet. The former took three to get down for bogey, while the later drained his putt for three. In that instant, a two-shot advantage was forged. On 17, Clanton found the putting surface with his tee ball and made three, while Shipley returned a shot with another bogey four. On 18, Clanton hit a miraculous recovery iron to five feet, but his attempt to jam home the birdie for the tie was awry, and he missed the subsequent (and meaningless) putt for par. Shipley’s textbook fairway-green-two putts for par at the home hole conlcuded the mission.

Two clear with two to play! ?@OhioStateMGOLF product Neal Shipley has low amateur honors in his sights. pic.twitter.com/sB2iywnYxE

— U.S. Open (@usopengolf) June 16, 2024

The Main Event: The Professionals

It’s all  endurance, as DeChambeau claims 2nd US Open

They say that there are two types of folks that watch races: ones looking for excellence, and others that hope for crashes. We should have known that the 2024 US Open at Pinehurst #2 would end with a gut-wrenching crash. All of the elements were present: super-fast greens, surface edges that fell off into disaster, and wire grass-laden waste areas where consumate luck was the determiner for back-of-ball contact. For every Francesco Molinari moment (he of the 36th-hole ace to make the cut on the number) there were myriad stories of unfortunate bounces and pulls of gravity.

My prediction of a playoff missed by one shot. My prediction of a Matsuyama victory missed by four shots. All in all, I wasn’t far off. I made those predictions while hoping, privately, for a Rory McIlroy victory. When he took a two-shot advantage at the 12th, and preserved it at the short 13th, matching Bryson DeChambeau’s birdie three, those in the know, knew that it was far from over.

Let’s back up to the beginning of the fourth round. Let’s recall that DeChambeau held a three-shot advantage after 54 holes, which those in the know, know is nothing. One wayward swing brings double and triple bogey into the realm of the possible, and that trio of shots goes away in a gust. When DeChambeau made bogey at the fourth, his first of the day, a friend texted Bryson is imploding! True, there was much hyperbole around the place, but those in the know, knew that bogey at the long fourth was not nearly as large a speed bump as bogey at the par-five fifth, which Rory made.

Bryson DeChambeau’s front nine was a boring affair. Apart from that solitary bogey, he had nothing but par on the card. For those … all right, no more “in the know.” Eight pars is a sign of strength in the US Open. Even when McIlroy laced an iron fifteen feet above the hole, then drained the putt for two, DeChambeau didn’t flinch. Even when McIlroy added three birdies over the next four holes, DeChambeau didn’t flinch. Recall, please, that DeChambeau followed a 52nd-hole double bogey with a 53rd-hole birdie on Saturday. All who love Rory, know that controlling his emotions and preserving balance, is elusive. For DeChambeau, it was his greatest strength. They wrote and said that Ludvig Aberg had the cool of a gunslinger, but he finished 73-73 for a 12th place tie.

It was as if the denouement of the Amateur race turned into an eerie, Groundhog’s Day-effect. Over the closing four holes, McIlroy made three bogeys, while DeChambeau closed in plus-one. McIlroy’s two-shot advantage evaporated, thanks to missed putts of four and two-point-five feet on the 18th and 16th greens.

Rory unable to get up and down from behind the green.

It’s a bogey on 15, he’s now tied with DeChambeau at -7. pic.twitter.com/fVSPU4SDQ9

— U.S. Open (@usopengolf) June 16, 2024

Worst of all was the iron that he played into 15. It was reminiscent of Tom Watson’s approach to the 72nd hole at Royal Troon in 2009. Needing only to put the ball on the front of the green to guarantee par and a major title at age 59, Watson momentarily forgot about adrenaline, and bounded over the green for bogey. This year, it was McIlroy’s turn. His tee shot landed in the middle of the rock-hard putting surface, and bounced, then rolled, over the target and up against a toupee of wire grass.

Thus spake Zarathustra, and thus did fate annoint Bryson DeChambeau the 2024 US Open champion. The big man from Texafornia did everything he could to give the tournament to McIlroy, but his grit and his guile would not allow that result. Few would ever have called the brawny Bryson the consumate US Open player but, in joining Brooks Koepka as the only golfer since Tiger Woods to win two of them, that might be his legacy.

THE BUNKER SHOT OF HIS CAREER!@b_dechambeau has this putt left to win the U.S. Open! pic.twitter.com/Vleb6k6PvO

— U.S. Open (@usopengolf) June 16, 2024