Golf betting tips: US Women's Open preview and best bets

Golf betting tips: US Women's Open

1.75pt e.w. Hannah Green at 25/1 (Sky Bet, Unibet 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6)

1pt e.w. Somi Lee at 66/1 (PaddyPower, Betfair, William Hill 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6)

1pt e.w. Georgia Hall at 70/1 (Sky Bet 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6)

1pt e.w. Anna Nordqvist at 100/1 (Sky Bet 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6)

0.25pt e.w. Mel Reid at 500/1 (Unibet 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6)

Sky Bet odds | Paddy Power | Betfair Sportsbook

The US Women’s Open – the most prestigious of the five major championships in the women’s game – has witnessed some remarkable recent winners.

Last year Yuka Saso won in just her eighth LPGA start and in the 10 years before her A Lim Kim triumphed in her third start, Jeongeun Lee6 in her 17th, Sung Hyun Park her 22nd, In Gee Chun her ninth and So Yeon Ryu her 15th.

All of them based on the KLPGA or JLPGA and in decent form, they all proved an unheralded but very fine match for what is almost always the toughest examination of the year. It’s a theme we’ll return to later.

What of this year’s test? Well, from all available evidence we can expect good things.

Pine Needles Lodge and Golf Club is a Donald Ross original that has been renovated so as to redress the mistaken perfectionism of the late 20th century which saw it coloured-in to resemble the Augusta National.

It sits in the sandhills of North Carolina and has been dragged back into the past for the sake of the future, just as its neighbour Pinehurst was ahead of the 2014 US and US Women’s Opens. As a whole, it is designed to make “brown the new green”.

The bunkers are more rugged, the fairways have been widened and the Bermuda rough ripped out (there is more or less no rough whatsoever as it happens). The entire layout is designed to be firm and fast (weather dependent), even the Bermuda grass greens are swift and hard.

The fairways are notably undulating and are both vertically and horizontally challenging. In the case of the former, Ross wanted the smart golfer to gain an advantage by approaching the greens from the correct angle.

In terms of the latter, shorter hitters might land their tee shots on up-slopes and have drives come to a swift halt while the tee shots of longer hitters could easily find downslopes and be ricocheted down the fairway.

It’s a very different test to last year at the Olympic Club in San Francisco which had lush rough and was fiddly tee-to-green. It also sounds an awful lot like the Australian sandbelt and, to a lesser degree, British heathland.

Pine Needles has hosted three editions of the championship. Annika Sorenstam won by a commanding six blows in 1996, Karrie Webb made that look tight with an eight shot destruction of the field five years later, and Cristie Kerr polished off a two-stroke triumph in 2007. But images of those events and today highlight the vast difference in playing conditions.

I’ll kick off the selections by telling you who I cannot, but would have loved to, back: a player who has four top 10s on the Australian sandbelt, two top 10s at the Donald Ross-designed Seaview, another top 10 at Pinehurst in this event, and has finished top 10 in her last two starts. Alas, her non-qualification this week is an early kick in the (Jenny) Shin.

At the top of the market Jin Young Ko is obviously a class act but also a short price. Lexi Thompson has finished top five in three of the last four editions of the championship but memories of her sad failure to win from a dominant position last year linger.

Nelly Korda’s return from a blood clot issue is welcome but some faith is needed after a break of nearly four months (a win would be a very US Open story mind you).

Of the top five, I like the Australasians best. Kiwi Lydia Ko has won at Royal Melbourne and has top three finishes at The Grange, Victoria and Royal Canberra. I just struggle to back a 12/1 shot who hasn’t won a major in 29 starts (and has placed only four times in the last 27).

Aussie Minjee Lee is hopefully going in the opposite direction because her win in the Evian last summer came after plenty of major struggles to replicate her consistency in regular events.

She has a win at 13th Beach and top threes at Royal Canberra and Royal Adelaide. But in 14 weekend laps at this event has needed at least 75 blows nine times. That’s a bit unusual for a 12/1 shot.

About time I tucked into names I am suggesting, rather than casually scribbling a line through those I’m not.

Let’s start with Lee’s compatriot HANNAH GREEN whose consistency down under has seen her finish T13th or better in 13 of her last 14 starts, with the likes of 13th Beach, Royal Adelaide, Kooyonga, The Grange and Royal Canberra mostly featuring in that stretch. That sort of golf ought to be ideal for this week.

• CLICK HERE to back Hannah Green to win the US Women's Open with Sky Bet

Two of those solid efforts were wins, coming in a fine fortnight earlier this event that saw her claim the Vic Open at 13th Beach, then take on, and take down, the men in an event at Cobram Barooga.

She didn’t last long in the Match Play event last week but that’s no bad thing. Before then she was eighth in the first major of the year, the Chevron Championship, first round leader in the LOTTE Championship, second in the LA Open and tied fifth in the Palos Verde Championship (having had the 54-hole lead).

A final detail I like is that, as with all the Aussies, Karrie Webb is both a hero and a mentor to her. The legend’s triumph here and her expertise in the conditions is bound to be discussed at some point.

Now to the KLPGA and JLPGA raiders and three stand out. Japan’s Mao Saigo has played 10 times in 2022, won five times and finished second twice. Korea’s Hae Ran Ryu has a win this year and another late last year. In all she has six top 10s in her last eight starts, was T13th in the 2020 US Women’s Open and seventh in the LPGA co-sanctioned BMW Ladies Championship on home soil last year.

I have plumped, however, for a second Korean SOMI LEE.

• CLICK HERE to back Somi Lee to win the US Women's Open with Sky Bet

Her consistency is relentless (15 top 20s in her last 18 starts with eight top fives) and I’m intrigued by her success at South Links Yeongam in Mokpo.

It’s a modern links track and difficult to get hold of visuals, but Kyle Phillips designed it and we know from his work at Kingsbarns, Dundonald Links and Bernardus that he replicates traditional contours well. The books are a little alive to the threat of Saigo and Ryu. Lee deserves to be ranked behind them, but that little snippet gives me hope she’ll enjoy the course.

The three winners at Pine Needles all owned exceptional records at Seaview, another Ross track. Sorenstam was a three-time winner, Webb was a winner who finished outside the top 15 just once in her first 10 visits and Kerr had a win, a second and a third there. In one sense it’s a case of of the bleeding obvious: three world class golfers, they played it every year so it was kind of inevitable they’d land some good results.

But ANNA NORDQVIST also has a sensational record there (12 starts, 11 top 20s, seven top fives, two wins) and it’s not the only reason I like her chances.

• CLICK HERE to back Anna Nordqvist to win the US Women's Open with Sky Bet

Second thing? She’s won three majors. Third? She hangs around. In fact, she’s missed one cut since mid-September 2019 (and that was her first start after winning last year’s AIG Women’s British Open).

Fourth reason? Conditions. Nordqvist is very accurate tee to green but is far from the most confident of chippers. It was no coincidence that she won at Carnoustie last summer when she could putt from off the greens. Miss in the right spots this week and she could have the same assistance. Fifth and final reason? Price.

An English challenge?

I’m also going to add two English golfers. First up is GEORGIA HALL who prefers a traditional course and set-up so this represents a fantastic opportunity for her in an American major.

• CLICK HERE to back Georgia Hall to win the US Women's Open with Sky Bet

She won the AIG Women’s British Open at Royal Lytham, was second last year at Carnoustie and third at Kingsbarns. She’s got top 10s down under at The Grange, 13th Beach and Royal Canberra. She’s a winner on the LET this year and also landed her best finish in an American major at the farewell to Mission Hills (T13th). This really is a great chance to improve on that again.

And a very small punt to finish on MEL REID whose form cannot be overlooked (no top 40 since the first start of 2022) but there are two or three elements that got her on the short-list: she’s a winner at Seaview, she’s also won at 13th Beach and has three top three finishes on the Melbourne sandbelt, last year she shared the first round lead in this event and was still in the top six at halfway.

• CLICK HERE to back Mel Reid to win the US Women's Open with Sky Bet

She discussed how Brooks Koepka had given her a few major championship tips. Hopefully the anniversary will revive those memories.

Posted at 1230 BST on 31/05/22

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