The world’s best female golfers head to Riviera Club in Los Angeles for the US Open and will find a fascinating course that requires the full spectrum of skills to master it. Who leads the golf betting, who’s the dark horse, and who should your money be on?
The action starts on 4 June!
What We Know
- Course par is 71, with a total of 7,400 yards
- This year’s prize purse is set at $12 million
- Maja Stark is the defending champion
- Nelly Korda is the current no.1 with three Majors
2026 US Women’s Open Betting Tip
English player Charley Hull is one of the more unconventional players in pro golf, but that doesn’t seem to get in the way of her achieving some excellent results, especially in Majors.
She hasn’t quite got one yet, but she’s come pretty close, including a runner-up in the 2023 US Open.
What may really help her here is her length off the tee. This is quite a long course. If she can consistently make birdies on the Par 5s and shorter par fours, and maybe even throw in an Eagle thanks to her length, she’ll be in the mix. Especially because she’s been in good form this year.
As ever, the one concern is that her putting isn’t always quite up there with the elite players. But then again, she’s a far higher price than a few of her rivals, which reflects that one area in which he’s not always so consistent. Either way, even finishing between second and fifth would give us a big payout each-way.
- Prediction: Charley Hull each-way (5 places)
- Odds: 40.0 (at the time of writing)
Betting offers for the US Women's Open:
Who Will Have Their Moment in the Sun at Riviera?
The 4.0 favourite Nelly Korda ticks every box for what you’d want from a potential Major winner. She’s the current Number 1-ranked player in the World Rankings, has three Majors under her belt already and 23 professional wins to her name.
She’s been in red-hot form this year. Seven tournaments played, seven cuts made that yielded three wins, two runner-up spots, a tied second, with her lowest finish of the year coming last time out when eighth in mid-May. So with a track record like hers and superb current form, it’s perhaps a surprise that she’s not even shorter.
If not Korda, then maybe a 9.0 chance Jeeno Thitikul of Thailand. She’s the Number 2-ranked player in the world and first made headlines back in 2023 when she became the youngest golfer ever to win a professional tournament, aged just 14.
Now 23, she has 22 pro wins (9 on the LPGA Tour). She’s yet to secure that first Major but has come close with a fourth, a tied fourth and a runner-up finish last year. But many feel this is a course well-suited to her game, with precision the keyword when it comes to mastering Riviera here, something she has in spades.
Then there’s Lydia Ko, another whose game looks well-suited to this course.
The 29-year-old New Zealander, born in South Korea, has exactly the same 23 pro wins as Korda does, of which 8 were on the LPGA Tour, and that includes three Major wins of her own, though a third-place finish is the best she has to show for her efforts here at the US Open. Faced with demanding greens where her excellent short game will be a big asset and on a layout where course management and strategy are essential, she also has the weapons to put in a big challenge here at 25.0.
What Sort of Course Can We Expect?
Fans of the PGA Tour will know this course very well as it’s been used for multiple big tournaments in the men’s game, most notably the Genesis Invitational in recent years.
Designed by George C. Thomas JR, the Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles is famous for being one where you need to plot your way around it, rather than just going big off the tee and hoping for the best.
Narrow fairways require precise driving, strong iron play is needed for those elevated greens, and excellent scrambling will be required to save those pars from turning into bogeys. The putting surface is lightning-quick on some holes and full of undulations, so skill and patience are required with the short stick; being too aggressive can seriously cost you on the greens.
All eyes on the 10th hole. Players can either choose to lay up and play it safe or go for the green. The latter could work out well and give them a shot at birdie, but get it wrong and bogey or worse can come into the equation.
