An AIG Women’s Open flag on the 18th green at The Old Course at St. Andrews. | Photo by Ross Parker/R&A via Getty Images
The AIG Women’s Open returns to St. Andrews for the first time in over a decade, but the Old Course should welcome the best female players more often.
The AIG Women’s Open returns to St. Andrews this week, as the Old Course will host this championship for the first time since 2013, when Stacy Lewis won by two.
But the return of this iconic tournament to the ‘Home of Golf’ is long overdue. The Open Championship, the oldest major on the men’s side, visits St. Andrews once every five years, give or take. It has hosted the men’s Open a record 30 times, most recently in 2022, when Cameron Smith won the Claret Jug. The course has hosted The Open six times over the past 30 years.
The DP World Tour’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship is also held at St. Andrews each October, giving the men plenty of opportunity to play these heralded and revered links.
The women deserve the same treatment.
This year’s AIG Women’s Open marks the third instance St. Andrew’s will host, as Lorena Ochoa won at the Old Course in 2007. But three editions in 17 years is not enough. Sports fans tune into tournaments held at St. Andrews not because of who is on the leaderboard but because it’s St. Andrews. It has that pedigree to draw in casual golf fans. If the golfing world collectively wants to grow the women’s game, St. Andrews needs to become a more permanent fixture within women’s professional golf.
The United States Golf Association (USGA) has done so with the U.S. Women’s Open, scheduling its national championship at iconic U.S. Open venues such as Pebble Beach, Pinehurst No. 2, and Shinnecock Hills. It has paid massive dividends thus far. Golf fans recognize those names instantly—just like with St. Andrews—hence the need for the R&A to stage its most prominent women’s major at the Old Course more consistently.
LPGA Tour stars would obviously welcome that, too.
“A hundred percent. I think it would be really cool,” said Charley Hull when asked if the Old Course should host more often.
Photo by Ross Parker/R&A via Getty Images
Charley Hull plays her tee shot from the 18th tee ahead of the 2024 AIG Women’s Open.
“It would be cool if it were here every five years, or, I don’t know, however long.”
Hull also said that she gets goosebumps while playing the par-4 17th, the Road Hole, as she makes her way back into town, where the 18th green awaits. But she added that an AIG Women’s Open win would be “very special,” saying that it would be something she has always dreamed about. The Englishwoman finished runner-up to Lilia Vu at Walton Heath a year ago, so she certainly has the potential to contend and win this time around. But so do plenty of other top players.
“It’s the place that everyone wants to play,” Vu said on Tuesday.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance. There’s a little bit of pressure, but I think I know it will be a battle for everyone, not just me. So I’m going to try my hardest and do my best out here.”
A win at St. Andrew’s simply means more.
“If you are going to be a player people will remember, you have to win The Open at St. Andrews,” said Jack Nicklaus, who won at The Old Course in 1970 and 1978.
Sir Henry Cotton, who won three Opens but never one at St. Andrews, once said that “winning the Open at St. Andrews can turn a great player into a legend.”
These sentiments ring true. Perhaps no golf course boasts a more impressive list of champions than St. Andrews: Bobby Jones, Bobby Locke, Peter Thomson, Sam Snead, Nicklaus, Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo, John Daly, and Tiger Woods, who, like Nicklaus, conquered the Old Course twice.
On the women’s side, there is no doubt that both Ochoa and Lewis are legendary players, as each won two majors apiece. But their legacy is elevated somewhat because they conquered St. Andrews, perhaps the world’s most iconic and legendary course.
Knowing this, the R&A should give the best female players greater opportunity by returning to St. Andrews more often. It would help elevate the game and attract more eyeballs while giving young girls and women hope and dreams—similar to the ones Hull once had.
But no matter who wins this week on the Old Course, their names will forever be etched in major championship lore. Winning at St. Andrew’s just means more, and hopefully, in the future, LPGA stars will tee it up on the Old Course more often.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.
