Sean Zak

5 days ago | golf.com | Joshua Schrock |Sean Zak

ERIN, Wis. — Hailee Cooper and Julia Lopez Ramirez have crossed paths plenty of times. There were all those SEC tournaments, with Cooper at Texas A&M and Lopez Ramirez starring at Mississippi State. There was the Augusta National Women’s Amateur in 2023, with Lopez Ramirez ranked 2nd in the amateur world, and Cooper 101st. There was even this week, through the winding out-and-back nature of each of Erin Hills’ nines, at the U.S. Women’s Open.

6 days ago | golf.com | Sean Zak

ERIN, Wis. — From the comforts of the back patio of Erin Hills’ hilltop clubhouse, John Bodenhamer nods in approval. The view is lovely up here, lording over the eastern edge of this week’s major venue. “Hey, a U.S. Open has broken out,” he says with a smile. He’s the USGA Chief Championships Officer — so getting a U.S. Open to break out is literally his job. What he doesn’t say is implied throughout the rest of our half-hour conversation: Finally.

1 week ago | golf.com | Sean Zak

ERIN, Wis. — Mao Saigo’s caddie called his shot roughly a year ago. As a one-week fill-in during last June’s Dow Championship, Jeffrey Snow sat next to Mao during a break in their pro-am. He’d seen her for just a few days, but that was plenty. “I said, ‘Mao, I’m telling ya,’” he recalled Friday, “‘you might not win in 2024, but you’re gonna win in 2025. You’re that good of a player.’“And she did.” It came at last month’s Chevron Championship, the first major on the LPGA calendar.

1 week ago | golf.com | Sean Zak

ERIN, Wis. — Everywhere you look at Erin Hills, there’s Sandra Palmer. On Wednesday, she’s on the NBC set for a pre-tournament interview. On Tuesday, she’s at the head of the room, dishing advice to the 26 amateurs in the field. On Thursday morning, she’s rummaging through the spectators just off the 9th green, all by herself, a white draw-string slung over her back, filled with everything she’d need for a day watching golf. Palmer is 82 but moves like someone half her age.

1 week ago | golf.com | Sean Zak

ERIN, Wis. — Ask Yani Tseng for the low point on her journey through yips, injured hips and all kinds of grips and she’ll struggle to pinpoint a single moment. “It was a lot of crying,” she said Wednesday. “It’s a really long story.” Long enough that most of the golf world lost track of Tseng, the five-time major winner playing her first U.S. Women’s Open in nine years. Her last victory came in 2012. The last cut she made in America was in 2018. But she’s in the news — why?