The US Women's Open Is Finally Here!

And the potential storylines are numerous.

First of all, there's Pine Needles Lodge and Golf Club in Southern Pines NC. That's in my home state and not far from Pinehurst. This course has some serious LPGA history, having hosted this event in 1996 (Annika Sorenstam), 2001 (Karrie Webb) and 2007 (Cristie Kerr). In addition, it hosted the 2019 US Senior Women's Open (Helen Alfredsson). This venue finds great champions!

Then there are the player stories:

• Annika is teeing it up, having won a spot by winning last year's US Senior Women's Open.
• Nelly Korda is returning after surgery for a blood clot.
• Michelle Wie West is making this her last LPGA event. (Maybe she'll play an occasional event, I don't know, but nothing regular going forward.)
• Defending champ Yuka Saso is looking to go back-to-back like Annika and Karrie did.
• Eun Hee Ji, the 2009 champ, grabbed the last spot in the field with a win at last week's Bank of Hope Match Play for a chance to become the oldest major winner from Korea.

And those are just the stories that come immediately to mind!

The US Women's Open will be carried by the USA Network and NBC. USA's coverage will start Thursday at 3pm ET and run for 5 hours. Saturday and Sunday coverage will start on USA and finish on NBC. We're getting some serious golf coverage for this women's major... and it's about time!