When you wonder what it’s like to play the U.S. Women’s Open, you probably think about thick rough and greens so fast they’ll give you night terrors. When you see pros take their wedges out to advance the ball out of the rough, you get a good sense of how dense it must be. But green speed can be harder to appreciate, in part because cameras level out the undulations on the golf course, making the greens look less severe.
This chip Jin Young Ko hit Thursday at Erin Hills, however, will give you an idea of just how incredibly fast the greens at the U.S. Women’s Open can be.
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Ko’s chip on the 14th hole during the first round defies logic. She starts by aiming far away from the flag. Her ball sits in the rough, about a foot from the fringe, and she hits a flop that barely gets to the fringe. It almost looks like she mishit it—that’s how short of a distance this chip carried. But she didn’t mishit it. She hit the only shot she could to keep the ball on the green. The ball accelerates quickly as soon as it hits the ground, running across the entire width of the green. Mercifully, it came to rest at the opposite edge of the green, inches from tumbling down the other side.
A reminder…
The undulation on and around the greens is ALWAYS crazier than it seems on TV! 😳@Ally pic.twitter.com/XRM81042vR
— U.S. Women's Open (@uswomensopen) May 29, 2025
The USGA reported the greens were rolling at a 13 on the Stimpmeter for the first round, and had been double cut and rolled that morning after having been single cut and rolled the night before. All of this is to say, if you and your golf buddies are wondering about how hard it might be to putt at the U.S. Women’s Open, the answer is: Very hard.
Ko finished the round with a one-over 73, tied for 58th, while the leaders Rio Takeda, Yealimi Noh, Jinhee Im, A Lim Kim, Angel Yin and Julia Lopez Ramirez are all at four-under 68.
Main Image: Supplied