Ten additional players, including former World No. 1 Stacy Lewis, have earned exemptions into the 75th U.S. Women’s Open Championship based off the current LPGA Tour money list. The top 10 money leaders, not previously exempt, through the Drive On Championship on Oct. 25, became exempt into the championship, which will be contested Dec. 10-13 at Champions Golf Club in Houston, Texas. The 156-player field for the championship is composed entirely of exempt players due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 10 LPGA Money List exempt players are: No. 7 Jasmine Suwannapura, No. 10 Lewis, No. 25 Jodi Ewart Shadoff, No. 33 Cydney Clanton, No. 37 Andrea Lee, No. 40 Mina Harigae, No. 42 Kelly Tan, No. 46 Perrine Delacour, No. 48 Xiyu Lin and No. 54 Lindsey Weaver.
Suwannapura will be competing in her fifth U.S. Women’s Open. The Thailand native’s best finish is a T36 at the 2013 championship. Suwannapura has earned two wins on the LPGA Tour and finished runner-up in this year’s AIG Women’s British Open.
A Houston native who turned professional in 2008, Lewis will be joining eight other Texans in the field. This will be her 14th U.S. Women’s Open start. She has four top-10s, including finishing as runner-up to Michelle Wie in the 2014 championship. Lewis has captured two major championships and 13 total LPGA Tour wins during her career.
Ewart Shadoff has previously competed in seven Women’s Opens, earning two top-10 finishes. The English golfer secured top-five finishes in the first two events of the 2020 LPGA season restart and is looking for her first win since turning professional in 2011.
Clanton will be competing in her fifth U.S. Women’s Open. She has two top-10 finishes this season on the LPGA Tour and is coming off a T37 finish at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. Clanton’s one LPGA Tour win came last year in a team event where she partnered with fellow competitor Suwannapura.
Lee will be making her U.S. Women’s Open professional debut, having played in three championships as an amateur. Lee was one of only five amateurs to make the cut in the 2019 U.S. Women’s Open at the Country Club of Charleston. With only 12 professional events under her belt, she has already recorded two top-10 finishes. Lee won the 2019 Mark H. McCormack Medal as the leading women's player in the World Amateur Golf Ranking®, and played on two USA Curtis Cup Teams. Lee also earned a school-record nine collegiate titles while playing at Stanford.
Harigae joins the field for her 10th U.S. Women’s Open, with her best finish a T28 in 2012. She has seven professional wins on the Futures Tour and Cactus Tour and three top-10 finishes this season on the LPGA Tour, including a T4 finish at the LPGA Drive On Championship. Harigae, who won the 2007 U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links title, last played in the Women’s Open in 2015.
Tan is a Malaysian professional golfer in her sixth season on the LPGA Tour. She will be competing in her third U.S. Women’s Open with her best finish a T32 in 2016. Tan earned her first professional win last year on the Symetra Tour.
Delacour will be making her U.S. Women’s Open debut. The native of France has earned three top-10 finishes this season, including third place at the 2020 ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open.
Lin joins the field for her sixth U.S. Women’s Open. The Chinese professional saw her best performance in the championship in 2016 with a T26 finish. Lin has been competing on the China LPGA Tour, Ladies European Tour and LPGA Tour since 2011 and has eight professional victories.
Weaver is in her third year on the LPGA Tour and will be competing in her third U.S. Women’s Open. Her first start came in 2015 as an amateur. The Texas resident has one top-10 finish this year, a tie for ninth in the Marathon LPGA Classic in August.
The USGA announced on April 3 that the 75th U.S. Women’s Open, initially scheduled for June 4-7, would be moved to Dec. 10-13. To account for reduced daylight, the Jackrabbit Course at Champions Golf Club will be used in Rounds 1 and 2 with the Cypress Creek Course, which was originally slated to host all four rounds of championship play. In June, it was announced that the championship would be conducted without traditional qualifying and on Oct. 21, it was announced the championship would not have fans on-site due to health and safety concerns resulting from the ongoing pandemic.
Considered the world’s premier women’s golf championship, the U.S. Women’s Open is one of 14 national championships conducted annually by the USGA. The championship began in 1946 and its winners include Babe Didrikson Zaharias, Betsy Rawls, Mickey Wright, Hollis Stacy, Amy Alcott, Meg Mallon, Annika Sorenstam, Se Ri Pak, Juli Inkster, Cristie Kerr, Paula Creamer, Inbee Park and Michelle Wie.
