These 2 crucial skills will be at a premium at this U.S. Women’s Open

HARTFORD, Wis. — When the USGA’s top brass met with the press at Erin Hills earlier this week, one word continued to come up. Test.

“This is a big golf course,” said Shannon Rouillard, the USGA’s senior director of championships. “It’s going to test the players mentally and physically.”

Added CEO Mike Whan: “If the wind blows here they’re going to be getting every club cleaned off at the end and they’re going to be mentally tired. This one is going to make you think on every shot, and that’s a major.”

Every club may be getting dirty this week in Wisconsin, but those with head covers will likely be getting more work than most. Think fairway woods. Hybrids. Definitely drivers. At 6,829 yards, this week’s U.S. Women’s Open will be played on the second-longest layout in championship history. (The longest, The Broadmoor, sits at an elevation of 6,230 feet above sea level.)

“It’s definitely a really big course,” admitted 2023 U.S. Women’s Open champ Allisen Corpuz. “I hit a lot more hybrids and woods than I would have wanted to into greens.”

The size of the property is a common observation at Erin Hills this week. From the elevation of the hills to the surface area of the greens to the distance between holes, everything feels massive. And after rain soaked the course for much of the day during Wednesday’s practice rounds, the length of the course will only be magnified.

With the sheer scale of the course in mind, distance off the tee will come at a premium, as will the ability to hit greens from long range. Need some convincing? Just take a look at the leaderboard from the last time the U.S. Open was hosted here in 2017.

The player who finished atop the leaderboard that week, Brooks Koepka, ranked inside the top 20 on the PGA Tour that season in both driving distance and proximity to the hole from >200 yards. Hideki Matsuyama, who finished tied for second, ranked inside the top 30 in both stats while Rickie Fowler, who notched a T5, ranked inside the top 40 in both categories. In fact, of the players who finished top 10 that week, just three (Brian Harman, Bill Haas and Brandt Snedeker) did not finish the season in the top 40 on Tour in either SG: Driving or proximity from >200 yards.

What does that mean for players competing in this edition of the U.S. Women’s Open? For starters, you need to be able to drive the ball extremely well, which bodes well for players such as Nelly Korda, Charley Hull, Minjee Lee and Jeeno Thitikul. Also, having supreme command of the long irons and hybrids will be a premium skill. Think Megan Khang, Nasa Hataoka, Jin Young Ko and Lauren Coughlin.

“Already every part of your game is going to be tested,” said Asterisk Talley, who finished low amateur at last year’s U.S. Women’s Open. “But now those long irons come into play.”

There’s no guarantee that the champion come Sunday night will be a bomber or someone who has pinpoint precision from distance — but if history is any indication, that’d be a pretty good bet.