The first two sites have been set for the U.S. Senior Women's Open, with the USGA announcing Saturday that Chicago Golf Club will host the inaugural championship in 2018 and Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club in North Carolina hosting the second edition in 2019.
The U.S. Senior Women's Open, whose creation was announced in Feb. 2015, will be a 72-hole stroke-play event open to professional females and amateur females with a USGA handicap index less than 7.5 who have reached their 50th birthday before the start of the championship. There will be a 120-player field, decided by sectional qualifying at multiple nationwide sites and exemption categories, both of which are still to be determined.
Prize money is also yet to be announced.
The inaugural U.S. Senior Women's Open will be played at Chicago Golf Club, in Wheaton, Ill., from July 12-15. Chicago Golf Club is the oldest golf club in the U.S. in continuous use at the same location, founded by C.B. Macdonald. Seth Raynor renovated the course in 1923.
This will be the club's 12th USGA Championship. It hosted the USGA's first two championships, the 1897 U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur. It then went on to host two more U.S. Opens (1900, 1911), three U.S. Amatauers (1905, 1909 and 1912), the 1903 U.S. Women’s Amateur, 1979 U.S. Senior Amateur and two Walker Cup matches in 1928 and 2005, both won by the U.S.
In 2019, Pine Needles will host the championship, played May 16-19. The Donald Ross design opened in 1928 and was restored in 2004 by John Fought. This will be the sixth USGA championship contested at Pine Needles and the first since the 2007 U.S. Women’s Open, which was won by Cristie Kerr.
