Lydia Ko prepares for Erin Hills watching YouTube as rookie Australian prepares for first tour start at US Open
Newly married Jennifer Elliott will play her first LPGA Tour event in this week's US Open as one of six Australians teeing off at the 'big' Erin Hills layout set to demand more of all players in pursuit of the biggest winner's cheque in women's golf.
Elliott, from Perth, will tee it up at the 6200m monster that future Hall of Famer Lydia Ko called 'difficult but fun', having just one start on the secondary Epson Tour under her belt after finishing at Sam Houston State University in Texas.
She earnt her way into the event through local qualifying in Texas, as did compatriot Grace Kim, who with 2022 US Open winner Minjee Lee, Hannah Green, Gabi Ruffels and Steph Kyriacou rounds out the Australian contingent in pursuit of the $3.6m winner's cheque.
Wake up, Wisconsin! ☀�
ðŸ'¸ @uswomensopen pic.twitter.com/rubhtlzt0r
— LPGA (@LPGA) May 27, 2025
Elliot is joining the big time at the right time, with purses hitting record levels. There's more than $200m in prizemoney available on the LPGA Tour in 2025, and so far, through the opening 12 events, there's yet to be an Australian winner.
Things don't get easier in Wisconsin on the brutish Erin Hills layout that Ko, who could get a step closer to a career major grand slam with a US Open title, learnt by watching YouTube videos.
Not videos of Brooks Koepka's win in the men's US Open at the same venue in 2017 but instead a video of the Bryan brothers, Wesley and George, trying to break par.
'It's probably not the preparation that many of the other players did, but it was just a good way for me to kind of see the golf course,' she said.
Lee, who made the move to a long putter after a back-nine capitulation while leading in the final round of the US Open last year, enters the tournament ranked 22, the lowest she has been on the rankings since 2015, having spent the bulk of the past decade in the top 20 and top 10.
The former world No.2 hasn't won since anywhere since 2023 but is a proven major performer, having only missed the cut seven times in 55 major appearances and only once, in 2015, from 11 US Open appearances.
Green, Australia's highest-ranked player, male or female, at No.8, has also made the cut in all six US Open starts, but is yet to record a top-10 finish.
US Women's Open
Erin Hills, Erin, Wisconsin
Past Aussie winners: Jan Stephenson (1983), Karrie Webb (2000, 2001), Minjee Lee (2022)
Prize money: $18.6m
AUSSIES IN THE FIELD
Hannah Green
Career LPGA wins: 6
Major wins: 1
Grace Kim
Career LPGA wins: 1
Major wins: 0
Stephanie Kyriacou
Career LPGA wins: 0
Major wins: 0
Minjee Lee
Career LPGA wins: 10
Major wins: 2
Gabriela Ruffels
Career LPGA wins: 0
Major wins: 0
Jennifer Elliott
Career LPGA wins: 0
Major wins: 0
Previous appearances: 0
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