In a span of just 17 years, Erin Hills (Wisconsin) has built an impressive national championship resume that few golf courses – even revered ones much older – can match.
At the end of this month the course just outside of Milwaukee will host its fifth United States Golf Association (USGA) event when the 80th playing of the U.S. Women’s Open will be held there. Yuka Saso of Japan will defend a championship that has been won by just about every legend of the women’s game.
USGA officials were on hand May 5 at Erin Hills to set the stage. None spoke more highly of the 2025 host site than CEO Mike Whan.
“If you’re wondering if this is one of the greatest venues in the world, stop wondering,” Whan said to an assembled group of mainly Wisconsin media. “We just came from Pebble Beach (site of the 2023 U.S. Women’s Open) and Lancaster (site of the 2024 U.S. Women’s Open) and we go to Riviera, Pinehurst and Oakmont, Merion and Inverness, and the neighborhood you guys hang in is second to none.
“(The Women’s U.S. Open) is not only the longest-running women’s professional golf event in the world, but it carries the highest purse and it’s played at the greatest venues.”
Arguably the premier golf championship in the world for women, the U.S. Women’s Open is older than the LPGA Tour, the Ladies European Tour and the NCAA Division 1 Women’s Championship.
Five more USGA championships are coming to Erin Hills over the next 14 years. The course previously held the 2017 U.S. Open (won by Brooks Koepka) as the pinnacle. Just 15 venues have hosted both the Men’s and Women’s Opens with only Pebble Beach and Pinehurst being the other public ones.
On May 5, the course presented a clean look with wide fairways and lower-length fescue as the weather has been sluggish to warm up this spring in Wisconsin. The course has been closed to the public since last October so the greens and their surrounds are pure and should be up to speed and firmness by championship time (May 29).
“It’s a very hilly golf course,” said the USGA’s Shannon Rouillard, senior director of championships, of the natural layout which was basically laid over the distinct kettle moraine landscape. “Mental and physical stamina is going to be required to win. Players are going to see a lot of variety. This golf course requires strategic decision making. There are conservative ways to play each of these holes and there’s risk-reward options available. The challenge of recovery shots from closely mown areas. There are certainly opportunities for players to use those features to their advantage to funnel the ball onto the green but in a lot of cases it’s going to funnel the ball away from the green… Semi-blind and blind shots, they’re everywhere. And because this golf course is so open, they’re not going to have trees as a depth perception or point of reference. So really knowing the line is going to be critical.”
Rouillard, who played in a U.S. Open herself in 1999, oversees the course setup. She noted the wind as the X-factor, as is often the case at Erin Hills on a daily basis. She also mentioned the central bunkers in the course design.
“Over a third of the holes out here have a central bunker,” she said. “And there’s a segment of those that are a long central bunker that bisect the fairway. I really see that as a unique feature here at Erin Hills that’s going to play with the players depth perception. A lot of these holes go down and go up so these players are going to be presented this blind or semi-blind shot with a central bunker that they really are going to need to figure out the appropriate club.”
Erin Hills is expected to play just over 6,800 yards for the championship, which would present as the second longest layout in U.S. Women’s Open history. It presented as the longest course in U.S. Open history for the men in 2017 when it played 7,845 yards in the first round.
At any yardage, it promises to provide another spectacular setting as Whan experienced the first time he laid eyes on it a couple years ago.
“It was late in the summer, the sun was setting, the (clubhouse) was full of people eating dinner,” he said. “There were people out there putting. And as I came around the corner… it reminded me of the (the movie) Field of Dreams. This feels like the Field of Dreams for golf. If you build it, they will come. I have to say to Erin Hills, you built it and I think we’re proving that we will come.”
For more on the 2025 U.S. Women’s Open at Erin Hills and ticket information, visit www.uswomensopen.com
