U.S. Women’s Open 2024: Will Weather Double the Trouble for Golfers in Lancaster Country Club?

Weather-wise, round one at the Lancaster Country Club for the 79th U.S. Women’s Open went smoothly. Does that mean that players did not struggle at Lancaster CC? You’d be surprised to find that even though, as predicted, there was no rain and the sky was as clear as ever, the 156-player field had a hard time putting up a brilliant score on the leaderboard.

Only one player, Yuka Saso, the opening round leader, shot 2 under, and only three other golfers could put 1 under on the scoreboard. The rest of the players were even par or over it. Regrettably, world #1 Nelly Korda struggled and finished 136th with a 10 over 80 score. The culprit behind the bad score was the par-3 12th hole, which had 13 bogeys and only 9 birdies. Will round two weather ease the golfers’ worries or increase them further?

Will it rain on Friday at the U.S. Women’s Open?

If it had rained on the U.S. Women’s Open’s opening day, the players would have received the preferred lie exemption, but that did not happen. The skies will once again be clear at the Lancaster Country Club. Notably, round two weather will follow a similar pattern to that of round one. Round two will start at 6:45 AM EST; by then, it will be wall-to-wall sunny in Lancaster.

The temperatures in the morning will be on the cooler side, reaching a high of 68F. By the afternoon, there will be fewer clouds, but there is nothing to worry about because the chances of rain will remain at zero percent. However, a singular problem that might be a threat to the U.S. Women’s Open field is the wind.

On the Thursday round, the wind caused many opening shots at the 12th hole to either fall into the water creek at the back or in the sand bunker at the front. This time, the wind would be between 5 and 10 mph, and on the higher side, it may affect the ball’s direction and speed. The golfer would need to be cautious of it throughout the second round.

All in all, the Friday round of the U.S. Women’s Open might not be that big of a risk for the player unless the wind keeps up and creates havoc at the already disruptive Lancaster CC. Was the first round actually that disastrous for the pros? An astounding stat of amateurs versus pros shows how much the players were struggling.

The U.S. Women’s Open: Pros vs. Amateurs

Round one of the U.S. Women’s Open at Lancaster CC has been the toughest round after the 2014 editions at Pinehurst, as on average, the golf course is playing 5 strokes over par. Given that, many pros struggled to pull through and were over par after the 18 holes. The top four players from the Rolex Rankings in the field, Nelly Korda, Celine Boutier, Rouning Yin, and Hannah Green, accumulated 21 over par when their scores were combined.

On the other hand, the leaderboard saw four top amateurs, Adela Cernousek, Megan Schofill, Catherine Park, and Asterisk Talley, when combined, come to be one under as all four amateurs were in the top five positions on the leaderboard. As the round is two inches closer, the pros will have to chase a better finishing score after 36 holes.

Or they could lose the chance to play the weekend by missing the cut and lifting the 79th U.S. Women’s Open’s silverware. Who will be the round two leaders at the Lancaster CC? Cast your predictions in the comments.