The 2025 season has seen five different Major winners and none of them named Nelly, Jeeno or Charley. Instead we had four first-time winners – Mao Saigo, Maja Stark, Grace Kim and Miyu Yamashita – while Minjee Lee moved to three Major successes and the Aussie now needs the Chevron and Women's Open to complete the career Grand Slam.
We saw a Major visit Wales for the first time where Lottie Woad, who was an amateur for the first half of the year, played her way to being the bookies' favourite pre tournament and we now have a World No. 1 who has moved streets ahead of her closest rivals despite still not having captured a big one.
In 2026 we will see the US Women's Open break new ground at the iconic Riviera while the AIG Women's Open returns to Royal Lytham & St Annes where we've witnessed two British winners in the last two visits.
Former LET player and now pundit Sophie Walker looks back to another memorable year in the ladies’ game and ahead to 2026 where the Major calendar looks particularly appealing.
Best Course Of 2025
I was on the range this year at the AIG Women's Open speaking to the players and Royal Porthcawl was a resounding favourite. Players from all over the world were raving about and I remember Lydia Ko commenting that she had never been to Wales before.
I played a whole week of Home Internationals there as a kid and I love the course. You could hit a wedge into the opening hole (normally the 18th) in the morning and 3-wood in the afternoon. If the wind is howling off the left, you're just trying to keep it in play on those first few holes and then you've got the opportunity after the par-3 to pick up some shots with a couple of par-5s.
Then you get through 13 and it's a case of holding on to your hat. Charley Hull actually birdied 14, which is a tough hole, and you thought that she might break through but she then bogeyed 16 and 17 and Miyu Yamashita held on to win.
What I loved about the set-up was they had the tented village in the middle and there was a spider going out from each angle. So you could go to various greens from there and everything was really in a little hub.
At courses like St Andrews, once you are out on the course, you're out. But this was so much more accessible and we had a bit of everything with the weather, but mostly we had dry conditions.
The players have their own purpose-built clubhouse so they can eat and go to the gym there. There are sofas to chill out and the practice ground is nearby so it was all very well appointed and it definitely helped the players focus on the Championship.
Driving to the course, it was like being in Australia, everyone was bodyboarding and surfing and it was very cool.
Jeeno Thitikul Is Now 'Scheffler-esque'
There is a pressure that comes with being the World No. 1. You have to stay there and there is a loneliness of being at the top. Also, in women's golf, we give them the beacon and they're the one who's going to change everything in terms of more money, tournaments and TV time.
And, when you're the No. 1 and you haven't won a Major, people are going to ask questions.
But Jeeno Thitikul's stroke average, since turning professional on the LET and LPGA Tours, has been under 70. This is not a reflection of a player who has an up-and-down game, so that's what makes it incredibly hard to believe that she has not won a Major yet.
Because for the last five years, aside from Nelly Korda's really hot run in 2024, she's been the best. There are very few multiple Major winners in the past few seasons and they've all been shared around so, again, you wonder why it hasn't happened yet.
The Evian Championship was unbelievable with Grace Kim finishing birdie-birdie-par-eagle to make the play-off before chipping in and adding another eagle to beat Jeeno. She was never going to win that for some weird reason and sometimes that just happens.
It's got to be a question mark against her and we have to ask why, but she is incredibly talented. She's pretty much the best at everything, in tee to green, bogey avoidance, most birdies. It's Sheffler-esque.
She's not a big fan of playing in the wind so the AIG Women's Open might be unlikely, and I think she might have won at Mission Hills had that not moved. Her record in the Evian is fantastic so you would guess there or a US Open will be her breakthrough.
Amateur And Now Pro Sensation Lottie Woad
The crazy thing about Lottie Woad's rookie season where she won twice, once as an amateur, and nearly won The Evian was that none of it really surprised us.
She is such an incredibly hard worker and she leaves no stone unturned in her preparations. She knows exactly where she is in the game, who she needs to speak to and where she needs to finish such as when she turned pro in the middle of the year or to break into the world's top 10.
She won in Ireland by six shots, while still an amateur and with Madelene Sagstrom, a Solheim Cup player, in second place. She then captured the Scottish Open, a co-sanctioned event with the LPGA Tour, by three shots and all eight rounds were in the 60s.
In Ireland my co-commentator Richard Kaufman asked if she might join us in the commentary box and she just said yes and came for a chat.
If she shoots in the 60s then great, if she shoots in the 70s then she'll just go and work on the reason she didn't score in the 60s. She has a great team around her, her swing coach Luke Bone is wonderful, and she has surrounded herself with all the right people in the likes of Steve Robinson and Nick Soto.
There's a difference in golf these days in that you can work on your technique, and then you go and work on a performance element to it. And Luke has drilled that into her from a very young age, that we're going to work on your swing now, then your swing is going to have to be able to perform. It's the same with Nick and her putting.
She has a wedge game where she has to be within six feet and her training is very narrowed down target-wise so, if she hits one to 10 feet, she's almost disappointed. Her overall game is so impressive but her wedges really are something else.
I spoke to Catriona Matthew who had her on her Curtis Cup team in 2024 and she said that Lottie was the ultimate team player. She was at England training recently in Florida and she took Charley Hull with her and she's already looked at when the Curtis Cup is in America and if she can go and see them after the US Women's Open. That's how invested she still is in her people.
Another impressive aspect is the timing of when she turned pro. She was playing in the UK and Ireland, her family were with her and it was all so seamless. To be the favourite by the time the AIG Women's Open at Porthcawl was pretty much unheard of, but she truly believed that she could have won in Wales.
She actually birdied her 1st hole and went on to finish in the top 10 and, while there was the odd loose shot in there in among all those expectations, she is very aware that her best golf is good enough to win the big ones.
Lottie already seems a banker for the Solheim Cup in the Netherlands and European captain Anna Nordqvist came into the commentary box in Ireland and said that she fully expected Lottie to be part of her team.
At the time she was still an amateur so that was quite a statement but, the way things have played out, she will almost certainly make her debut. If I had to pick a partner I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't pair up with Charley.
Riviera Breaks Women’s Major Ground
This is a very exciting move by the USGA and I'd love to be there. I would actually go out there as a spectator because that's how much I want to see a women’s Major at Riviera.
It's such an iconic venue on the PGA Tour and it will be a fabulous venue for the women. Venues matter and so many more people will be tuning in because it is so familiar.
Everyone knows that 1st tee, right outside the clubhouse, and then coming back up the hill for 18, and the banking around it. Then there's the brilliant short par-4 10th where there will be a lot of analysis.
The women's game needs more fans watching on the television and watching in person, and hopefully that will be the case at Riviera.
In the next 10 years the US Women's Open will be visiting the likes of Oakmont, Pinehurst, Oakland Hills, LA Country Club, Merion and Pebble Beach so it's quite a line-up for the game's oldest women's Major.
Lytham Back On The Open Map
Royal Lytham & St Annes makes a welcome return to the Major arena for the first time since 2018. In 2009 Catriona Matthew won here and Georgia Hall was victorious in 2018. The men were last here in 2012 so I think we're all looking forward to seeing it again.
There's always a decision to make here on the front nine, do you lay up short of the bunkers at 230 yards or do you hit driver over them? So realistically, you could hit 4-iron/4-iron on the front nine or driver and a lot of short irons. It's all about precision and it sets up beautifully, with the many bunkers and the tough finishing stretch.
The scale of the AIG Women's Open is amazing these days and it's all set up ready for everyone to come and watch it. The fan village, media centre and clubhouse for the players is on a different level to how things were a few years ago and there's Open radio too which I've enjoyed working on.
I remember going to Walton Heath and listening to parents commenting on how impressive the fan village is. It's just far enough away from the golf that the kids can make as much noise as they want, there are bean bags everywhere so people can just sprawl out and the queues are far more manageable than the men.
For value there is very little like it and it's almost too cheap. You can buy a five-day ticket for £135 or £50 for the day which is fantastic , given you could be at Lytham for something like 12 hours. And there's still an intimacy about attending a sporting event of such importance, and it's the best way to appreciate how spectacularly good these players are.
In terms of TV coverage, I'd love it if they were able to provide feature group coverage in the mornings before going to full coverage, but things are genuinely moving forward.
Some people were telling me that they were slightly concerned that The Open being at Royal Birkdale two weeks before the women that everyone would be going to the men's. But I assured them that the North West is a hot bed for golf and fans would turn out for both in their numbers.
After the success of Walton Heath there needs to be an AIG Women's Open close to London and in 2027 Royal St George's will host for the first time.
