Who are the 2025 U.S. Women’s Open favorites to win at Erin Hills?

The U.S. Women’s Open is notoriously difficult to predict, with few repeat champions in recent history.
Nelly Korda, the world’s top-ranked player, seeks her first U.S. Women’s Open title.
Jeeno Thitikul, a young but accomplished player, is considered a favorite despite not having won a major yet.
Lydia Ko, an LPGA Hall of Famer, aims for a U.S. Women’s Open victory while contemplating retirement.

TOWN OF ERIN – There is perhaps no more difficult a major golf championship to predict a winner for than the U.S. Women’s Open, which has not had a repeat champion since Karrie Webb (2000-01) and has crowned 21 different champions in the 23 tournaments since then.

Only defending champion Yuka Saso (2021, 2024) and Inbee Park (2008 and 2013) have won the tournament multiple times since Webb’s back-to-back.

But, of course, that doesn’t mean there aren’t favorites. Here’s a look at a few players worth keeping an eye on this week at Erin Hills:

Nelly Korda

The top player in the world is seeking her first win of the 2025 season, and her first U.S. Women’s Open title.

Korda won the Chevron Championship and the Women’s PGA Championship in 2021 for her two career majors thus far, and she tied for second at the Women’s British Open last year behind winner Lydia Ko.

But Korda never has really put pressure on the leaders at the U.S. Women’s Open, with her best finish being a tie for eighth at the 2022 championship. She has more missed cuts (three) than top 10 finishes (two) in the national championship.

“Oh, yeah, lots of ups and downs,” she said of her U.S. Women’s Open history. “I mean, it’s the biggest test in the game of golf. Definitely has tested me a lot. I love it. At the end of the day, this is why we do what we do is to play these golf courses in these conditions, to test our games in every aspect. Not even just our games, our mental, as well. I enjoy it, and I’m excited to see what this week is going to bring.”

Unlike last year’s event where she was under enormous pressure after she had won six times in seven starts heading into the U.S. Women’s Open, Korda has three top-10 finishes and a single, second-place finish.

She’s playing well, however, coming into the championship leading the LPGA Tour in scoring average at 68.88 strokes, just a hair ahead of Jeeno Thitikul (68.89), and Korda is sixth in driving distance and 11th in greens in regulation.

“It’s been a very interesting year for me,” Korda said. “Definitely have had a bit of good and a bit of bad. Kind of a mix in kind of every event that I’ve played in. I would say just patience is what I’ve learned and kind of going back home and really locking in and practicing hard.”

Jeeno Thitikul

Thitikul might be the “best player to not have won a major” even though she’s just 22 years old, as she’s been winning tournaments since she became the youngest ever to win a pro tournament at 14 years old in 2017.

She already has been ranked No. 1 in the world (2022), won an LPGA Tour scoring title (2023) and set a record for most money won in a single season (2024). She’s won five times on the LPGA Tour and five times on the Ladies European Tour.

Her best finish in a major, however, is fourth at the Women’s PGA Championship in 2022. Thitikul’s best placement in a U.S. Women’s Open was last year, as she tied for sixth.

“Just be able to walk 18 holes until Sunday should be just my goal and expectation about this week,” she said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen through the next four rounds here at Erin Hills because, like I said, it’s always been a challenging week for me in every U.S. Open that I have. But I’m trying to see my improvement, just like 1% better than last year. That’s good enough for me.”

The gambling site BetUs.com lists Thitikul as the heavy betting favorite to win the U.S. Women’s Open at plus-900 (a bettor would win $10 for a $1 bet) after she won the Mizuho Americans Open on May 11 at 17-under par. She tied for 24th at the Chevron Championship but has top-10 finishes at the JM Eagle LA Championship (tie for ninth) and the Ford Championship (fourth).

“I think the game has been a little bit, like, better ball-striking-wise, keeping off from the beginning of the season and off the end of last season, as well, until now,” she said. “But I think what is doing pretty well is the mental side. I’m just more relaxing, like natural, not forcing anything. Sometimes I force things but trying not to force.”

Lydia Ko

Already an LPGA Hall of Famer, Ko has three major championships and a gold medal on her resume, along with nearly 40 professional wins around the world. But she heads to Erin Hills still chasing an elusive U.S. Women’s Open title while mulling retirement.

“I think this, like, would be the one that I’d say, oh, I wish I was a U.S. Women’s Open champion,” she said. “I think it’s a very − like it may seem like a large pool of people that are the past champions, but it’s actually quite small, and I would obviously love to be part of that U.S. Women’s Open club.”

Her best finish in the championship was a tie for third in 2016, and she had a fifth-place finish in 2022. Otherwise, the 28-year-old never has really been in the mix for the U.S. Women’s Open, with seven finishes outside the top 25 compared to five inside the top 25. She missed the cut last year.

But she won the Women’s British Open last year in her 12th try – a tournament where she also had only two previous top-10 finishes. It was her first major title since the 2016 Chevron Championship.

“I think just getting in the Hall of Fame and winning the gold at the Olympics, I think there was like an internal handcuff that I had kind of put on myself,” Ko said, “whether it was pressure or expectations, and I think with that all kind of being done, I think I was just able to play with a lot more freedom, and I think there was a clear case at St. Andrews where I was just enjoying being here, enjoying the town, and I think I kind of slowly crept up the leaderboard, and I feel like that’s what I’ve been doing pretty well since then.”

Ko won early this season, claiming the HSBC Women’s World Championship on March 2, and she followed that up with a tie for sixth at the Ford Championship a couple of weeks later. But she finished a disappointing tie for 52nd in the year’s first major at the Chevron Championship.

Hyo Joo Kim

The seventh-ranked player in the world is playing very well heading into the tournament, with a playoff victory at the Ford Championship and a playoff loss at the Chevron Championship. She also has a tie for seventh at the HSBC Women’s World Championship and a tie for 20th at the Black Desert Championship.

The 29-year-old won her only major at the 2014 Evian Championship, but she’s knocked the door at the Women’s British Open (tie for third in 2023) and Women’s PGA Championship (tie for third in 2021).

Her best finish at the U.S. Women’s Open was when she lost in a playoff to Ariya Jutanugarn in 2018.

It was the first year that the USGA used a two-hole aggregate playoff to determine a winner, but the pair went to sudden death. Jutanugarn eventually won on the second sudden-death hole.

Yealimi Noh

Despite its difficulties, the U.S. Women’s Open has been a tournament where a player can jump up and get their first major championship – and that could be where Noh comes in. The 23-year-old won her first LPGA Tour event at the Founders Cup in February, and she’s posted top-10 finishes in three of her past five tour stops since.

She is third on the LPGA Tour in scoring average behind Korda and Thitikul and is the 18th-ranked player in the world, but thus far her game has not yet translated to major success. She missed the cut in the season’s first major at the Chevron Championship in late April and has made just two major cuts in her past six starts.

One of those was a tie for ninth at the Chevron (2024), and she finished third at the 2021 Evian Championship.

Others to watch

Ariya Jutanugarn: The 29-year-old has won two majors already, including the 2018 U.S. Women’s Open, and she lost in a playoff at the Chevron Championship a few weeks ago. She comes into Erin Hills with three straight top-six finishes as well, so her game is trending in the right direction.

Haeran Ryu: The fifth-ranked player in the world, Ryu won the Black Desert Championship in early May and tied for sixth at the Chevron Championship. She is a three-time winner on the LPGA Tour, and may be poised for a breakthrough for her first major championship − she has finished in the top 10 in five of her past 10 majors.

Lilia Vu: The 27-year-old has a second-place finish this year at the Ford Championship and is the sixth-ranked player in the world, but she’s struggled overall with two missed cuts and three other finishes that were no better than 28th. But, it was just two years ago that she was the LPGA Tour player of the year after winning the Chevron Championship and the Women’s British Open, and she finished second in the Women’s PGA Championship last season. Vu hasn’t contended in her three previous U.S. Women’s Open starts, but clearly she has the game and the experience to capture the major.