The AIG Women’s Open caps off an exciting major championship season this week on the Old Course at St. Andrews. The return to the home of golf completes an epic run of major golf tournaments that began in April with Nelly Korda’s second major title at the Chevron Championship, followed by Yuka Saso’s victory at the US Women’s Open in May. In June, Amy Yang claimed her long-awaited major title at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, and in July, Ayaka Furue won her first major at the Amundi Evian Championship.

The Old Course will see the best women’s golfers compete for $9 million, one of the season’s biggest prize pools, and at the end of the week, the winner of the Rolex ANNIKA Major Award will be determined, an award given to the player with the best performance in the season’s major championships. In addition, the U.S. and European Solheim Cup teams will be determined after play concludes on Sunday. Here are five things you need to know about the AIG Women’s Open.

Lilia Vu defends

Two hours’ drive west of St. Andrews, in Ayrshire, Scotland, Lilia Vu finished 25th at Dundonald Links in her final warm-up match before defending her AIG Women’s Open title. Last season, Vu won comfortably at Walton Heath to secure her second major title of the season. When she turned the corner on the final day, Vu was four strokes ahead of Charley Hull and the field and never relinquished her lead. The American claimed a closing birdie on the 72nd hole for a six-stroke victory and her third of four wins on the LPGA Tour in 2023. Vu has a single victory so far this season, having won the Meijer LPGA Classic for Simply Give in June to claim her first title in her first start since returning from a back injury.

The field

It’s been a season of shifting dominance on the LPGA Tour, with Nelly Korda on a run to start the year with six wins in the first half of the season and Hannah Green picking up two wins of her own during Korda’s run of dominance. But now that the Tour is heading into the second half of the year, a third player has entered the dominance discussion – Lauren Coughlin. Last week, Coughlin picked up her second win in three starts at the ISPS Handa Women’s Scottish Open and comes to St. Andrews looking for her third top-five finish at a major tournament this season.

Both Korda and Green will join Coughlin on the Old Course, where Korda will make her first appearance since finishing tied for 22nd at the Paris Olympics, and the No. 1 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings will look to recapture the magic that led to her exciting start to the year. Also in the field is Ally Ewing, who took an early lead at last year’s AIG Women’s Open and has five top 10s in her last six starts. Lexi Thompson will be poised to compete in her final AIG Women’s Open after announcing her plan to retire from full-time sport at the end of the season. Thompson has three top 10s in her last five starts. All three Olympic medalists in Paris – Lydia Ko, Esther Henseleit and Xiyu Lin – are also in the Old Course field.

Solheim-Cup

The excitement ahead of the final major of the season at St. Andrews is heightened by the added pressure for many players in the field, knowing that their performance will determine who qualifies for the U.S. and European Solheim Cup teams. Both teams will be finalized after play concludes on Sunday. The U.S. team will consist of the top seven players on the U.S. Solheim Cup points list and the top two players on the Rolex Rankings who have not already qualified via the points table. Three captain candidates complete the team and will be announced on the Monday after the AIG Women’s Open. Nelly Korda, Lilia Vu and Ally Ewing have already secured their place on the team. View the current U.S. team standings.

Stacy Lewis leads the U.S. team for the second year in a row as the tournament moves from odd to even years and is played in back-to-back seasons. In September, Lewis will look to break the dominance of the Europeans led by Suzann Pettersen and hopes to reclaim the Cup when play begins at Robert Trent Jones Golf in Gainesville, Virginia, after the teams were tied in 2023. Here are the current standings for Team Europe.

Former Champions

A dozen former AIG Women’s Open winners will be in contention for this rare opportunity to compete on the Old Course at St. Andrews. Karrie Webb, a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame and three-time winner of the AIG Women’s Open in 1995, 1997 and 2002, leads an impressive list of major winners set to tee off at the Home of Golf this week. Also in contention are Jiyai Shin (2008, 2012), Catriona Matthew (2009), Stacy Lewis (2013), Ariya Jutanugarn (2016), In-Kyung Kim (2017), Georgia Hall (2018), Hinako Shibuno (2019), Sophia Popov (2020), Anna Nordqvist (2021), Ashleigh Buhai (2022) and defending champion Lilia Vu.

The old course

One of the biggest moments in the history of this year’s AIG Women’s Open is undoubtedly the return of the championship to St Andrews and the Old Course. This is only the third time in the history of this major it has been played at the home of golf. In 2007, Lorena Ochoa made history when she became the first woman to win the AIG Women’s Open at St Andrews by an impressive four-shot margin. In 2013, Stacy Lewis added her name to Ochoa’s name as only the second woman to win at the famous venue. This year, the best women golfers in Fife, Scotland will compete on the Old Course, which plays to a par 72 over 6,784 yards and has just a single par 5 and par 3 on each nine-hole stretch.