What is the US Women’s Open playoff format?
How is the winner of the Harton S. Semple Trophy determined if any players are level through 72 holes?
If two or more players are tied after 72 holes, they will need to play extra holes to decide a winner. So what is the US Women’s Open playoff format?
A history of the US Women’s Open playoff format
Originally, any players involved in the playoff would compete over 18 holes.
After the tournament changed to a stroke-play format for the 1947 event, the playoff was set for 18 holes on the Monday after the event.
2006 was the last time that the 18-hole playoff format was used, when Annika Sorenstam won the tournament for the third time. She got the better of Pat Hurst in the playoff at the Newport Country Club.
The year after, the playoff format was changed into a three-hole aggregate playoff. That was used twice in the 2010s, with the format then being modified once more in 2018.
What is the current playoff format for US Women’s Open?
Now, the playoff format for the US Women’s Open is a two-hole aggregate playoff followed by sudden death holes if required.
This takes place as soon as the final players finish their fourth round.
The player with the lowest score after the two holes is the winner. If the players still can’t be separated then they will enter a sudden-death playoff until a winner can be determined.
Should the 2024 US Women’s Open require extra holes at Lancaster Country Club, the USGA will use the 10th and 18th holes for the two-hole aggregate playoff.
How many US Women’s Open have gone to a playoff?
To date, the winner of the Harton S. Semple Trophy has been decided in extra holes on 14 occasions:
1953: Betsy Rawls defeated Jackie Pung
1956: Kathy Cornelius defeated Barbara McIntire
1964: Mickey Wright defeated Ruth Jessen
1976: JoAnne Carner defeated Sandra Palmer
1986: Jane Geddes defeated Sally Little
1987: Laura Davies defeated Ayako Okamoto and JoAnne Carner
1992: Patty Sheehan defeated Juli Inkster
1998: Se Ri Pak defeated Jenny Chuasiriporn
2003: Hilary Lunke defeated Angela Stanford and Kelly Robbins
2006: Annika Sorenstam defeated Pat Hurst
2011: So-Yeon Ryu defeated Seo Kyung Hee
2016: Brittany Lang defeated Anna Nordqvist
2018: Ariya Jutanugarn defeated Hyo-Joo Kim
2021: Yuka Saso defeated Nasa Hataoka
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Matt Coles
Mention a European country, and Matt will tell you which resorts make the National Club Golfer Top 100s: European Resorts list. He might even throw in who designed the golf course and how many rooms the hotel has got at each one…
Matt got into the game of golf from a young age, following his old man to the local golf club. He fell for the sport, and now can’t seem to go a day without thinking about how to improve his game (Thanks Dad!). Matt has been a member of Howley Hall GC in Leeds since 2020, and is just about managing to maintain a single-figure handicap. He likes to remind people that he once broke 75, but won’t tell people that it was on a shortened course during the winter.
He moved to Leeds after graduating from the University of Central Lancashire with a First Class Honours degree in Sports Journalism. Matt joined NCG after almost five years travelling the world with the Professional Squash Association, working on events in all four corners of the globe.
Matt currently plays a Cobra King LTDx driver and RadSpeed 3-wood. TaylorMade monopolise the rest of his bag, with a SIM UDI, M5 irons and both Milled Grind and HI-TOE wedges, along with a Monza Redline putter. He uses a Vice Pro Plus golf ball, because he’s a bit different…
Away from golf, Matt is a Manchester United fan, and a keen runner, having ran the Rob Burrow Leeds Marathon (his first and possibly last), in May 2023.
