Staff WriterJennifer Kupcho began the U.S. Women’s Open as if she had an early dinner reservation and no interest in hanging about, opening with three straight birdies and signing for a five-under 66 to take the outright first-round lead.
It was sharp, tidy, and occasionally ruthless — the sort of major championship golf that makes a leaderboard look as though someone has left the handbrake off.
Kupcho’s opening burst on holes 1, 2 and 3 was the first time in her career she had made birdie or eagle on three consecutive holes. Not a bad time to discover a new party trick.
By the end of the day, the Rolex Rankings No. 26 had led the field in strokes gained tee to green, posted her ninth round of 66 or lower in a major championship, and placed herself one clear of Sei Young Kim, who opened with a four-under 67.
Kupcho Gets Moving Before The Field Has Settled
Major championships are not supposed to be comfortable. They prod, nibble, scold and occasionally remove a player’s confidence with the delicacy of a terrier in a flowerbed.
Kupcho, however, looked suspiciously at ease.
Her 66 was another reminder that when her game behaves, it does not whisper. It announces itself. Since 2019, only Kupcho and Minjee Lee have recorded as many rounds of 66 or lower in major championships.
This was also the third time Kupcho has led or co-led after the first round of a major, following The Amundi Evian Championship in 2025 and The Chevron Championship in 2022. In total, it is her fourth time leading or sharing the lead after any round at a major.
And there is a little American history tucked in there too. Kupcho became the eighth American since 2000 to hold the outright first-round lead at the U.S. Women’s Open, and the first since Mina Harigae at Pine Needles in 2022.
The Parents May Have Had A Point
Kupcho has missed the cut in her last three appearances at this championship, which makes Thursday’s round feel less like a gentle improvement and more like someone kicking the door open with a seven-iron.
Asked whether there was anything behind those recent missed cuts, Kupcho pointed not to some mystical swing revelation, but to the simple act of seeing the golf course beforehand.
“Not necessarily. I think my parents have always pushed me like, hey, why don’t you go try and see the golf course beforehand? I’m like, no, like I don’t do that. I never do that for any other tournament. Why would I change that for the U.S. Open? I wouldn’t say I necessarily went out of my way since we were here in L.A. at El Cab, but it definitely made it super easy to come out and see it.
Then when I showed up this week, it was just like I knew where everything was, I knew what I was doing. So I think it actually helped. Parents are always right, right? Yeah, I think that certainly helped, but I think I just have a great setup. Like I really like this golf course. It kind of fits my eye. With the great host family, it just makes the whole week easier.”
There it is: elite sport, reduced to the eternal truth that your parents were probably right all along. Annoying, but statistically powerful.
Sei Young Kim Keeps The Pressure On
One shot back sits Sei Young Kim, who posted a 67 of her own and looked particularly dangerous at both ends of the round.
Kim made five birdies, including two immediately out of the gate on Nos. 10 and 11, then three more in her final four holes from Nos. 6 to 9. It was her first round in the 60s at a major championship in 1,140 days, dating back to the second round of The Chevron Championship in 2023.
Her previous best position after the first round of the U.S. Women’s Open was tied fifth in 2024. This time, she is closer, cleaner, and very much part of the early conversation.
On her birdie at No. 10, Kim was typically precise.
“No. 10 is a hole the green goes right to left. You have to keep the left side of the fairway. If not, it’s really tough to attack the pin even under — it’s tough on the green if you miss the right side. So I try to focus on my tee shot to keep the left side fairway. Yeah, I hit it good the first tee shot, and I was able to make a birdie, then starting out really solid with that.”
Golfers do love making a brutally difficult game sound like assembling flat-pack furniture. Keep it left, hit it good, make birdie. Simple. Except it very much is not.
A Chasing Pack With Major Teeth
Behind Kupcho and Kim, the leaderboard has the look of something that could become unruly very quickly.
Hyunjo Yoo, Ina Yoon, Gaby Lopez, Hinako Shibuno and Minji Kang all opened with three-under 68s to sit tied third, two shots off the lead.
Shibuno is in her best position after the opening round of a major championship since the 2022 AIG Women’s Open. Kang, meanwhile, is making her first start at the U.S. Women’s Open and has wasted little time introducing herself to the neighbourhood.
There are seven major champions among the top 10 and ties after the first round, which is another way of saying nobody should start polishing anything just yet.
Defending champion Maja Stark opened with an even-par 71, a perfectly serviceable score on day one of a major, even if the leaders made the place look temporarily more generous than it likely intends to be.
Madelene Sagstrom, nearly seven months pregnant with her first child, shot a 77. In a sport not short of demanding walks, that deserves its own quiet round of applause.
Gaby Lopez Brings The Human Touch
Gaby Lopez’s 68 was not merely another neat score on a crowded board. It came with a reminder that tournament golf is held together by more than players, caddies and yardage books.
Lopez spoke with feeling about the staff, grounds crew and kitchen teams who make tournament weeks function before most people have located their first coffee.
“Yeah, this week, I’m telling you, everyone is Mexican in the kitchen. Everyone is Mexican in the staff and the groundskeepers. I don’t know, I really like to stay close to them. I love to say thank you and hello by their name, and I think they need that respect and they need that showcase as well, because they wake up at 3:00, 4:00 a.m. every single day for us, and we don’t see it.
We just show up and play. There’s people behind making the work for us, and I think me just taking a little bit of time and just staying close to them, I mean, they’re Mexican, I’m Mexican, and I’m very proud to represent them.”
It was the kind of answer that gives a leaderboard some oxygen. There are numbers, yes. There are always numbers. But there are people behind the ropes, behind the mowers, behind the meals, behind the invisible machinery of a major championship.
Lopez saw them. That matters.
Kupcho’s Major Pedigree Is Not In Doubt
Kupcho’s wider record explains why this opening 66 carries weight.
She has four LPGA Tour wins, one major championship victory, 26 official career top-10 finishes and $6.9 million in official career earnings. Her first LPGA Tour win came at The Chevron Championship in 2022, when she also collected her major title.
She is a three-time U.S. Solheim Cup player, having represented the side in 2021, 2023 and 2024. She also won the 2025 Aon Risk Reward Challenge, played collegiate golf at Wake Forest University, won the 2018 NCAA Division I Women’s Golf individual title, represented victorious U.S. teams in the Curtis Cup, Women’s World Amateur and Palmer Cup in 2018, and captured the inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur in 2019.
In 2026, she has made nine cuts in 11 starts, with one top-10 finish — a tie for eighth at the Kroger Queen City Championship presented by P&G. She arrived here ranked 37th in the Race to the CME Globe, with no LPGA Tour wins this season and official season earnings of $364.6K.
So no, this was not a bolt from nowhere. It was more like a familiar engine coughing once, clearing its throat, and suddenly sounding dangerous again.
The Records Are Still A Long Way Off
For context, the overall championship scoring records remain safely out in front for now.
Helen Alfredsson owns the 18-hole record of 63 from the first round in 1994, as well as the 36-hole mark of 132 from that same championship. Minjee Lee holds the 54-hole record at 200 and the 72-hole record at 271, both set in 2022.
Kupcho’s 66 does not rewrite the record book. It does something more immediate: it puts her in charge of a major championship after one day, with enough quality players behind her to ensure Friday will not be a casual stroll through the shrubbery.
A First Round With Plenty Of Bite Left
The first round of the U.S. Women’s Open rarely settles anything. It merely asks the opening question and watches to see who flinches.
Kupcho did not flinch. She started birdie-birdie-birdie, trusted a course she had finally taken time to learn, and walked off with the sort of lead that is both satisfying and faintly dangerous.
One shot is not a cushion. It is a polite suggestion.
But after a five-under 66, a tee-to-green masterclass, and a reminder that parental advice occasionally survives contact with professional sport, Jennifer Kupcho has given this championship its first proper storyline.
Now comes the hard part: keeping it from biting back.
