Was the US Women's Open setup too hard?

One interesting measure of the success of the event is the leaderboard you get. Did it produce a quality leaderboard with top players?

We have an interesting comparison in that they played this exact same course nine years ago. Here was the top ten that week (OK, top 11):

1 South Korea I.G. Chun -4 F -8
2 South Korea A. Yang +1 F -7
T3 United States S. Lewis E F -5
T3 South Korea I. Park -3 F -5
T5 Japan S. Oyama E F -3
T5 Canada B. Henderson -4 F -3
T5 United States J. Park -2 F -3
T5 United States M. Pressel -2 F -3
T5 Sweden P. Lindberg -3 F -3
T5 South Korea S.Y. Ryu -3 F -3
11 United States M. Wie West E F -2

In Gee won 8 times worldwide in 2015. Amy Yang had multiple top five finishes in this event over the decade. Inbee and Lewis were recent #1s in the world. Henderson, So Yeon and Wie had all won Majors in the recent past; Wie was the defending champion. Pressel was also a Major winner.

The only two players on this list who were surprising were Oyama and Jane Park. OK, and Lindberg, although she would win a Major not long after this.

Now look at this year's top ten:

1 Japan Y. Saso -2 F -4
2 Japan H. Shibuno +2 F -1
T3 United States A. Lee +5 F E
T3 United States A. Ewing -4 F E
5 Thailand A. Yubol -1 F +1
T6 Japan A. Furue -2 F +2
T6 Thailand W. Meechai +7 F +2
T6 Thailand A. Thitikul -2 F +2
T9 Japan S. Koiwai +2 F +3
T9 Japan R. Takeda +1 F +3
T9 Australia M. Lee +8 F +3

Saso and Shibuno are Major winners, but both have struggled in the past year, especially Shibuno (her previous best finish this year was a tie for 50th; she had just one top ten in 2023. Saso did have some decent results in 2023 but not much this year). Ally Ewing -- is she even on the Solheim team? Was she on anyone's bingo card to make top five at the beginning of the week? Anyways, not one of the top Americans. Yubol and Meechai are journeymen. Koiwai and Takeda are obscure on this side of the pond.

The only players who are both top notch stars and who have played well recently are Minjee Lee, Furue and Thitikul, and Thitikul is coming back from an injury with this being her first really good event since returning (although it was only a matter of time with her tbh). Andrea Lee was having a good year with multiple top tens, so I'll include her as not so surprising, although even with her this is beyond what you might have expected.

So even if you include Saso based on 2023, that's still far fewer top ranked players in the top ten than in 2015.

So either the LPGA is doing a poor job week to week of identifying the top players in the world, and that was exposed this week; or this was not a good test of who is the best. I think there is a little of both.

I like course setups where the final winning score is 9 to 10 under.

1. We're pros. We can shoot under par. We're good.

2. The course wasn't so insane that only 2 players were under par.

3. The course wasn't so easy that 10 players were lower than 10 under.

I gave a qualified 'No' vote.  But, I'm wondering about the par-3 12th.  I don't recall it being so hard in 2015 ... later on, I'm going to replay the 2015 final round on YouTube to see how different the course looked and played.

I'm cool with the winning score being ~4 under for a US Women's Open, but I want anyone who plays top level golf to have a chance to reach that score. If you have a 430 yard hole where some players are forced to hit a hybrid uphill and cannot hold the green as a result, that does not strike me as fair.

I rarely feel like they go too far in the hard direction (usually the opposite is the case), but it's hard to make the case that most of the top players in the world suddenly forgot how to play hard courses or basics of course management.

ONE HOLE
Those who set up a course have to have some sort of idea how to play the hole successfully. What was the proper strategy on 12 with a front pin location? Left or right bunker for a successful bogey? How did the few make birdie on 12 on Thursday? Chip shots from a side bunker? Didn't MinByeol make birdie on 12 on Thursday? I understand "hard", but making a hole unrealistic is nuts. What percentage of players were expected to birdie 12 during any one round?

WHOLE COURSE
I understand for variety and for learning etc some courses can be set up "harder" than others. I'm not saying ALL events should aim for a winning score of 9 under. I'm thinking a top quality, well maintained, balanced course should aim for 9-under. I am perfectly comfortable with some courses being harder and some easier than 9 under. My problem is when you have TOO many hard courses or too few OR too many easy courses.

TOUR YEAR
There are 32 tour events.
Let's have 4 set ups that are crazy hard. 3 under winner
Let's have 6 or 7 that are really easy. 15 under to 20 under.
The rest should be about 10 under.

So why did so many of the top players struggle this week? It feels like perhaps random luck played too much of a part this year. I don't think it was entirely due to 12, although the chance for a big number there seemed greater than elsewhere.

Jenny Shin talked about how hard this Open was on X. It sounded like complaining.

I am sure it was frustrating for her and others. It would be easy for a casual reader to think she was pissed and unhappy, but she also said in a comment that maybe fewer saw, "they should have this more often."

We therefore can't assume all golfers want "easy" set ups all the time.