Every Women’s Open champion, 1976–2026

One championship, two kinds of winning record

The Women’s Open roll begins in 1976, when amateur Jenny Lee Smith won at Fulford, and continues through Shiho Kuwaki’s 2026 victory at Royal Lytham & St Annes. It contains the whole championship, not merely the editions played after the event gained major status. That is the essential distinction when using this table: every winner is a Women’s Open champion, but victories before 2001 were not LPGA major titles.

This list is designed to be used with the full championship history. The table establishes the sequence; the longer account explains changes in sponsorship, status and host courses. Read a player’s row in both settings. Her place in the championship’s own history can be significant even if that victory falls outside the modern major record.

Each result has an official source and a second results source alongside it. Winning totals remain the totals for the edition played. A low aggregate from one venue should not be used on its own to rank performances at another. Where the course name carries a particular layout, that detail is retained, because Woburn’s different courses are not interchangeable and a general estate name can conceal a meaningful change of test.

Every Women’s Open champion

Reading the amateur beginnings

Three of the earliest winners are marked as amateurs in the official roll: Jenny Lee Smith in 1976, Janet Melville in 1978 and Marta Figueras-Dotti in 1982. Their status is part of the result, not a reason to separate them from the champions. They won the competition outright. The distinction is different from finishing as leading amateur in a championship won by a professional.

Those names also help explain why the tournament’s beginning cannot be understood solely through today’s professional schedule. Its first years connected amateur and professional golf within the same open competition. For a reader exploring the wider subject, the Women’s Amateur Championship history supplies the other side of that relationship, with its own title, results and match-play traditions.

When following an early champion, start with the correct year and host rather than with a modern sponsor name. The title under which a competition was marketed may change while its historical roll continues. Keeping all the winners together preserves that continuity without implying that the event’s commercial arrangements or international standing were identical throughout.

The missing championship in 1983

The official record has no champion for 1983. The table includes a separate Not held row instead of skipping directly from Marta Figueras-Dotti’s 1982 win to Ayako Okamoto’s victory in 1984. Sky Sports’ anniversary account attributes the cancellation to lack of funding. The organiser confirms the absence of a tournament; the stated financial reason is reported from that independent account.

The distinction matters when counting editions or reading claims about consecutive appearances. A calendar year without a championship is neither a lost result nor a title that should be credited to the previous winner. It also makes the return at Woburn easier to understand: the event resumed after a real interruption, rather than simply moving smoothly through another season.

This is the only non-playing year in the displayed 1976–2026 sequence. The table’s fifty champions therefore cover fifty-one calendar years. Those two counts answer different questions and are worth keeping separate when comparing anniversary descriptions with the number of completed championships.

Where the major era begins

Se Ri Pak’s 2001 victory at Sunningdale is the starting point for the Women’s Open as an LPGA major. Earlier winners such as Laura Davies, Karrie Webb and Sherri Steinhauer remain part of the same championship’s history, but the status of the particular edition must be respected. A later major designation does not retrospectively turn every earlier title into a major.

Repeated winners make that boundary especially clear. Webb won in 1995, 1997 and 2002, so her Women’s Open total spans the change in status. Steinhauer’s wins in 1998, 1999 and 2006 do likewise. Their three titles each belong in the tournament’s roll of honour, while only the editions from 2001 count in the LPGA major category.

For a newcomer, this is one of the most useful examples of why a championship record and a major record can give different totals without either being wrong. The guide to golf’s majors explains the broader terminology. Here, the year column allows you to apply the distinction to the actual results rather than relying on a general description of a player’s career.

Recognising the different host courses

The course column traces a tournament that has travelled among several kinds of venue. Fulford belongs to the beginning; Woburn has a recurring place across the history; Sunningdale and Walton Heath represent inland championship settings. St Andrews, Royal Birkdale, Royal Lytham & St Annes and Royal Porthcawl give the sequence another set of landscapes. A history built only around famous seaside finishes would miss part of the competition.

Within those names, pay attention to the named course. A reference to Woburn’s Duke’s Course identifies a different layout from the Marquess Course used in later editions. For a spectator planning a visit, that is more than an archival detail: it changes the ground on which the championship was decided. Use the linked course histories and the current venue guide for the particular layout involved.

Following one venue across several editions can also be more revealing than reading the entire table in a sitting. Compare its champions, notice the long gaps between some returns, then read about the finishing holes that mattered. This turns the list into a route through the championship’s geography while keeping the original results within easy reach.

Repeat winners and the source conventions

Karrie Webb and Sherri Steinhauer each appear three times in the roll. Debbie Massey, Yani Tseng and Jiyai Shin have two victories apiece. These totals describe this championship across its full history. They are not intended as a ranking of all major wins, and the distinction between the earlier and major eras remains important for Webb and Steinhauer in particular.

The official roll sometimes adds a number in brackets after a repeat champion’s name. Those annotations identify successive wins; they are not part of the player’s name. Amateur markers are retained separately because they convey a different historical fact. Venue annotations that merely count previous stagings are not allowed to obscure the course itself.

The results here stop at the latest completed edition, in 2026. The next championship belongs in the current event hub until it has been played. Keep the historical list for understanding the competition, then use that hub and its linked accommodation guidance to plan the journey you can actually book.

The shortened 1992 edition

Patty Sheehan’s winning total of 207 in 1992 came over 54 holes after the championship was shortened by weather. It is not a 72-hole total. Confirmed: official champion profile.

Sources and useful official links

• Confirmed: official Women’s Open records
• Reported: Where2Golf results cross-check
• Reported: 1983 funding cancellation, Sky Sports

Useful reading for your visit

• Royal St George's visitor guide
• AIG Women's Open 2027 at Royal St George's
• Where to stay for the AIG Women’s Open at Sandwich

Visit today

• Royal St George's visitor guide
• AIG Women's Open 2027 at Royal St George's
• Where to stay for the AIG Women’s Open at Sandwich

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