The LPGA and the Ladies European Tour return to Dundonald Links this week for the ISPS HANDA Women’s Scottish Open. Here’s what you need to know.
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Welcome back to Golf Thursday, everyone. Let’s get ready for some links golf.
These are my favorite few weeks of the 2025 season. Summer links golf in the United Kingdom and Ireland brings out the golf purist in me. Links courses—the rugged landscapes the game originated on—provide the purest test of golf on both a professional and amateur level. I agree wholeheartedly with Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre on this one.
Links golf is just different. Put it any way you want, but you can’t play the same on a links course as you can on a TPC in the United States. Links golf is unpredictable because of the weather, the cut of the fescue and the stark difference of the putting surfaces. You’re never hitting a stock 7-iron shot. You’re not going to get a lot of backspin from the tightly-mown fairways. You’re not going to be able to fly the ball as high because of the wind. Adjustments always need to be made if you want to hit your target.
Playing golf on the sport’s home turf requires a level of respect. Honor the holy ground you tread upon and respect the designs of the architects that connect farmland and sea. Pay the course its dues, and play each hole to the course’s strength. Never try to hit a shot the course won’t allow. You’ll be sorry.
In links golf, the course is an animate beast to be negotiated and reckoned with.
The players in the field at the ISPS HANDA Women’s Scottish Open will get this test. From July 24–27, LPGA and LET players, invitees, and qualified golfers return to Dundonald Links in Ayrshire, Scotland for the fourth year in a row to contest the Scottish Open trophy.
2024 Scottish Open champion Lauren Coughlin is gearing up to defend her title, and past champions Ayaka Furue (2022), Ariya Jutanugarn (2018) and Mi Hyang Lee (2017) are also taking on the competition.
“It’s nice to come over and get used to the wind and how much the ball kind of can move in it and stuff,” Coughlin said in a pre-tournament press conference on Tuesday, July 22. “Just thinking in a little bit different ways, trying to get the ball on the ground a lot quicker and things like that that you don’t really think about when you’re over in the States.”
World No. 1 Nelly Korda is preparing to make her Scottish Open debut. Korda, in a pre-tournament press conference on Wednesday, July 23, said that she’s trying to go into the tournament with as little expectations as possible.
“Just have to take it how it is. Just play golf,” Korda said. “I mean, you don’t know what kind of positions you’re going to be, what kind of lies you’re going to have and what shots you’re going to have to hit. I think everything technical or what you have a game plan goes out the window and you just go out and play golf.”
I love Nelly’s approach. That’s exactly the mindset you need to have going into a links tournament. Since everything is unpredictable, holding any expectations for your game, for the course or for any aspect of the tournament is unrealistic. You just have to get out there and take what the course gives you. Just play golf.
Minjee Lee, 2025 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship winner, is set to compete this week as well, and she has a great track record when it comes to striking the ball at the Scottish Open. She is second in greens-in-regulation percentage (81.5%) and strokes gained approach (+1.92). She also sits at third in strokes gained ball striking (+2.14).
The stats don’t lie. Lee has finished in the top-20 in the last three Scottish Opens and has played fairly consistently in this tournament.
“I think just I like playing links golf in general. I think any links course that I can come to I like to play it,” Lee fondly said to the media at Dundonald on Tuesday, July 22. “So, yeah, obviously Dundonald, we’ve been here quite a few times now, so I know the course really well and I know where to miss it and where it’s best to play from.”
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It might be time for a breakthrough, given the fantastic 2025 season Lee is already having. A good finish here on the west coast of Scotland will perhaps boost her forward to nabbing that elusive AIG Women’s Open title. The Career Grand Slam continues to loom.
Dundonald is quickly establishing itself as a favorite venue for this championship. With on-site lodging for players, the hospitality and convenience ratings are high. Players enjoy being able to walk from the 18th green to the locker room to grab their things and head right to their accommodation.
And the course itself has also made a name for itself in the home of the game. The epitome of Scottish golf, Dundonald Links sits on the coast of Ayrshire, boasting undulating green complexes and patented wide fairways. This week, the course is set to play around 6,500 yards, give or take. And that’s the beauty of links golf. These courses can be set up to play hundreds of yards shorter or longer than immediately visible. It’s up to the discretion of the tournament directors to provide an appropriate and honorable test of golf.
You can catch coverage of the 2025 ISPS HANDA Women’s Scottish Open from July 24–27 on Golf Channel.
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LET News
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Five at The IX: Briana Chacon ekes out second Epson Tour victory of 2025 season with win at Casella Golf Championship
You all know that I love a closing par-5 to end a round and a tournament. But how about two in the last four holes?
Pinehaven Country Club in Guilderland, N.Y. has four final holes that provide enough drama for one hour, let alone for the closing round of a tournament. On Sunday, July 20, Briana Chacon birdied the par-five 15th and 17th to win the 2025 Casella Golf Championship by one shot over Laetitia Beck. Chacon’s final-round 67 was consistent and clean, leading her to her second Epson Tour victory of the season. Here’s what she had to say in her post-win press conference.
Q: We’re here with Briana Chacon, winner of the 2025 Casella Golf Championship. Your second win of the season. Can you put into words what it means to win out here?
BRIANA CHACON: Yeah, this one is huge. I think for me, I just had such a big goal of just trying to finish this season strong. And this just really helped instill that confidence and gave me good momentum, I think, going into the final stretch of the season. So, it’s just an honor. And I’m just super, super excited to be here.
Q: This puts you on a great track to earn your LPGA Tour card. The past four champions here at this golf course have all gone on to get their LPGA Tour card. What does it mean to add your name to that list, with Lilia Vu, Lucy Li, and Lauren Morris, all of them?
BRIANA CHACON: It’s just a huge honor to follow in those footsteps. And hopefully, one day I can be playing alongside them. This win just makes me have more confidence and makes me believe that I can be right there next to them.
Q: You’ve had your family around, great family, great support. What does it mean to have them on the road with you?
BRIANA CHACON: It’s huge. I mean, my dad always tries to come out whenever he can, when he’s not working. Having him here this week has been just so nice and just so exciting. He wasn’t here last week, so yeah, it’s my good luck charm.
He’s been helping me play golf ever since I was a little kid, and he’s one of the main reasons why I’m here today, so it’s just a huge honor to have him here and witness it firsthand.
Q: Let’s talk about this week a little bit… This golf course is very challenging. I think it’s reached double-digit under par once in the past five years. You got it to 9-under. What makes this golf course so challenging?
BRIANA CHACON: I would say definitely off the tee, it’s very narrow. I would say that it’s definitely a ball striker’s course. You have to be really consistent off the tee and really consistent with the approach shots because the greens are so small, and on top of that, the greens are pretty undulated, so pretty tricky to read, but luckily, I hit the ball pretty well this week, so it was an overall good week.
Q: I think the last four events have all come down to one shot on the 18th hole. Did you know where you stood when you came down 18 fairway?
BRIANA CHACON: I didn’t know exactly. I only saw the leaderboard on 16, and I thought that we were all tied up, so I honestly thought that I was going to be tied with somebody coming into 18. And then when I saw the leaderboard on the final green, that’s when I really knew.
