AIG Women's Open Brings 19 LPGA Winners, 24 of the Top 25, and 12 Past Champs to Royal Lytham

Image: LPGA / Getty Images

The 2026 AIG Women’s Open is not showing up to celebrate its 50th edition with some polite little commemorative field.

It is showing up loaded.

According to the LPGA’s official field breakdown published Tuesday, July 28, 2026, and checked again on Wednesday, July 29, 2026, the championship at Royal Lytham & St Annes will feature:

• 144 players
• 12 past champions
• all 19 LPGA Tour winners from the 2026 season
• 24 of the top 25 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings
• a $10 million purse

That is a real major field, not a ceremonial anniversary board.

This piece is based on the LPGA’s official July 28, 2026 field breakdown and current championship materials checked on Wednesday, July 29, 2026. No pretending I wandered into the Royal Lytham locker room and started building a field sheet by hand.

If you want the schedule piece first, read our current watch guide for the 2026 AIG Women’s Open. If you want the bigger take, read why this major does not need one main character and our earlier spring piece on the event’s bigger purse and coverage jump.

The Headliners Are Obvious, but the Depth Is the Real Story

The LPGA says Nelly Korda comes in as the Rolex Rankings No. 1 player, which is enough by itself to make this a serious week.

But the field gets more interesting the longer you sit with it.

The same LPGA breakdown says defending champion Miyu Yamashita, currently No. 6 in the world rankings, returns trying to become the first back-to-back AIG Women’s Open winner since 2011. That is a clean championship storyline already.

Then you add everything around it:

• Haeran Ryu
• Jeeno Thitikul
• Hyo Joo Kim
• Lottie Woad
• Charley Hull
• Lydia Ko
• Hannah Green

That is before you even get to the fact that Jenny Shin arrives off her current win at Dundonald, which we covered in our Sunday final-round recap.

Royal Lytham Gets a Proper Return Cast

The LPGA field story also notes that the 12 past champions include:

• Miyu Yamashita (2025)
• Lydia Ko (2024)
• Lilia Vu (2023)
• Ashleigh Buhai (2022)
• Georgia Hall (2018)
• Jiyai Shin (2012, 2008)
• Yani Tseng (2011, 2010)

That matters because Royal Lytham & St Annes is not just hosting another major. It is hosting the championship’s 50th edition, and the LPGA says Georgia Hall is back at the same venue where she won in 2018.

That is the kind of venue-memory angle that works better when the current field is strong enough to keep the week from turning into nostalgia theater.

The 2026 Winner List Basically All Showed Up

This is maybe the strongest detail in the whole LPGA field release.

The tour says all 19 LPGA winners from the 2026 season are in the field, including:

• Korda
• Thitikul
• Hannah Green
• Hyo Joo Kim
• Lauren Coughlin
• Lottie Woad
• Miyu Yamashita
• Haeran Ryu
• Jenny Shin

That is exactly what you want from the last women’s major of the year. The season’s best players and actual winners are all in one place instead of scattered across scheduling excuses.

There Is Enough New Blood Too

The LPGA also says the field includes 11 LPGA rookies and a group of players making their AIG Women’s Open debuts.

That is useful because it keeps the week from being locked into only established names. A major should feel like both a championship and a sorting mechanism.

This one has enough star power up top and enough new faces underneath to do both.

Bottom Line

The official LPGA field breakdown published July 28, 2026, checked on Wednesday, July 29, says the 50th AIG Women’s Open at Royal Lytham & St Annes will start with 144 players, 12 past champions, all 19 LPGA winners from the 2026 season, and 24 of the top 25 in the world rankings.

That is not just a nice anniversary field.

That is one of the strongest major boards women’s golf has put on all season.