2026 AIG Women's Open: Shiho Kuwaki wins at Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club
Shiho Kuwaki won the 2026 AIG Women's Open at Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club, Lytham St Annes, Lancashire, England with 279 (−5), beating Esther Henseleit in a playoff.
Updated October 23, 2026
Every year is on the AIG Women's Open winners list.
- Dates
- 30 July 2026 to 2 August 2026
- Course
- Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club, Lytham St Annes, Lancashire, England
- Edition
- 50th edition
- Counted as a major
- yes
- Format
- stroke play, 4 rounds
- Par
- 71 · 6,601 yards
- Field
- 144
- Made the cut
- 68 (cut at 146)
- Purse
- $10,000,000 · winner's share $1,500,000
- Champion
- Shiho Kuwaki · age 23 · Japan · born Okayama, Okayama Prefecture, Japan
- Champion's title
- 1st title at this event · 1st major
- World ranking
- No. 46 (Rolex Rankings)
- Winning score
- 66-70-73-70 = 279 (−5)
- Runner-up
- Esther Henseleit (279)
- 54-hole leader
- Yealimi Noh · Shiho Kuwaki was 3 strokes back
- Playoff
- Sudden death, repeating the 18th hole; 2 holes; beat Esther Henseleit; 18th (2nd playoff hole)
- Caddie
- 小田亨 (Toru Oda; romanization not stated in source)
- Low amateur
- Paula Martín Sampedro (288)
Winner and runner-up
| Pos. | Player | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | Total | To par |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shiho Kuwaki | 66 | 70 | 73 | 70 | 279 | −5 |
| 2 | Esther Henseleit | 279 |
What happened at the 2026 AIG Women's Open
Esther Henseleit holed a 40-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole to tie Kuwaki and force a playoff.
On the second playoff hole at the 18th, Henseleit drove into gorse right of the fairway and bogeyed while Kuwaki saved par to win.
How this was built
Every value is shown as recorded in GNN's AIG Women's Open data. A value no source confirmed is left out; nothing is estimated. Where sources disagree, the organizer's own record is used.
Data: womens-golf-majors_dataset_2026-10-20.json (GNN's women's majors research set, "master" row for this year, research dated October 20, 2026).
Sources
- aigwomensopen.com: records
- Wikipedia: 2026 Women's British Open
- aigwomensopen.com: story of the championship shiho kuwaki esther henseleit
- aigwomensopen.com: shiho kuwaki wins royal lytham 50th esther henseleit
- randa.org: kuwaki triumphs at royal lytham st annes to win 50th…
- thegolfnewsnet.com: 2026 aig womens british open final results prize money…
- philstar.com: kuwaki scores major breakthrough finale twists and turns
- golfdigest.com: heres record prize money payout for each player at 2026…
- justwomenssports.com: shiho kuwaki aig womens open playoff
- sports.yahoo.co.jp: 2026080300004 spnavi
- kumanichi.com: articles