A Major championship remains the absentia on Linn Grant‘s resume with the Swede ready to up her game at Riviera and follow in the footsteps of Maja Stark by winning the U.S. Women’s Open presented by Ally.
Grant watched her compatriot win the second Major of the year in 2025 as she recorded a T9 finish of her own at Erin Hills. A year on and the 26-year-old is excited for the test in Los Angeles – one she feels suits her style of play.
“I think it will be a good test,” Grant said. “The course is playing quite long. It’s windy in the afternoons, big greens, long putts, slopey, all of it. I think it’s a really good Major setup. I think you need a lot of patience out there and you just have to wait for people to make mistakes without making them yourself.
“I think especially when the courses get longer, I think my game really steps up if I’m having a good week. I really like it [when it’s tough]. I think it’s more fun to play, you know, playing for less birdies than just go out there and have a birdie fest. I enjoy it.”
Grant returned to the winner’s circle back in November picking up her second LPGA title at the The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican. Since then the Swede, currently World No 38, has had a steady 2026 campaign recording one top-10 and making six cuts from 10 starts on the LPGA.
“The game feels okay,” Grant said candidly on the eve of the second Major of the year. “I feel like I’m going back to my basics a little bit with swing and just every year is a new year of trying to find how things work best for me. Sometimes you try something new and it’s not your thing, so then it feels like you’re in a setback, and that’s just kind of how things go. I think we’re going to have a good summer. I hope so. That’s what I’m looking forward to. And just really not focusing too much on actual results, but just focusing more on the process itself.
“I’ve said it in so many interviewers at home, I wouldn’t want to finish my career – not as if that’s close – without having a Major in there. I think that because I feel like I have the game to do it. I mean, there’s only five of them a year, so you don’t have a lot of practice. So whenever a week comes along, it’s about treating it just like a normal week. I just think I have to handle it that way. But it’s easier said than done.”\
Stark – the Swede Grant grew up playing alongside – secured a two-strike victory last time out to pip her friend to being the first of the two to win a Major championship. Having met her on the 18th green to congratulate the achievement, an inspired Grant is now full of desire to up her game and replicate the heroics at the toughest test in golf.
“It was so much fun [to see Maja win,” Grant said. “I think I was probably more shocked than she was! I think when you’re in the moment, you’re just, you know, doing your thing. And I just remember running up to her and I’m like, do you understand what you’ve just done? It’s just cool to know someone who you’ve spent so much time together and been part of the same journey for so long get that win.”
“I’ve said to so many interviewers at home, I wouldn’t want to finish my career – not as if that’s close, – without having a Major in there. I feel like I have the game to do it. It’s more so. I mean, there’s only five of them a year, so you don’t have a lot of practice. So whenever a week comes along, it’s like, it’s a major, but it’s just a normal week. I just think I have to handle it that way. But it’s easier said than done.”
Grant gets her Major pursuit underway at the U.S. Women’s Open presented by Ally on Thursday at 7:51am local time playing alongside Korea’s Sei Young Kim and USA’s Andrea Lee.
