Madelene Sagstrom is playing for two this week at the U.S. Women’s Open presented by Ally at Riviera Country Club.
The 33-year-old announced back in March that she and her husband, Jack Clarke, who caddies on the PGA Tour, are expecting a baby boy this coming September. And while most soon-to-be mothers would have dialed back their competitive schedules in advance of giving birth, the Swede has kept playing—likely much longer than she originally intended.
But the two-time LPGA Tour winner says that as long as she still feels like she can hang with the best players in the world, she doesn’t see any point in going on maternity leave early, particularly during the heart of major championship season.
“Priorities have changed a bit, right? I think that feeling good has been the main thing, but I think that my love for the game has sparked again,” said Sagstrom, who is currently just a touch over six months pregnant. “It’s kind of interesting. Having your body change so much without you having any control over it, it’s sparked a lot of curiosity within me, so I think that has been fun. I’ve worked super hard with Callaway to change all my clubs, other than my putter. It’s been a fun journey.
“I changed all my irons from Jersey, and I’m just hitting them so good. I’m playing well. I can still do this.”
Sagstrom has teed it up in five tournaments, one of which was The Chevron Championship, ahead of this week at Riviera, making three cuts and missing two. Her best finish of the year came in her season debut at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, where she tied for 24th, and her most recent made cut was in her last LPGA Tour start at the Mizuho Americas Open in May.
An uber competitive Sagstrom would, of course, love to be contending for her third career title week in and week out, but she accepted early on that pregnancy was set to cause a lot of changes to the idiosyncrasies of her golf game, shifts that Madelene has certainly taken notice of as she has progressed in this process.
In particular, Sagstrom says her endurance has taken the most noticeable hit, even though she seems to feel way better moving and swinging a golf club than not.
“I said I wouldn’t do this to myself if I was hurting, or if it was any risk for the baby, or if I was playing too bad,” said Sagstrom, “but I’m not, so why not?”
Unlike some others who have competed in the U.S. Women’s Open while expecting their first child—Amy Olson famously did so in 2023 at Pebble Beach—the U.S. Women’s Open wasn’t exactly circled on Sagstrom’s calendar as the marquee event she wanted to make it to if she did choose to maintain some semblance of a schedule in 2026. However, that doesn’t mean she and Jack aren’t making the most of this special time at one of American golf’s most iconic venues as an almost family of three.
“This golf course is so pure. It’s so nice,” said Sagstrom. “I’ve never been out here, so I saw the course first day [on Tuesday], but it’s so cool. It’s a cool experience we can tell him about. [We’re] trying to take pictures, and you know, you’ve played there.”
Sagstrom has been in the field at nine U.S. Women’s Opens since 2016, only missing the tournament once in 2019. In those nine starts, she has three top 20s, tying for 17th in 2018 at Shoal Creek, tying for 20th in 2021 at Olympic Club and tying for 19th in 2025 at Erin Hills.
While a spot near the top of the leaderboard would be an ideal outcome for Madelene, considering she isn’t operating at her full athletic potential, a weekend tee time would be plenty satisfactory of a result for the Swede this week at Riviera.
“If I didn’t feel like I could make cuts, I wouldn’t play,” said Madelene. “I think that’s a reasonable goal to start with and then go from there. I played well [on Tuesday], so you never know. Stamina is the hardest part.”
But no matter the final result, this U.S. Women’s Open will always have an asterisk by it for Sagstrom, as it’s primed to make an amazing story for the son whom she will finally get to meet this fall.
