Strong start has Canadian amateur Aphrodite Deng in mix at U.S. Women's Open

At just 16, Canadian teen Aphrodite Deng is getting awfully familiar with playing golf on a big stage. 

Deng held a piece of the lead early Thursday at the U.S. Women’s Open – the biggest event in women’s golf – before a back-nine stumble saw her finish at 1 under. Still, she is just four shots back of the lead held by Jennifer Kupcho after the opening round and has this going for her: 16 of the last 20 U.S. Women’s Open winners have been within four shots of the lead after round one. 

Deng, who was firmly in the mix at the CPKC Women’s Open last summer and has won a handful of impressive junior and amateur events already (she won the 2025 U.S. Junior Girls’ Championship to earn a spot in this year’s U.S. Women’s Open – the first Canadian in history to win that title – and also made the cut at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur earlier this spring) told Sportsnet last week from her home in Florida that she was looking forward to testing her game against the best players in women’s golf. 

She said she felt her game has matured a lot in the last 10 months since she broke through at the CPKC Women’s Open and admitted she didn’t feel “as nervous” playing in front of big crowds. 

Deng started on the back nine at Riviera Country Club – the iconic Los Angeles layout that has hosted the PGA Tour 62 times and three men’s majors in the past – and got off to as tidy a start as she could have hoped. She birdied Nos. 12 and 13 after making birdies of six and 14 feet, respectively. Deng added another on the par-3 16th before making the turn and adding a fourth birdie on the par-5 1st – which got her into a tie for the lead. 

She gave one back after missing a 3-foot par attempt on No. 4 and missing a bogey attempt from 5 feet on No. 7, leading to a double bogey. Just when the wheels were starting to fall off with another bogey on the par-4 8th (another short miss with the putter), she rolled in a 7-footer for birdie on her closing hole. 

“I think the course is really hard depending on how you play it and what positions you get yourself into. So as long as you're in the fairway and you hit it on the right spot on the green, you should be fine,” Deng explained. 

While Deng continues to learn and grow, she’s enlisted the services of veteran caddie and now broadcaster John Wood for this week. Wood has worked with Hunter Mahan, Kevin Sutherland, and Matt Kuchar, amongst others, for 10 PGA Tour wins. He was with Kuchar when he won bronze at the 2016 Olympics. Deng said the duo were connected via a mutual friend and the pair has worked “really well” so far. 

No matter Deng’s inexperience in professional events, with Wood’s help and a solid game plan, the Canadian star-in-waiting has a real chance to make some noise at the U.S. Women’s Open over the next three days. 

The rest of the Canadian contingent didn’t fare as well Thursday at Riviera with Anna Huang shooting a 4-over 75 and Lauren Kim shooting a 5-over 76 after a final-hole bogey. Brooke Henderson shot a 2-over 73 after a four-putt bogey on her penultimate hole (and then a chip-in birdie on her final hole of the day) as she looks to make the cut at the U.S. Women’s Open for the first time in three years. If there is any consolation for Henderson, she is tied at 2-over with both the game’s two top-ranked players in Nelly Korda and Jeeno Thitikul after Thursday.