The exact moment that triggered this realization escapes me.

Was it on the cart ride back to the Riveria clubhouse, in the heart of a particularly golden hour, watching a well-known Hollywood actor politely beg his way past the rare door closed to him?

Or was it some 16 hours later, as I stood on the first tee box at Bel-Air, and looked out over the fairway below me and the Los Angeles skyline in the distance?

Perhaps it was at some point during the USGA media day circuit — 36 holes over two days at a pair of top-100, elite clubs — where I was routinely gobsmacked by the challenges and thrilled by the opportunities?

Who’s to say, but as the U.S. Women’s Open at Riveria begins Thursday in Pacific Palisades, Calif., with the Curtis Cup at Bel-Air to follow next week in L.A., it became clear what this is all about.

Gen Z loves to talk about vibes, but these next two weeks are all about vibrancy. The vibrancy of George C. Thomas’ course designs; of Los Angeles; and of the current and future stars of women’s golf, having a moment in primetime.

“We have this unique opportunity to set up golf courses at a lot of classic, fantastic, iconic venues that the best female players in the world just don’t get to play on a week-to-week basis. We take that seriously,” said Shannon Rouillard, the USGA’s senior director of championships.

The U.S. Women’s Open, the major of all majors for women’s golf, is taking on Riviera, a renowned course that hosts the PGA Tour’s Genesis Invitational each year and will be the Olympic golf course in 2028. It’s a championship test of the highest order, and if some of the uniqueness of a major championship is lost when the event takes place at a familiar location, this particular tournament will make Thomas’ design stand out in new ways.

Like most other courses built during the golden age (Riviera opened in 1927), the men have threatened to make it obsolete. Jacob Bridgeman won this year’s Genesis at 18 under par, and Adam Scott twice (!) shot a 63. So much of the bunkering and minimalist touches that make it a top-15 course in the United States and a bucket-list tee time are lost when everyone can just fly it 310 yards from the championship tees.

But Rouillard and her team have spent the last four years making site visits, studying Thomas’ masterpiece and finding what they believe to be a Riviera we have not seen enough of.

“I think people are gonna be pleasantly surprised at how we are able to take this classic architecture and truly do it justice and bring it to life through the setup plan,” Rouillard said.

The eighth, 10th and 11th holes will all play dramatically differently than they do for the men, but let’s take special mention of the par-3 fourth, once called the “greatest par-3 in America” by Ben Hogan.

For the PGA Tour, it’s been lengthened to more than 270 yards, and a whole new tee box has been built that arguably takes out much of the redan green’s natural features.

The USGA wants none of that, believing the back tee box to be too much for the U.S. Women’s Open and another tee box on the left incapable of providing the options Thomas intended. Riviera obliged Rouillard’s request, playing to the connotation of a redan green — heavily fortified, with a steep embankment.

It is one of the many holes that, over four days, will identify the 2026 U.S. Women’s Open champion. It’ll be compelling television, with NBC airing weekend coverage in primetime, which typically leads to higher TV ratings.

Yet, I’m somehow just as excited for the event that starts June 12 — the Curtis Cup, the biennial competition featuring the best women’s amateurs from the United States versus those from Great Britain and Ireland.

If Riviera is a beefy, mentally exhausting test of golf, Bel-Air feels like a joyride. So much of Thomas’ distinctive architecture is still on display, but it is noticeably shorter, and it uses the natural elevation of its surroundings spectacularly.

How often do you get to hit a tee shot in the shadow of the clubhouse patio, pass over the suspension bridge that looms on top of the 18th green, and come out the other side, hoping your ball held the false front? The par-3 10th hole is a nervy shot any day of the week, before you think about doing so while playing for your country.

“I’ve got a par 3 that’s 112 yards, and I’ve got a par 3 that’s over 200, and a few in between,” said Rachel Sadowski, the USGA championship director in charge of this event. “And the greens are nice and big, so we can make it a variety, even daily, and make it change by two clubs based on where we put the hole location.

“That’s really important when you’ve got four-ball format, foursomes format, singles format, and just making it so it’s different every single time they play it.”

The United States should be a favorite with three top-ranked amateurs leading the charge: Kiara Romero (No. 1), Farah O’Keefe (4) and Asterisk Talley (7). But GB&I won in 2024 at Sunningdale Golf Club in England.

The U.S. Women’s Open will showcase the present of women’s golf. The Curtis Cup highlights its future. The whole thing? Iconic.