John,
You're trying to make the US Women's Open into some sort of social modifier that it isn't. IF pinchpoints dictated setup, that's a design issue. The rest is physics. Women, at the highest level, don't hit the ball as hard as men at the highest level. So keeping women behind your pinchpoints means they have to hit shots with more club, with less spin. Sure, they could have set up the course that way, but no one likes to be ridiculed any more than they like to be coddled. As Mr. Hutto points out, the scoring was very similar.
Enjoy the outcome. It seems that the women did.
Joe