*All times are local
Alison Lee, Brooke Henderson, Ariya Jutanugarn
Thursday - 8:40 a.m. – 1st Tee
Friday – 1:50 p.m. – 10th Tee
Newly minted UCLA graduate Alison Lee will play alongside Brooke Henderson and Ariya Jutanugarn during the opening rounds of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. This week, Lee looks to turn around what has been a tough start in this championship where she’s failed to crack the top-60 in her first two starts. Lee finished tied for 27th at the season’s first major, the ANA Inspiration. Henderson, on the other hand, hasn’t finished outside the top-5 in her first two starts in this championship will look to successfully defend her title this week. In 2016, at Sahalee, the Canadian defeated Lydia Ko in a playoff for her first major victory. A year prior, Henderson finished tied for fifth in her first appearance in this event. Jutanugarn finished third, behind Henderson and Ko at Sahalee, but went on to capture her first major title the next month at the Ricoh Women’s British Open. Jutanugarn was T-8 at the season’s first major and looks to pick up her second win of the year this week in Chicago having also won the Manulife LPGA Classic.
Sandra Gal, Stacy Lewis, Michelle Wie
Thursday – 8:50 a.m. – 1st Tee
Friday – 2:00 p.m. -10th Tee
Sandra Gal, Stacy Lewis and Michelle Wie are grouped together in the opening rounds of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. Gal has twice finished just outside the top-10 in this event, with a tie for 12th, and looks to make the cut in a major for the first time this season. Two-time major champion, Stacy Lewis, is coming off her fourth top-10 of the year with a tie for fourth last week in Arkansas. She’s come close to capturing this event with four top-10s including a tie for second in 2012. Like Lewis, Wie comes into the week in great form. The 2014 U.S. Women’s Open champion has six top-10s in the first half of the season including a sixth place finish at the ANA Inspiration, the season’s first major. She’s looking to return to the winner’s circle for the first time since that major victory in 2014.
Anna Nordqvist, Karrie Webb, Shanshan Feng
Thursday – 1:10 pm. – 10th Tee
Friday – 8:00 a.m. – 1st Tee
A group of KPMG Women’s PGA Champions will tee it up together on Thursday and Friday at Olympia Fields with Anna Nordqvist, Karrie Webb and Shanshan Feng grouped together. As a rookie, Nordqvist won the 2009 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship for her first victory on Tour. She’s backed that up with three more top-10s in the event and she’s played solid golf in 2017 with a victory at the Bank of Hope Founders Cup in April followed by a tie for 11th at the season’s first major. Webb is the 2001 KPMG Women’s PGA Champion, who owns nine top-10s in this championship. Feng, who won this event in 2012, has two more top-10s in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.
So Yeon Ryu, Gerina Piller, Suzann Pettersen
Thursday – 1:40 p.m. – 10th Tee
Friday – 8:30 a.m. – 1st Tee
Thursday afternoon, So Yeon Ryu will be recognized as the new world No. 1 player with the presentation of the Rolex Rankings No. 1 bib to her caddie, Tom Watson. She arrives in Chicago with momentum on her side following her victory last week in Arkansas, which also gave her the top spot in the Rolex Rankings for the first time in her career. She has played consistently well in this event, just as she does week after week on Tour, and hasn’t finished outside the top-13 in her last three appearances. Gerina Piller and Suzann Pettersen will play alongside the new world No. 1. Piller is still in search of her first win on Tour. She’s twice finished in the top-10 at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and notched a tie for 35th at the ANA Inspiration in April. Pettersen, who won the 2007 KPMG Women's PGA Championship, has five more consecutive top-10s in this event. Pettersen was also in contention at the season’s first major where she finished tied for third.
Lydia Ko, Inbee Park, Lexi Thompson
Thursday – 1:50 p.m. -10th Tee
Friday – 8:40 a.m. – 1st Tee
Last year, Lydia Ko came up short of being named KPMG Women’s PGA Champion when she lost on the first playoff hole to Brooke Henderson at Sahalee. The former world No. 1 now sits at No. 3 in the Rolex Rankings and is still in search of her first win of the year. She finished tied for 11th at the season’s first major. Ko will play alongside Inbee Park and Lexi Thompson during Thursday and Friday’s rounds. Park won the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship three consecutive years between 2013 and 2015. She missed the cut last year as she continued to battle an ongoing thumb injury. Since Park’s victory in March at the HSBC Women’s Championship, she hasn’t finished worse than tied for 22nd. Thompson’s game is great shape heading in to a major championship and arrives in Chicago off back-to-back runner-up finishes. But Thompson is dealing with a lot more in her life off the course. As reported by Golfweek, Thompson took last week off to be her mother’s side as she is undergoing treatment for uterine cancer.
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