Complete Groups and Tee Times for the Opening Rounds of the HSBC Women's World Championship
Lydia Ko, So Yeon Ryu, Ariya Jutanugarn
9:42 a.m. – 1st Tee
Ariya Jutanugarn nearly captured this title a year ago, but a final round 8-under par 64 by eventual winner Inbee Park ended that hope (Jutanugarn would go on to win twice in 2017, however).
The 22-year-old returns to the HSBC Women’s World Championship in 2018 looking for her first victory of the season. She’s coming into the week with back-to-back top-10s at the Honda LPGA Thailand and ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open.
Jutanugarn is paired with two golfers who’ve gone through some changes already for 2018, So Yeon Ryu (who has a new caddie) and Lydia Ko (who has a new caddie and swing coach).
Ryu finished tied for 7th at this event a year ago after bouncing back from a 1-over par opening round. It was her second of 12 top10 finishes in 2017. Ryu has one top-10 result so far this season and was tied for 26th a week ago. She’s fourth on Tour in total birdies and will need to keep up that pace this week as the winning score the last two years at this event has been 19-under.
Ko, meanwhile, finished tied for 9th at this event a year ago and has made both cuts at the tournaments she’s played so far this season. Her best finish is a tie for 19th at the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open.
Angela Stanford, Ha Na Jang, Inbee Park
10:06 a.m. – 1st Tee
It’s a trio of past champions, led by the return of Inbee Park.
Park, who was away from the LPGA Tour for the balance of 2017 after the Ricoh Women’s British Open to recuperate from injuries and spend more time with her family, is back in action this week in Singapore. She fired an 8-under par 64 Sunday to storm into the winner’s circle – the round of the day.
Park told LPGA.com in a pre-season interview that she’s hoping to return to the winner’s circle at major championships once again this year, something she’s not done since 2015. The 29-year-old has already qualified for the LPGA Tour Hall of Fame, but she’s more inspired than ever to get back to the top of her game this season.
A low Sunday round was also how Ha Na Jang captured her title in 2016, after she fired a 7-under par 65 on the final day (tied for the low round of the tournament). Jang took most of 2017 to be with her family as well. She is back, however, and looking to return to the winner’s circle as well after making her season debut at the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open.
Stanford won this event in 2012 – her last win on the LPGA Tour – marking the sixth time she found the winner’s circle on the LPGA Tour. She finished 20th at this event a year ago, and has gotten steadily better so far this season, finishing T54-T27-T26 in her first three tournaments.
Brittany Lincicome, Jin Young Ko, Jessica Korda
10:10 a.m. – 1st Tee
Although difficult for one member of this trio, don’t be surprised if this group is all smiles when they tee off Thursday.
Brittany Lincicome, Jin Young Ko, and Jessica Korda are the first three winners on the LPGA Tour this year, led by Korda who captured last week’s title in Thailand.
The 25-year-old, who is recovering from off-season jaw surgery (and has 27 screws in her face) managed to overcome some discomfort to fire a sizzling 25-under par total at the Honda LPGA Thailand to win by four shots.
Ko captured the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open in her debut as an LPGA Tour member two weeks ago. She followed that up with a tie for 7th last week and now leads the Tour in a handful of statistical categories, including the Race to the CME Globe and both the Rolex Player of the Year and Rolex Rookie of the Year races.
Lincicome, meanwhile, defended her title at the season opener in the Bahamas. She followed that up with another top-10 finish last week. She sits first on Tour in Driving Distance and third in Scoring Average.
Shanshan Feng, Lexi Thompson, Sung Hyun Park
10:30 a.m. – 1st Tee
Despite intense competition nipping at her heels, Shanshan Feng has managed to stay atop the Rolex Rankings thanks to two top-5 finishes to start her 2018 LPGA Tour season.
Feng finished tied for third at the Pure Silk-Bahamas LPGA Classic, and followed that up with a tie for seventh last week at the Honda LPGA Thailand. She finished tied for 12th here a year ago.
“I came out and played well in the Bahamas and so that really gave me a lot of confidence, and it reminds me about how well I was playing at the end of the year last year. I'm trying to keep up the same feeling, same condition. I did well last week, also,” Feng told reporters on Tuesday.
Lexi Thompson, after her runner-up finish last week, is back at No.2 in the Rolex Rankings. It's tied for her highest position ever in the world, but she’s yet to get to No.1 That, however, is one of her biggest goals this year.
“I think everybody wants to be No. 1 in the world. It's always our goal,” she said to reporters on Tuesday. “But you have to take it one tournament at a time.”
Thompson finished tied for 25th at last year’s HSBC Women’s World Championship.
Rounding out the trio is Sung Hyun Park, who finished tied for 25th last week and solo third at this tournament a year ago. Park went on to share Player of the Year honors in 2017 along with Rookie of the Year in runaway fashion, becoming the first person since Nancy Lopez in 1978 to pull off the rare double.
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