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Jessica Korda, Megan Khang, Sung Hyun Park
8:32 a.m., 10th Tee
While Jessica Korda continues to recover from off-season jaw surgery, her results so far in 2018 have shown no ill effects.
Korda captured the first event she played in this year, the Honda LPGA Thailand, and hasn’t missed a cut yet this year (her worst result is a tie for 26th). She has four top-10 finishes so far this year and finished tied for 11th at last year’s LPGA Volvik Championship.
Korda is paired with Megan Khang and Sung Hyun Park, who captured the Volunteers of America LPGA Texas Classic in her last start on the LPGA Tour. Park’s year hasn’t been as consistent as her rookie campaign where she won twice and had 10 top-5 finishes en route to winning Rookie and Player of the Year. However, her win could mean the floodgates are opening once again, especially considering Park finished tied for second here a year ago.
Khang, meanwhile, is coming into this week off her best result of the season, a solo fifth at the Kingsmill LPGA Classic presented by Geico.
Emma Talley, Moriya Jutanugarn, Caroline Masson
8:21 a.m., 10th Tee
It’s been a steady season so far for Moriya Jutanugarn, and after breaking through for her first LPGA Tour win – and after seeing sister Ariya notch her first win of the year a week ago – it seems as though the Jutanugarn’s are peaking just in time for the U.S. Women’s Open next week.
Jutanugarn finished tied for sixth here a year ago, and has five top-10 finishes so far this season.
Masson, meanwhile, is coming into the week off back-to-back top-10 results, her best of the season so far. She’s playing very solid golf, and the German is looking for her first LPGA Tour win since 2016.
Rounding out the group will be rookie Emma Talley, who won on the Epson Tour a year ago at the Island Resort Championship after a decorated amateur career. Talley has two top-10’s so far in her rookie campaign on the LPGA Tour, and no matter what happens this week she’ll likely have trouble wiping the smile off her face, as her alma matter, the University of Alabama, made it to the finals of the NCAA Women’s Golf Championship.
Ariya Jutanugarn, Charley Hull, Nelly Korda
1:21 p.m., 1st Tee
The 2016 winner of the LPGA Volvik Championship, Ariya Jutanugarn comes into the week off her first victory of the 2018 season at last week’s Kingsmill Championship. She climbed one spot in the Rolex Rankings up to No.5 thanks to her victory and sits 1st in the Race to the CME Globe. Out of the 12 events Jutanugarn has played so far this year, she’s finished in the top 10 in eight of them.
Jutanugarn is paired with Charley Hull and Nelly Korda, who finished tied for ninth a year ago during her solid rookie campaign after graduating from the Epson Tour in 2016. Korda has two top-10 finishes so far this year, her best result a runner-up at the HSBC Women’s World Championship.
Meanwhile, Hull has three top-10 finishes on the season and comes into the week on the heels of her best result of the season, a tie for third at the LPGA MEDIHEAL Championship and a tremendous result on the European Tour’s GolfSixes event, where, paired with fellow Englishwoman Georgia Hall, they competed against both women and men.
Shanshan Feng, Brittany Lincicome, Sei Young Kim
1:32 p.m., 1st Tee
The defending champion comes into the week without a victory so far on the LPGA Tour this season, but, the same thing happened last year and then Shanshan Feng went on to win three times in 2017. She also ascended all the way to No.1 in the Rolex Rankings.
Feng does have four top-5 finishes so far in 2018, including a tie for third at the LPGA MEDIHEAL Championship, her last event. She sits second in the world right now, just behind Inbee Park.
Lincicome captured the first event of the LPGA Tour’s season, the Pure Silk Bahamas LPGA Classic (where she defended her title) and has notched three other top-15 finishes since then.
Kim, meanwhile, is coming into the week off her best result of 2018, a tie for fourth at the Volunteers of America LPGA Texas Classic.
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