GILBERT, Ariz. — The LPGA Tour is in Gilbert, Ariz., this week for the inaugural playing of the Ford Championship presented by KCC at Seville Golf and Country Club. The 144-player field is stacked as nine of the top 10 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings are set to tee it up, the most notable of which is recently recrowned Nelly Korda, who reascended to No. 1 following her win at last week’s FIR HILLS SERI PAK Championship. All five 2024 LPGA Tour winners are also slated to compete, including Lydia Ko, who will have another shot at automatically qualifying for the LPGA Hall of Fame this week, and major winner Patty Tavatanakit, who took home her first LPGA Tour title since 2021 at the Honda LPGA Thailand in February.
Take a look at a few of the featured groups this week at the Ford Championship presented by KCC using KPMG Performance Insights:
Thursday, 8:17 a.m.* – Charley Hull/Lexi Thompson/Alison Lee
Charley Hull picked up her second top-10 finish of the 2024 LPGA Tour season last week at the FIR HILLS SERI PAK Championship, tying for 10th at Palos Verdes Golf Club after playing her last two holes in 3-over on Sunday. The 28-year-old tied for seventh in her first start of the year at the season-opening Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, and after tying for 54th at the Honda LPGA Thailand in her second start of the season, quickly righted the ship with a solid performance in Southern California. Hull is one of many players in this week’s field that teed it up at last year’s LPGA Drive On Championship at Superstition Mountain, which was held just 30 miles away in Gold Canyon, Ariz., and she finished in the top 10 that week, tying for seventh after recording a four-day total of 16-under at Superstition Mountain Golf and Country Club. Statistically, Hull is ranked in the top 25 in two major strokes-gained categories according to KPMG Performance Insights, including strokes gained driving, in which she’s fifth (+0.80) and strokes gained tee to green (+0.97), in which she’s 25th.
Lexi Thompson will be looking to bounce back from a missed cut last week at Palos Verdes Golf Club this week in Gilbert, Ariz. She is making her third start of the year at Seville Golf and Country Club and is working to improve upon a season-best result of T16 that she earned at the LPGA Drive On Championship in her first start of the year. She missed the cut at the LPGA Drive On Championship at Superstition Mountain last year, a Phoenix-area performance she’ll also be hoping to better at Seville Golf and Country Club this week. According to KPMG Performance Insights, Thompson currently sits inside the top 25 in both strokes gained approach (21, +0.86) and strokes gained tee to green (25, +0.99), two statistical categories bolstered by her greens in regulation percentage of 75 percent, which is fifth-best this season on the LPGA Tour.
Alison Lee added another top-three finish to her collection at the FIR HILLS SERI PAK Championship, tying for third at Palos Verdes Golf Club after a final-round, 1-over 72 and after missing out on a playoff with Nelly Korda and Ryann O’Toole by just a single stroke. It’s the fourth time that Lee has finished in the top three in her last five starts dating back to the 2023 BMW Ladies Championship, and according to KPMG Performance Insights, Lee has gained over two strokes per round (+2.20) on the field in that span of events. It was the 22nd top-10 result that Lee has earned since joining the LPGA Tour in 2015 and is the 29-year-old’s first top 10 of the year as she finished in a tie for 51st in her season debut at the HSBC Women’s World Championship after being forced to extend her offseason to rehabilitate a hand injury caused by a dog bite. Lee played solidly in the first three rounds of the LPGA Drive On Championship at Superstition Mountain last year, ultimately finishing in a tie for 34th after a final-round 75 in Gold Canyon, Ariz., a result she’ll work to improve upon this week as she continues to ride her hot hand.
Thursday, 12:56 p.m. – Celine Boutier/Lydia Ko/Nelly Korda
The last time the LPGA Tour teed it up in Arizona, it was Frenchwoman Celine Boutier who was hoisting a trophy on the final green on Sunday, defeating Georgia Hall in a playoff at Superstition Mountain Golf and Country Club. It was a win that helped to propel the current Rolex Rankings No. 3 to three other victories in 2023, including her first major title in her home country at The Amundi Evian Championship last July. Now, even though we are at a completely different venue, the 30-year-old will be looking to recreate the magic she found last year in the desert this week at Seville Golf and Country Club. She’s very much in form so far this season, ranking inside the top 20 in strokes gained around the green (13, +0.58), strokes gained tee to green (14, +1.31), strokes gained approach (17, +1.01) and strokes gained total (17, +1.41), according to KPMG Performance Insights. And while she’s losing strokes to the field in putting, Boutier still ranks sixth on the LPGA Tour in putts per green in regulation (1.72) and 21st in putting average (29). This is her fifth start of the 2024 LPGA Tour season, and in her four previous events, she has earned three T16 or better results, including a solo second showing at the HSBC Women’s World Championship.
Lydia Ko will once again be working to track down the 27th and final point she needs for automatic qualification into the LPGA Hall of Fame this week at the Ford Championship presented by KCC. The 26-year-old Kiwi has been on a tear so far in 2024, capturing her 20th career LPGA Tour title at the season-opening Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, finishing runner-up the next week at the LPGA Drive On Championship and then tying for fourth at the Blue Bay LPGA earlier this month. Statistically, Ko has also been lighting it up, currently ranking first in strokes gained total (+2.47) according to KPMG Performance Insights, first in scoring average (69.44) and third in rounds under par (14). She is also 12th in strokes gained approach (+1.14), 14th in strokes gained putting (+0.90) and 15th in strokes gained tee to green (+1.31). The major champion is a player who is more than familiar with desert golf, having competed in multiple Cognizant Founders Cups when they were held at Wildfire Golf Club in Phoenix and earning five top-10 finishes in the event before it was moved to New Jersey, two of which were runner-up results that came in 2014 and 2016. So, this week in Gilbert, Ariz., just might be the event that sees Ko finally earn her spot in the LPGA Hall of Fame.
Nelly Korda is arguably the hottest player on the LPGA Tour right now, earning a pair of playoff victories in back-to-back starts at the LPGA Drive On Championship and the FIR HILLS SERI PAK Championship, the latter of which saw her reascend to No. 1 Rolex Rankings for the first time since August 2023. According to KPMG Performance Insights, in her last eight rounds on the LPGA Tour, Korda has made birdie or eagle on 29.2 percent of the holes she’s played, gaining a whopping 3.51 strokes total per round on the field in that span. With her 10th career LPGA Tour victory, she became the 39th different American to earn double-digit victories on the LPGA Tour and is the first player since Karrie Webb in 2011 to win two events in her first three starts of the season. Statistically, she is in the top five in strokes gained total (2, +2.41), strokes gained around the green (2, +0.96) and strokes gained tee to green (3, +2.21) on Tour this year, a deadly triple threat that could see more success from Korda at a gettable Seville Golf and Country Club.
A dominant start to the 2024 season for @NellyKorda 🔥
— LPGA (@LPGA) March 27, 2024
Insights by @KPMGGolf | #LPGAStats pic.twitter.com/cEC0m1Oq4r
Thursday, 1:07 p.m. – Linn Grant/Hyo Joo Kim/Rose Zhang
Linn Grant is an Arizona State University alum who will bring plenty of experience with her to this week’s Ford Championship presented by KCC, having played a lot of desert golf in her time as a Sun Devil. The Swede is making her sixth start of the 2024 LPGA Tour season in Gilbert, Ariz., and will be looking to continue the form she’s found in recent weeks at Seville Golf and Country Club, coming to the Grand Canyon State fresh off back-to-back T13 finishes at the HSBC Women’s World Championship and FIR HILLS SERI PAK Championship. This is her first time competing in Arizona since joining the LPGA Tour in 2022, and she will be working to pick up her second career LPGA Tour victory and first since the 2023 Dana Open last summer. Statistically, Grant ranks in the top 10 in one major strokes-gained category, sitting at seventh in strokes gained driving, and is 12th on Tour in average driving distance (269.63 yards).
It's been a quiet start to the year for Hyo Joo Kim, who has earned just one top-10 result in her three starts this season, tying for fifth at the Honda LPGA Thailand in her 2024 debut. She comes to the Ford Championship presented by KCC off a T18 result at the FIR HILLS SERI PAK Championship and will be looking to clean up a few mistakes in Arizona as she works to capture her seventh career LPGA Tour victory in Gilbert. Statistically, the Rolex Rankings No. 9 is second in strokes gained putting on Tour this season (+1.30) and fourth in strokes gained around the green (+0.71), according to KPMG Performance Insights. She is also second in putting average (26.67), fourth in putts per green in regulation (1.67) and eighth in driving accuracy (84.52%) after her three starts in 2024.
Rose Zhang made her return to the LPGA Tour last week at the FIR HILLS SERI PAK Championship, tying for 22nd in her first start since finishing T7 at the season-opening Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions in January. The 20-year-old briefly stepped away from professional golf to continue her studies at Stanford University after making her first berth in the Tournament of Champions and is working to knock the competitive rust off as the 2024 season starts to ramp up. With just two events under her belt in her first full season competing on Tour, there are still quite a few question marks as to how she statistically stacks up against her Tour counterparts, but according to KPMG Performance Insights, Zhang sits at 13th in strokes gained tee to green (+1.32), 14th in strokes gained total (+1.52) and 15th in strokes gained approach (+1.05), also ranking fourth in driving accuracy (85.71%).
*Off No. 10
For a full list of tee times, please click here.
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