The third edition of the Buick LPGA Shanghai is on tap for the LPGA Tour this week as 81 players will duke it out for a $2.1 million purse at Qizhong Garden Golf Club in Shanghai. Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings No. 1 and No. 2, Lilia Vu and Ruoning Yin, are both set to tee it up as are defending champion and two-time Buick LPGA Shanghai winner Danielle Kang and Mizuho Americas Open champion Rose Zhang. Fourteen 2023 rookies as well as eight of this season’s 21 champions will also compete in the People’s Republic of China. Take a look at a few of the featured groups at this week’s Buick LPGA Shanghai
Thursday, 10:16 a.m. – Yu Liu/Carlota Ciganda/Nasa Hataoka
Beijing native Yu Liu will play with Spaniard Carlota Ciganda and Japan’s Nasa Hataoka in group 23 on Thursday. Liu joined the LPGA Tour in 2018 and has recorded 15 top-10 finishes and made $2,490,250 in career earnings in her six-year career. She has found the top 10 twice this season, tying for second at the LOTTE Championship presented by Hoakalei and tying for ninth at the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational, and represented the People’s Republic of China at the Hanwha LIFEPLUS International Crown in May. The 27-year-old has two worldwide victories on her resume, winning a CLPGA tournament in 2013 as an amateur and taking home the 2017 Tullymore Classic on the Epson Tour. She is an Epson Tour graduate, first earning LPGA Tour Membership for the 2018 season after finishing fifth on the Epson Tour money list in 2017. Liu has played in the Buick LPGA Shanghai in both of its previous editions, finishing T9 in 2018 and T3 in 2019.
Ciganda made headlines a few weeks ago when she defeated Nelly Korda en route to securing the Solheim Cup for the Europeans at Finca Cortesin in her home country of Spain. The Pamplona native closed out Korda with a birdie on the 17th hole to earn the deciding point for the European team, giving them the Cup with a historic 14-14 tied result. It was the first time in Solheim Cup history that the Euros had earned the Cup in three consecutive playings of the event. Her performance in Spain aside, the 33-year-old has had a solid 2023 LPGA Tour season thus far, earning four top-five finishes the most notable of which was a tie for third at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, and recording three additional top-15 results. According to KPMG Performance Insights, Ciganda ranks 12th on the LPGA Tour in strokes gained driving (+0.69) and 13th in strokes gained total (+1.48). This is her third start in the Buick LPGA Shanghai, and in her two previous appearances in 2018 and 2019, she finished in a tie for ninth and a tie for 28th, respectively.
Six-time LPGA Tour winner Hataoka has had a quiet but steady 2023 LPGA Tour season, finishing in the top five on three separate occasions, including a solo fifth at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, a tie for fourth at the U.S. Women’s Open and a tie for third at The Amundi Evian Championship. She has recorded six additional top-15 results and is second on Tour in birdies (269) as well as fifth in rounds under par (41). Hataoka ranks eighth in strokes gained total (+1.69), 11th in strokes gained tee to green (+1.24) and 11th in strokes gained approach (+0.87). This week marks the 24-year-old’s second start in the Buick LPGA Shanghai and she will look to better her T3 result in 2019 this time around at Qizhong Garden Golf Club.
Thursday, 10:27 a.m. – Xiyu Lin/Lilia Vu/Danielle Kang
Defending champion Danielle Kang will tee it up alongside Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings No. 1 Lilia Vu and recent Ladies European Tour winner Xiyu Lin. Kang has been victorious in the two previous editions of the Buick LPGA Shanghai, winning by two shots over a group of seven players in a tie for second in 2018 and defeating Jessica Korda by one shot in 2019 to earn her second and third career titles. The six-time LPGA Tour winner hasn’t picked up a victory since the 2022 Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions and will be looking to capture her third straight Buick LPGA Shanghai win this week at Qizhong Garden Golf Club. So far this season, Kang has recorded five top-15 finishes, most notably tying for third at the HSBC Women’s World Championship, and ranks second on the LPGA Tour in both putts per green in regulation and putting average. She is also third in one-putts per round (7.44), according to KPMG Performance Insights.
Vu has been one of the hottest players on the LPGA Tour this season, becoming a Rolex First-Time Winner at the Honda LPGA Thailand in February and then capturing both The Chevron Championship and AIG Women’s Open titles to become the first player to win two majors in a single season since Jin Young Ko in 2019 and earn the Rolex ANNIKA Major Award. The Epson Tour graduate has recorded four additional top-15 finishes this year, the best of which was a tie for seventh at the LPGA Drive On Championship at Superstition Mountain, and currently leads the Rolex Player of the Year race with 154 points. Vu is tied for fourth in putts per green in regulation (1.75), is tenth in scoring average (70.44) and is tenth in strokes gained total (+1.64) on the LPGA Tour this season. She currently sits at fourth in the Race for the CME Globe standings with 2,154.718 points.
Lin finally broke through for the first time since winning on the CLPGA in 2019 last week at the Aramco Team Series – Hong Kong. After the event was shortened to 36 holes due to Typhoon Koinu, Lin faced Jin Young Ko in a playoff to determine the tournament winner, burying a lengthy birdie putt to capture her third career Ladies European Tour title. The 27-year-old has had another stellar season on the LPGA Tour as she continues working toward that elusive first victory, recording five top-five finishes, including a tie for third at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Baltusrol Golf Club. She has earned three additional top-15 results, most notably tying for 14th at The Chevron Championship and tying for 13th at the U.S. Women’s Open at Pebble Beach Golf Links. The Rolex Rankings No. 9 is fourth this season in strokes gained total (+1.88), fourth in scoring average (70.18), tied for fourth in putts per green in regulation (1.75), fifth in birdies (245) and eighth in strokes gained around the green (+0.39). This is her third appearance in the Buick LPGA Shanghai, and her best result in her two previous starts was a tie for 47th in the inaugural edition of the event.
Thursday, 10:38 a.m. – Ruoning Yin/Rose Zhang/Minjee Lee
KPMG Women’s PGA Championship winner Ruoning Yin will play alongside a pair of 2023 LPGA Tour winners in Rose Zhang and Minjee Lee at 10:38 a.m. local time on Thursday morning. Yin became a Rolex First-Time Winner earlier this season at the DIO Implant LA Open, defeating major champion Georgia Hall by one shot to capture her first LPGA Tour title. She then won again in June, this time taking home her first major title at Baltusrol Golf Club’s Lower Course, beating Yuka Saso by one with a 54-hole total of 8-under. The Shanghai native returns to her home country fresh off three consecutive T3 or better results at the CPKC Women’s Open, where she finished solo third, the Portland Classic, where she tied for third and the Kroger Queen City Championship presented by P&G, where she again finished solo third. She has recorded two additional top fives this season and is currently second in both the Race to the CME Globe and on the Official Money List. According to KPMG Performance Insights, the Rolex Rankings No. 2 leads the Tour in strokes gained tee to green (+2.23) and ranks second in both strokes gained approach (+1.39) and strokes gained total (+2.10). Yin played in the Buick LPGA Shanghai in 2019 as an amateur, finishing T38.
Rookie Rose Zhang accepted the immediate LPGA Tour Membership that came with her playoff victory over Jennifer Kupcho at the Mizuho Americas Open and has had a solid inaugural campaign thus far. She has only missed two cuts and has earned three top-10 finishes, excluding her win at Liberty National Golf Club, tying for eighth at the KPMG Women's PGA Championship, tying for ninth at the U.S. Women’s Open and again tying for ninth at The Amundi Evian Championship. The 20-year-old made her Solheim Cup debut a few weeks ago in Andalucia, Spain and has already crossed the $1 million mark in career earnings, taking home $1,080,049 in only nine total starts this season. Zhang is currently ranked 30th in the Race to the CME Globe and 34th in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings.
Lee captured her ninth career LPGA Tour victory in September, defeating Englishwoman Charley Hull in a playoff to take home the Kroger Queen City Championship title. The 27-year-old has now won at least once in three consecutive seasons on Tour and is the third winningest Australian in LPGA Tour history behind Karrie Webb (41) and Jan Stephenson (16). Lee has recorded six top-15 finishes this season in addition to her victory, most notably finishing runner-up at the Cognizant Founders Cup after losing to Jin Young Ko in a playoff. The Rolex Rankings No. 7 leads the Tour in both greens in regulation (74.17%) and strokes gained approach (+1.49). She is also second in strokes gained tee to green (+2.06) and 10th in birdies (241). The two-time major champion has played in the two previous editions of the Buick LPGA Shanghai, finishing T14 in 2018 and T50 in 2019.
For a full list of tee times, please click here. All times are local.
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