MAINEVILLE, Ohio — The third edition of the Kroger Queen City Championship presented by P&G is being contested this week at TPC River's Bend in Maineville, Ohio. Despite being held the week after the Solheim Cup, the 144-player field is stacked with some of the Tour's top talent, including Rolex Women's World Golf Rankings No. 1 Nelly Korda, LPGA Hall of Famer Lydia Ko, 11-time LPGA Tour winner Lexi Thompson and 2024 Cognizant Founders Cup champion Rose Zhang. Defending champion Minjee Lee is also set to compete and will be joined by eight total 2024 winners, most notably U.S. Women's Open champion Yuka Saso and KPMG Women's PGA Championship winner Amy Yang.

Take a look at just some of the featured groups at this week's Kroger Queen City Championship presented by P&G, using data provided by KPMG Performance Insights:

Thursday, 8:20 a.m. – Minjee Lee/Nelly Korda/Jeeno Thitikul

Minjee Lee will be working to successfully defend a title for the first time in her LPGA Tour career this week at TPC River's Bend. The Australian outlasted Charley Hull in a two-hole playoff at the tournament's previous venue, Kenwood Country Club, to capture her ninth career LPGA Tour title and first victory since she won the U.S. Women's Open presented by Ally in 2022. Her win at the Kroger Queen City Championship presented by P&G was one of two victories that Lee captured in her last four starts of the 2023 LPGA Tour season, as she also took home the BMW Ladies Championship title last fall, making Lee one of just three Australians to earn double-digit victories on Tour alongside Karrie Webb and Jan Stephenson. Lee has yet to win on Tour in 2024, earning just three top-10 results in 15 total starts this year at the Blue Bay LPGA (T4), Cognizant Founders Cup (T7) and U.S. Women's Open presented by Ally (T9). Statistically, Lee leads the LPGA Tour in both strokes gained approach (+1.79) and strokes gained tee to green (+1.83) this season, according to KPMG Performance Insights. She additionally ranks 20th in greens in regulation percentage, finding the green 71.20 percent of the time with her approach shots.

Rolex Women's World Golf Rankings No. 1 Nelly Korda is making her tournament debut at the Kroger Queen City Championship presented by P&G and comes to Maineville, Ohio, after helping lift the U.S. Team to their first Solheim Cup victory since 2017 at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville, Va. Korda went 3-1-0 in her fourth Solheim Cup appearance, earning victories in her foursomes and four-ball matches alongside Allisen Corpuz and Megan Khang, respectively, and then losing her singles match 6 and 4 to Charley Hull on Sunday. Her 3.5 points contributed to a 15.5-12.5 victory for the Americans, marking the first time that Korda had ever been a member of a victorious U.S. Solheim Cup Team. The 26-year-old made headlines early this year after she won five tournaments in a row on the LPGA Tour, making her just the third player since 1978 to accomplish the feat alongside Nancy Lopez and Annika Sorenstam. Her streak was broken by a T7 showing at the Cognizant Founders Cup, but Korda then continued her winning ways with another victory the next week at the Mizuho Americas Open at Liberty National Golf Club. According to KPMG Performance Insights, Korda leads the LPGA Tour in strokes gained total (+2.35), scoring average (70.04), par-4 scoring (3.99), par-5 scoring (4.51) and birdie or better percentage (24.32%) this season. She is also second in strokes gained driving (+0.86), fourth in strokes gained tee to green (+1.52) and ninth in strokes gained around the green (+0.41).

Jeeno Thitikul will be working to improve upon her solo ninth performance at the 2022 Kroger Queen City Championship presented by P&G this week in Maineville, Ohio, in just her second start in this tournament. It's her 12th event of the 2024 season, and the Thailand native has earned a victory at the Dow Championship alongside playing partner Ruoning Yin and collected five additional top-10 results this year, the most notable of which is a tie for sixth that came at the U.S. Women's Open. Using data provided by KPMG Performance Insights, Thitikul ranks third on the LPGA Tour in strokes gained total this season (+1.88) and is 16th in strokes gained putting (+0.68). The 21-year-old is third in greens in regulation in 2024 – hitting 74.1 percent of greens overall, finding the green 56.3 percent of the time after missing the fairway and hitting the green 82.2 percent of the time from the fairway. Thitikul is also seventh in scoring average per round (70.63). In addition to her victory earlier this season in Midland, Mich., Thitikul has two other victories on her LPGA Tour resume, capturing the JTBC Classic presented by Barbasol and Walmart NW Arkansas Championship presented by P&G titles during her rookie season in 2022.

Thursday, 1:09 p.m.* – Nasa Hataoka/Lexi Thompson/Yuka Saso

Nasa Hataoka is playing in the Kroger Queen City Championship presented by P&G for a third straight year, tying for 20th in the inaugural edition of the tournament in 2022 and then finishing in a tie for 16th last year at Kenwood Country Club. This is her 20th event of the 2024 LPGA Tour season, and in her 19 previous starts, the Japan native has earned three top-10 finishes, tying for ninth at the LPGA Drive On Championship, tying for third at the HSBC Women's World Championship and then tying for eighth at the Dow Championship with her partner Jin Young Ko. The 25-year-old has collected five other top-15 results in 2024, most notably tying for 13th at The Chevron Championship back in April. Statistically, the six-time LPGA Tour winner is ranked seventh on Tour this year in strokes gained tee to green (+1.31) and is 11th in strokes gained putting (+0.90). She is also 13th in greens in regulation percentage, finding the green 71.85 percent of the time on approach.

Lexi Thompson is another member of the victorious U.S. Solheim Cup Team that chose to play this week at the Kroger Queen City Championship, an event in which she is making her third straight appearance. She missed the cut in the inaugural edition of the tournament in 2022 but rectified that with a T19 showing in 2023, a finish that helped jumpstart some success for the 11-time LPGA Tour winner late last season. The 29-year-old announced at the U.S. Women's Open at Lancaster Country Club that 2024 would be her last year competing full-time on the LPGA Tour, and Thompson has tried to make the most of her swansong season. She has collected four top-10 finishes in 14 total starts, the best of which is a tie for second that came at the Meijer LPGA Classic for Simply Give after Thompson fell in a three-way playoff to Lilia Vu and the most notable of which is a tie for ninth that came at the KPMG Women's PGA Championship at Sahalee Country Club. She has earned three other top-20 results, most recently tying for 15th at the FM Championship at TPC Boston. According to KPMG Performance Insights, Thompson is 13th in strokes gained putting on the LPGA Tour this season and is ranked second and third in putting from 10-15 feet (45%) and putting from 15-20 feet (28.3%), respectively.

Yuka Saso picked up her second career LPGA Tour title earlier this year at the U.S. Women's Open at Lancaster Country Club, her first victory since she won the 2021 U.S. Women's Open at The Olympic Club as a non-member. Things have been difficult for Saso after her win in Pennsylvania, as the 23-year-old has missed four cuts in her last six starts, two of which were at The Amundi Evian Championship and the AIG Women's Open, something she will be working to turn around this week in Maineville, Ohio. This is her third start in the Kroger Queen City Championship presented by P&G, and in her last two appearances, Saso tied for 33rd in 2022 and then tied for fifth in 2023. This is her 16th tournament of the 2024 LPGA Tour season, and along with her victory, the major champion has collected five other top-20 results, the best of which is a tie for ninth that came at the T-Mobile Match Play presented by MGM Rewards. The Rolex Rankings No. 14 is currently seventh in strokes gained driving (+0.64) and ninth in strokes gained putting (+0.85) on Tour this year, according to data provided by KPMG Performance Insights. She is currently second on the Official Money List, having earned $2,648,812 this season, one of just five players who have earned $2 million or more in 2024.

Thursday, 1:20 p.m.* – Lydia Ko/Charley Hull/Rose Zhang

LPGA Hall of Famer Lydia Ko is teeing it up for the first time since winning her third major title at the AIG Women's Open at St Andrews in August. It was the New Zealander's first victory in a major championship since she captured The Chevron Championship title back in 2016 and was her second victory of the 2024 LPGA Tour season, as Ko also won the season-opening Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions in January. The 27-year-old has racked up four other top-10 results this season along with her two wins, the best of which is a solo second that came at the LPGA Drive On Championship when Ko fell in a playoff to Nelly Korda at Bradenton Country Club. She also took gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics, a performance that earned her the final point she needed to automatically qualify for the LPGA Hall of Fame and that saw Ko become the first golfer in the history of the Games to complete the medal trifecta, as she earned the silver medal in 2016 and captured bronze in 2021. This is the 21-time LPGA Tour winner's second time teeing it up in the Kroger Queen City Championship presented by P&G, and Ko will be working to improve upon the T41 finish that she recorded last year at Kenwood Country Club. According to KPMG Performance Insights, Ko ranks sixth on the LPGA Tour this season in strokes gained total (+1.70), ranks 11th in strokes gained around the green (+0.39) and is 15th in strokes gained putting (+0.70).

Charley Hull played all five matches for the European Solheim Cup Team last week at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, collecting three points in total for the Blue and Yellow, highlighted by her 6-and-4 singles victory over Nelly Korda on Sunday. She comes to the Kroger Queen City Championship presented by P&G a bit fatigued – much like the rest of her Solheim Cup counterparts playing in Maineville, Ohio – but will be digging deep as she works to perform well in an event in which she has had prior success. In her tournament debut in 2023, Hull went toe-to-toe with Minjee Lee in a two-hole playoff on Sunday at Kenwood Country Club, ultimately falling to the Australian on the second extra hole to finish solo second. This is her 14th start of the 2024 LPGA Tour season, and in her 13 previous tournaments, the Englishwoman has earned five top-15 results, the best of which is a solo fifth that came at the ISPS Handa Women's Scottish Open in August. Hull is currently ranked inside the top 15 in three strokes gained categories, according to KPMG Performance Insights, including strokes gained driving (4, +0.73), strokes gained tee to green (12, +1.14) and strokes gained total (14, +1.27).

Rose Zhang is looking to add a second victory to her 2024 resume at the Kroger Queen City Championship presented by P&G and will be working to ride the momentum generated by her 4-0-0 performance at last week's Solheim Cup as she tackles TPC River's Bend. The 21-year-old picked up her second Tour title at the Cognizant Founders Cup in May after defeating Madelene Sagstrom by two shots at Upper Montclair Country Club. She has earned three other top-10 finishes along with her victory throughout the 2024 season, tying for seventh at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, tying for fifth at the T-Mobile Match Play presented by MGM Rewards and tying for sixth at the CPKC Women's Open. This is her second time competing in this event, and Zhang will be trying to improve upon a T31 showing that she recorded last year in her tournament debut. The Rolex Rankings No. 9 is currently ranked fifth on the LPGA Tour this season in strokes gained approach (+1.16), eighth in strokes gained total (+1.66) and 15th in strokes gained tee to green (+1.08), according to KPMG Performance Insights.

Featured Groups: 2024 Kroger Queen City Championship presented by P&G

Related Articles