The JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro gets underway this week at El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana, Calif., a facility at which the LPGA Tour hasn’t competed since the 2004 season. Even with the unfamiliarity of a new venue, the field is still stacked with some of the Tour’s top-notch athletes, including 15-time LPGA Tour champion Nelly Korda, two-time LA Championship winner Hannah Green, Thailand’s Jeeno Thitikul and Canadian superstar Brooke Henderson. Twenty LPGA Tour rookies are also slated to tee it up, as are five of this season’s seven winners, most notably Arcadia, Calif. native Angel Yin, who won the Honda LPGA Thailand in February, and the Tour’s most recent champion, Madelene Sagstrom, who captured the T-Mobile Match Play presented by MGM Rewards title on April 6.

Take a look at just some of the featured groups over the first two rounds of the JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro using data provided by KPMG Performance Insights:

Thursday, 7:59 a.m.*/Friday, 12:59 p.m. – Nelly Korda/Hannah Green/Madelene Sagstrom

Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings No. 1 Nelly Korda will be teeing it up alongside LPGA Tour winners Hannah Green and Madelene Sagstrom for the first two rounds at El Caballero Country Club. The 26-year-old is making her fifth career start in this championship this week, and after missing the cut in her first two appearances, Korda tied for 10th in 2021 and tied for sixth in 2023 at Wilshire Country Club. This is Korda’s fifth start of the 2025 LPGA Tour season, and the Florida native will be looking to add another tally to her top-10 finish column, having earned two top 10s earlier in the year at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, where she finished solo second, and the Founders Cup presented by U.S. Virgin Islands, where she tied for seventh. So far this year, Korda is ranked at or near the top of several statistical categories on the LPGA Tour. She is currently first in strokes gained off the tee (+1.01), tied for third in strokes gained total (+2.50) and fifth in strokes gained putting (+1.30), according to data provided by KPMG Performance Insights. She is also first in scoring average (68), first in birdie percentage (29.17 percent), second in ball striking (13) and par-3 scoring average (2.83) and tied for third in both birdie or better percentage (29.17 percent) and birdie or better average per round (5.25). Korda has won 15 times on the LPGA Tour, seven of which she collected last season, and will continue her search for a 16th career title this week at El Caballero Country Club.

Hannah Green has won the last two editions of the JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro, doing so in 2023 and 2024 at Wilshire Country Club. While she is a bit unsure how this week will turn out for her since the tournament has moved locations for a year while its usual venue undergoes construction, Green is still looking forward to the challenge of contending for a three-peat this week in Tarzana, Calif. This is the Australian’s seventh time competing in this event, and along with her two victories, the major champion has three other top-15 results on her resume at the LA Championship, including a tie for 14th that came in 2019, a tie for third that she earned in 2021 and a solo second that she recorded in 2022. This is Green’s fifth tournament of the 2025 LPGA Tour season, and she has already collected three top-20 results at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions (T20), Founders Cup presented by U.S. Virgin Islands (T4) and the HSBC Women’s World Championship (T7). According to data from KPMG Performance Insights, Green was performing well in several statistical categories en route to her win here last year, but it was her around-the-green play that shined the brightest, as she finished the week ranked first in that strokes gained metric. Green has also gotten better with her putting over the past couple of years, going from 55th in strokes gained putting in 2023 to 14th so far this season, which explains the three-win success she enjoyed in 2024 and the consistency she has shown early on in 2025.

Madelene Sagstrom picked up her second career LPGA Tour victory at the T-Mobile Match Play presented by MGM Rewards just over a week ago after going undefeated with a 7-0-0 record at Shadow Creek Golf Course in Las Vegas. And now, the Swede will come into the JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro with her confidence renewed after what was a rough start to her season, one that saw her miss two cuts and finish 59th in a limited-field event. This week marks the 32-year-old’s seventh appearance in this tournament, and Sagstrom has only missed the cut once here in 2021 and earned three straight top-20 finishes in her last three starts, a slate of performances that includes a tie for third in 2022, a tie for 17th in 2023 and a tie for eighth in 2024. Even with a win under her belt, Sagstrom is only gaining shots in one major strokes gained category this year, currently ranking 47th in strokes gained putting (+0.41), according to KPMG Performance Insights, but she is sitting at fourth in sand save percentage, getting up and down from bunkers 77.78 percent of the time after missing the green in regulation.

Thursday, 8:10 a.m./Friday, 1:10 p.m.* – Lilia Vu/Sarah Schmelzel/Sei Young Kim

Lilia Vu is from Fountain Valley, Calif. and played collegiate golf at UCLA, so the JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro always feels like a homecoming of sorts for the 27-year-old. She is making just her third start in this tournament this week, having tied for 10th in 2022 and missed the cut in 2023, showings she will be working to improve upon in front of a supportive local crowd in 2025. This is Vu’s fourth start of the year, and in her three previous tournaments, it’s been a mixed bag of results, with her one highlight being a runner-up showing Vu recorded at the Ford Championship presented by Wild Horse Pass after falling to Hyo Joo Kim in a playoff at Whirlwind Golf Club. According to KPMG Performance Insights, Vu remains one of the strongest putters on the LPGA Tour, picking up at least one stroke on the field with her flat stick in a total of 37 rounds over the past couple of seasons. So far this year, even with limited starts, she is sixth in strokes gained putting (+1.18), 11th in one-putts per round (7.92) and 18th in putting average per round (28.3). Vu is also seventh in driving accuracy (80.36 percent) and is tied for seventh in bogey-free rounds with three.

The JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro marks Sarah Schmelzel’s seventh start of the 2025 LPGA Tour season, and she has been in pretty consistent form as of late. The 30-year-old has earned four top-25 results in her six tournaments ahead of this week, including a tie for 23rd at the Founders Cup presented by U.S. Virgin Islands, a tie for fifth at the Blue Bay LPGA and a pair of T17s she recorded at the Ford Championship presented by Wild Horse Pass and the T-Mobile Match Play presented by MGM Rewards. This is her sixth appearance in the LA Championship, and despite tying for 26th in her tournament debut in 2019, Schmelzel hasn’t done much otherwise in the years since, something she will be working to change in the 2025 edition of the event while it’s taking a brief reprieve from Wilshire Country Club due to course renovations. Statistically, the Arizona native has yet to make too much of a mark on paper this year, not ranking very highly in any notable metrics, but if she is able to take advantage of the venue switch to El Cab this week, that could change for Schmelzel after the conclusion of the JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro.

Twelve-time LPGA Tour winner Sei Young Kim has had a fair start to her 2025 season, picking up back-to-back top-25 results at the Ford Championship (T22) and the T-Mobile Match Play (T9) after opening with a T54 showing at the Honda LPGA Thailand. The Republic of Korea native has teed it up in five previous editions of the JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro, earning three top-20 finishes in 2019 when she came in solo second, in 2021 when she tied for 17th and in 2022 when she tied for sixth at Wilshire Country Club. Even though she has only played in three events this year, Kim has some pretty solid rankings in several statistical categories on the LPGA Tour at the moment. She is second in putts per green in regulation (1.66), tied for third in both birdie or better percentage (29.17 percent) and birdie or better average (5.25), fourth in birdie percentage (28.47 percent) and 15th in strokes gained putting (+0.91), the last of which is according to KPMG Performance Insights data. So, considering her ability to both score and hole putts as well as her history competing in the Los Angeles area, Kim just might be a contender come Sunday at El Caballero Country Club.

Thursday, 12:59 p.m./Friday 7:59 a.m.* – Haeran Ryu/Brooke Henderson/Jin Young Ko

Former Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year Haeran Ryu is set to play alongside two of the LPGA Tour’s most prolific champions over the last decade for the first two days of the JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro – Brooke Henderson and Jin Young Ko. Ryu herself is a two-time LPGA Tour winner, picking up titles at the 2023 Walmart NW Arkansas Championship presented by P&G and the 2024 FM Championship, but she has had some close calls at this event in her previous two starts. The 24-year-old missed the cut in her event debut in 2018, and then, as a rookie in 2023, she tied for sixth after recording a 72-hole total of 7-under at Wilshire Country Club. Ryu backed that up the next year by finishing solo third after posting scores of 66-72-71-69 to finish at 6-under total. While this year’s venue, El Caballero Country Club, is different to Wilshire in many ways, there are some similarities, which should give players like Ryu some confidence in their ability to perform at a course with which they might not be as familiar. Statistically, Ryu’s establishment of herself as one of the Tour’s top young talents can also be sussed out on paper. Looking at data provided by KPMG Performance Insights, the Republic of Korea native leads the Tour in birdies or better made since the start of the 2024 season with 459, and she is also currently ranked seventh in strokes gained tee to green (+1.76), eighth in strokes gained approach (+1.04) and 13th in strokes gained off the tee (+0.69). Ryu is additionally first in ball striking (12), second in greens in regulation (81.25 percent), sixth in greens hit from the rough percentage (72.22 percent) and eighth in greens hit from the fairway percentage (85.88 percent), a strong combination of statistics that should help her have success this week at El Cab.

Brooke Henderson is a past champion of the JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro, and having not earned an LPGA Tour victory since collecting her 13th career title at the 2023 Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, she will be hoping to recreate her 2021 performance in this tournament this week in Tarzana, Calif. This week marks her sixth appearance in this championship, and outside of her win, the Canadian has missed the cut three times and only earned one other top-10 result, a tie for 10th that came in 2019 when the event was still known as the HUGEL-AIR PREMIA L.A. Open. This is Henderson’s seventh tournament of the 2025 LPGA Tour season, and save a missed cut at the Founders Cup in February, it’s been a pretty steady season for the 27-year-old. She has racked up three top-25 finishes so far this year, including a tie for 14th at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, a tie for 21st at the HSBC Women’s World Championship and a tie for ninth at the T-Mobile Match Play presented by MGM Rewards. Her statistics, however, don’t tell too much of a story just yet, as Henderson most notably ranks 13th in driving accuracy (78.57 percent) at this juncture, something she will be working to change at the JM Eagle LA Championship.

Like Henderson, Jin Young Ko is still working to find victory lane for the first time on the LPGA Tour since the 2023 season, having earned her last title at the Founders Cup that year at Upper Montclair Country Club in New Jersey. The Republic of Korea native will continue her search this week in her seventh appearance in the JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro, a tournament in which Ko has fared incredibly well over the years. Never finishing worse than T44, she has racked up four top-five finishes in her previous six starts at Wilshire Country Club – tying for second in 2018, tying for fifth in 2019, tying for third in 2021 and tying for fourth in 2024. And even though the event is being played at a different course this season, El Caballero Country Club, Ko has a clear comfortability with playing in the Los Angeles area on which to lean this week as she and the rest of the field tackle the challenge of a new venue. The 29-year-old is making her seventh start of the 2025 season in California, and she has already picked up three top-20 results in her first six tournaments of the season, a slate of finishes that includes a tie for fourth at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, a solo second at the Founders Cup presented by U.S. Virgin Islands and a tie for 18th at the HSBC Women’s World Championship. In terms of her statistical performance, Ko is tied for second in bogey-free rounds with five, is 16th in putts per green in regulation (1.72) and is tied for 16th in birdies (72) so far this year. She is also ranked 15th in strokes gained putting (+0.91), according to KPMG Performance Insights.

*Off No. 10

All times local. For complete lists of tee times, please click here.

Featured Groups: 2025 JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro

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