KPMG The LPGA Tour is in Hawaii this week for the LOTTE Championship presented by Hoakalei, and the field for the 13th edition of this tournament is rather strong. Three past champions are set to tee it up at Hoakalei Country Club, including last year’s winner A Lim Kim, 2022 champion Hyo Joo Kim and two-time LOTTE Championship winner Brooke Henderson. Fifteen-time LPGA Tour champion Nelly Korda is also in the field, as is three-time LPGA Tour winner and fan favorite Charley Hull, who is currently sitting at fifth in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings, and 13-time LPGA Tour winner Stacy Lewis, who will be bidding farewell to the LPGA Tour this week in Hawaii.

Take a deeper look at just a couple of the featured groups this week at the LOTTE Championship presented by Hoakalei using data provided by KPMG Performance Insights.

Wednesday, 12:14 p.m./Thursday, 7:44 a.m.* – A Lim Kim/Hyo Joo Kim/Brooke Henderson

The three past champions who are in the field this year at Hoakalei Country Club will play together for the first 36 holes of the 2025 LOTTE Championship presented by Hoakalei. A Lim Kim won this tournament last season after defeating Nataliya Guseva by two shots and will be trying to join her groupmate, Canadian Brooke Henderson, as just the second athlete ever to successfully defend their title in Hawaii. This is Kim’s fourth time teeing it up in this event, and along with her victory, she has one other top-10 result on her resume, a tie for 10th that came in 2021. This is the 29-year-old’s 19th tournament of the 2025 LPGA Tour season, and in her 18 starts ahead of the LOTTE Championship, Kim has collected a third career victory at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions and tallied four other top-10 finishes, including a solo sixth at the Honda LPGA Thailand, a tie for seventh at the HSBC Women’s World Championship, a tie for ninth at the T-Mobile Match Play presented by MGM Rewards and a tie for fourth at the AIG Women’s Open. Looking at KPMG Performance Insights data, Kim is ranked in the top 15 of four major strokes gained categories this season, currently sitting at sixth in strokes gained tee to green (+1.47), seventh in both strokes gained off the tee (+0.73) and strokes gained around the green (+0.41) and 13th in strokes gained total (+1.50). Kim is also in the top 10 in greens hit from the fairway percentage (6, 82.30 percent), birdie or better average per round (T6, 4.25), birdie or better percentage (7, 23.61 percent) and birdie percentage (8, 22.87 percent).

Hyo Joo Kim took home the LOTTE Championship title in 2022, winning by two strokes over Japanese major champion Hinako Shibuno that year to earn what was then her fifth career LPGA Tour victory. She has previously competed in 12 editions of this tournament, and in addition to that win, the 30-year-old has notched four other top-10 results – tying for ninth in 2013, coming in fourth in 2014, tying for fourth in 2015 and tying for ninth again in 2024. Kim has two additional top 15s to her credit in Hawaii, a pair of T12s that came in 2012 in her tournament debut and in 2019. The major winner has played in 15 tournaments so far this season, tallying her seventh career victory at the Ford Championship presented by Wild Horse Pass and recording five additional top-15 results, two of which came in majors at The Chevron Championship (T2) and the AIG Women’s Open at Royal Porthcawl Golf Club (T13). Statistically, Kim is ranked inside the top 10 of several metrics on the LPGA Tour this season, some of which include putts per round (2, 28.76), driving accuracy (3, 80.79 percent), scoring average (4, 70.102) and bogey avoidance (4, 11.90 percent). She is also ranked second in strokes gained around the green (+0.50), 11th in strokes gained total (+1.56) and 20th in strokes gained tee to green (+0.97), according to KPMG Performance Insights data.

Canadian Brooke Henderson is the only multiple winner of the LOTTE Championship presented by Hoakalei, collecting back-to-back victories in 2018 and 2019 when the tournament was still being contested at Ko Olina Golf Club. The former of those two triumphs saw Henderson beat Azahara Munoz by four strokes with a four-day total of 12-under in 2018, while the latter saw her win by the same margin over Republic of Korea native Eun-Hee Ji in 2019. She has tallied four other top-20 performances in this championship in her eight starts in Hawaii, tying for 10th in 2016, tying for 11th in both 2017 and 2023 and tying for 18th in 2024. This is the two-time major champion’s 20th tournament of the year, and like her groupmates, Henderson has picked up one victory in 2025, winning the CPKC Women’s Open in her home country in late August. The 28-year-old has recorded five other top 15s in addition to earning her 14th career LPGA Tour title, the most recent of which is a tie for 15th that she posted in her last start at the FM Championship at TPC Boston. Looking at her season-long statistics, Henderson is ranked inside the top 20 of two major strokes gained categories entering this week at the LOTTE Championship, currently sitting at 14th in strokes gained around the green (+0.31) and 19th in strokes gained off the tee (+0.56) according to KPMG Performance Insights data. She is also fifth in ball striking (18) and 14th in greens in regulation (72.86 percent).

Wednesday, 12:25 p.m./Thursday, 7:55 a.m.* – Nelly Korda/Charley Hull/Nataliya Guseva

Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings No. 2 Nelly Korda is teeing it up in her third LOTTE Championship presented by Hoakalei in Hawaii, having finished in the top 10 in her two previous starts in this event in 2019 (8) at Ko Olina Golf Club and in 2021 at Kapolei Golf Club (T2). This is her 17th start of the 2025 season, and Korda has made every cut in her 16 tournaments ahead of this week, tallying seven top-10 finishes, the most recent of which came at the Kroger Queen City Championship, where the 15-time LPGA Tour winner tied for fifth, and the most notable of which is the tie for second she recorded at the U.S. Women’s Open presented by Ally at Erin Hills. According to KPMG Performance Insights data, the 27-year-old is picking up strokes in all major strokes gained categories this season and currently leads the LPGA in strokes gained off the tee (+0.95). She additionally ranks third in strokes gained total (+2.30), fourth in strokes gained tee to green (+1.61), 21st in strokes gained approach (+0.58), 24th in strokes gained putting (+0.65) and 56th in strokes gained around the green (+0.09). Korda is also first in birdie percentage (25.89 percent), tied for first in par-5 scoring (4.56), second in both birdie or better percentage (26.27 percent) and birdie or better average per round (4.73), second in scoring average (69.78), tied for third in rounds in the 60s (29) and fourth in birdies (275).

Charley Hull became a three-time LPGA Tour winner in her last start at the Kroger Queen City Championship presented by P&G, picking up her first victory since the 2022 Ascendant LPGA benefiting Volunteers of America after beating Rolex Rankings No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul by one stroke when the Thailand native four-putted the last hole at TPC River’s Bend. The Englishwoman is making just her second start ever in this tournament, having played the LOTTE Championship for the first time in 2019 and finishing in a tie for 68th, a performance she will be working to improve upon at Hoakalei Country Club. This is her 14th event of the season, and along with her victory, Hull has earned two other top-five results – tying for fourth in her second event of the year at the HSBC Women’s World Championship and tying for second at the AIG Women’s Open at Royal Porthcawl Golf Club. Looking at KPMG Performance Insights data, Hull is ranked inside the top 20 in four strokes gained metrics this year, including strokes gained total (4, +2.06), strokes gained tee to green (14, +1.15), strokes gained putting (15, +0.76) and strokes gained off the tee (16, +0.59). The Rolex Rankings No. 5 is also ninth in scoring average (70.36), birdie percentage (22.75 percent), birdie or better percentage (23.02 percent) and birdie or better average per round (4.14).

Nataliya Guseva finished solo second to A Lim Kim in her tournament debut at the 2024 LOTTE Championship presented by Hoakalei, what remains her career-best finish on the LPGA Tour. This is the 22-year-old’s 23rd tournament of the year, and in her last 22 starts, she has made 15 cuts and collected three top-20 finishes, the best of which is a tie for ninth that came at the T-Mobile Match Play presented by MGM Rewards and the most recent of which is a tie for 14th that she tallied at the Kroger Queen City Championship in Hamilton Township, Ohio. Statistically, Guseva most notably ranks eighth in greens hit from the fairway percentage, finding the putting surface 82.04 percent of the time from the short grass. She currently sits at 73rd in the season-long Race to the CME Globe, and while she is well inside the top 100 cutoff to maintain full status for the 2026 season, the Epson Tour alum will need to make a big push in her last few starts of the year if she wants a shot at qualifying for the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship.

*Off No. 10

All times local. For a full list of tee times, please click here. For more information on how to watch the LOTTE Championship presented by Hoakalei, please click here.

Featured Groups: 2025 LOTTE Championship presented by Hoakalei

Related Articles