An intense six-week stretch of golf begins this week on the LPGA Tour with the MEXICO Riviera Maya Open at Mayakoba. It’s an opportunity for players to get their games in shape for the biggest tests of the year, as the second major championship of the season, the U.S. Women’s Open presented by Ally, gets underway next week and the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship lurks just a month away. But first, starting on Thursday, 144 players will compete over 72 holes for a purse of $2.5 million in the inaugural edition of the MEXICO Riviera Maya Open. Here are the five things you need to know about one of the newest stops on the LPGA Tour.

Returning to Mexico

This week, the LPGA Tour will compete in Mexico for the first time since 2017. It’s been eight long years since Lorena Ochoa last hosted her event on the LPGA Tour, which was held from 2008 to 2017 in the 27-time LPGA Tour winner’s home country. Ochoa, a two-time major champion and LPGA and World Golf Hall of Fame member, has had a significant impact on growing the game of golf in Mexico and inspired a generation of young women like Gaby Lopez and Maria Fassi, both of whom are in the field this week, to take up the game. Lopez, a three-time winner on the LPGA Tour, was instrumental in helping to bring this new event to the LPGA Tour’s schedule for 2025 and is coming off a tie for 40th in her last start in Utah. But the 31-year-old racked up three consecutive top 10s earlier in the season. Fassi will make just her second start of the season on the LPGA Tour as she’s primarily played this year on the Epson Tour. She has made six starts through the first half of the year on the Official Qualifying Tour of the LPGA and remains in pursuit of her first top 10 of the season.

The Course

El Camaleón Golf Club is a familiar venue to those who follow the game of golf, having previously hosted several men’s events. For 16 years, the PGA Tour held what is now known as the World Wide Technology Championship at the venue, with the last edition of that tournament being contested at El Camaleón in November 2022. LIV competed at the venue following the PGA Tour’s departure in 2023 and 2024, and the venue welcomes the LPGA Tour for the first time this week.

The Greg Norman layout opened in 2004 and is located about 35 miles south of Cancun. The course is famous for the large sinkhole positioned in the middle of the seventh fairway, and the cave bunker, or “cenote” as it's known in Mexico, will no doubt be a talking point amongst the women competing this week. The course will play to a par 72 at roughly 6,583 yards.

The Field

While several of the world’s top-ranked players are taking a break this week to prepare for the season’s second major championship, others have opted to compete in Mexico as part of their preparation. Charley Hull, who is coming off a tie for 40th in her last start at the Black Desert Championship, will compete this week along with Lindy Duncan, who grabbed headlines with her gutsy showing at The Chevron Championship, where she tied for second after losing in a five-person playoff to Mao Saigo at the season’s first major championship. Duncan finished T11 in her last start at the Mizuho Americas Open. A slew of major champions are also in the field, a list that includes players like Sei Young Kim, who was the most recent winner on the LPGA Tour in Mexico in 2017; Brittany Lincicome, who announced her retirement from full-time competition last year; Yani Tseng, who has qualified for her first U.S. Women’s Open in nine years; and In Gee Chun, who was chasing a chance to complete the Career Grand Slam at The Chevron Championship.

Growing the Game in Mexico

Maria Balcazar, Fernanda Lira and amateur Clarisa Temelo will get a chance to follow in the footsteps of their role models in Fassi, Lopez and Ochoa when they compete this week in their home country of Mexico. Lira, Temelo and Balcazar received sponsor exemptions to compete in the new LPGA Tour stop at El Camaleón. Lira, a winner on the Epson Tour in 2021, competes not just on the Official Qualifying Tour of the LPGA but also on the Ladies European Tour. Temelo, who is still an amateur and a member of the women’s golf team at the University of Arkansas, where both Fassi and Lopez played collegiate golf, was going to try her hand at Monday Qualifying for this week’s tournament before being granted an invitation. Balcazar, like Temelo, was also slated to compete in the qualifier before receiving an invitation into the field. Balcazar played college golf at the University of Central Florida and was a rookie on the Epson Tour in 2020.

Popov Returns to Winner’s Circle

Five years after Sophia Popov’s fairytale win at the AIG Women’s Open at Royal Troon, she earned her fifth career win and first victory on the Epson Tour at the Carlisle Arizona Women’s Golf Classic. Popov’s return to the winner’s circle marks her first victory since she became a mother in 2023 and returned to competition in 2024. Popov has made six starts so far this year on the LPGA Tour and arrives in Mexico in search of her first top 10 of the 2025 season.

Five Things to Know About the 2025 MEXICO Riviera Maya Open at Mayakoba

Related Articles