The Meijer LPGA Classic for Simply Give is on deck for the LPGA Tour’s top talent this week in Belmont, Mich. There are several of the best athletes in women’s golf competing at Blythefield Country Club, including five past champions of the event, seven of 2025’s 14 total winners and 13 of the top 25 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings, a pretty strong field considering the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship is looming large next week in Frisco, Texas. But with a deep field list that features many veteran players with a beaucoup of knowledge about this venue, identifying a potential winner in the Great Lakes State might be a bit tricky. Here are three players to keep an eye on this week as they contend for the 2025 Meijer LPGA Classic title.

Haeran Ryu

Haeran Ryu is the favorite in the field at the Meijer LPGA Classic for Simply Give and will be looking to rack up her second victory of the 2025 LPGA Tour season this week at Blythefield Country Club. The Republic of Korea native won in May at the Black Desert Championship presented by Greater Zion after beating Esther Henseleit and Ruoning Yin by a whopping five shots in Ivins, Utah. Her only other top-10 result this year is a tie for sixth that she recorded at The Chevron Championship after holing out for eagle on the par-5 18th hole in the final round at The Club at Carlton Woods. This is just her second time ever playing in the Meijer LPGA Classic, and Ryu tied for 20th in her debut as a rookie during the 2023 season, a result she should be primed to improve upon considering how stellar her ball striking has been as of late.

Looking at KPMG Performance Insights data, Ryu ranks first in both strokes gained tee to green (+2.36) and strokes gained approach (+1.37) on the LPGA Tour this season, also sitting at eighth in strokes gained off the tee (+0.78) and ninth in strokes gained total (+1.73). She has gained four or more strokes with her ball striking in 40 rounds throughout the previous two seasons, and Ryu leads the Tour in strokes gained tee to green in that same span, picking up an average of 2.11 shots on the field with her long game since the beginning of 2024, the most of any player in that timeframe with a minimum of 50 rounds played.

The 24-year-old additionally ranks first in greens in regulation (77.78 percent), first in ball striking (4), sixth in greens hit from the fairway percentage (83.29 percent) and T6 in bogey-free rounds (17) on the LPGA Tour in 2025.

Grace Kim

Grace Kim nearly collected her second career LPGA Tour title at the 2024 Meijer LPGA Classic, but the Epson Tour graduate fell in a three-way playoff to Lilia Vu along with Lexi Thompson last season and ultimately posted a T2 finish at Blythefield Country Club. It was the second consecutive top-20 result that Kim had recorded in Belmont, Mich., as she tied for 20th in her tournament debut as a rookie in 2023, both of which are performances that Kim will look to resurrect or even better this time around in the Great Lakes State.

This is the Australian’s 10th event of the 2025 LPGA Tour season, and it’s been a fairly quiet year for Kim, who has only one top 10 to her credit thus far, a solo ninth that she posted at the Black Desert Championship in May. Statistically, her most notable ranking in any metric is eighth in driving accuracy, as Kim hits the fairway 79.95 percent of the time off the tee, something that will be critical to success this week for any player in the field looking to avoid the four-inch-long Kentucky bluegrass that threatens to gobble up any wayward tee shots.

But with her third year as an LPGA Tour member reaching its crescendo, Kim will need to start picking up the pace if she wants to qualify for the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship in November and finish inside the top 80 of the Race to the CME Globe. And considering her recent history with this tournament, the Meijer LPGA Classic might be a perfect place for Kim to begin to kick things into high gear.

Leona Maguire

While Leona Maguire is considered to be a dark horse this week at the Meijer LPGA Classic, watch out for the Irishwoman at Blythefield Country Club. She won this event back in 2023 after finishing solo second in 2021 and tying for second in 2022, the latter of which saw Maguire fall alongside Nelly Korda in a three-way playoff to Jennifer Kupcho. Her victory in Belmont, Mich., saw the now 29-year-old fire a four-day total of 21-under and post two scores of 65 or better in the second (65) and final rounds (64) at this venue. According to KPMG Performance Insights data, since the 2021 edition of the Meijer LPGA Classic, Maguire has a score to par of 63-under, which is 10 strokes better than any other athlete at this golf course. In that same time span, she has averaged 2.52 strokes gained total and has a scoring average of 68.1 strokes, with a birdie or better percentage of 29.2 percent.

Maguire hasn’t been in great form as of late, as she missed the cut in her last three starts on the LPGA Tour at the U.S. Women’s Open, the MEXICO Riviera Maya Open and the Mizuho Americas Open and has only managed to earn one top-10 finish in 2025, a solo ninth that came at the season-opening Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions. But despite her lack of solid recent results, Maguire is definitely a case of horses for courses at Blythefield Country Club and will be more than worthy to watch as the leaderboard develops at the Meijer LPGA Classic.

Players to Watch: 2025 Meijer LPGA Classic for Simply Give

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