The Ascendant LPGA benefiting Volunteers of America has been attracting the best in the women’s game for the past decade. Five of the past winners in Texas have been major champions, as the event provides a tough test that challenges the brightest talents in the sport. Once again, this year’s field features the biggest names in golf with eight 2023 LPGA Tour winners making the trip to Texas, including residents Celine Boutier and Cheyenne Knight, who are both poised to compete in the Lone Star State. Here is a look at some of the featured groups competing for $1.8 million at Old American Golf Club.
Thursday, 8:09 a.m.* - Celine Boutier/Atthaya Thitikul/Lexi Thompson
The frontrunner in the Race to the CME Globe, Celine Boutier begins her final stretch of the season in her adopted home of Texas. The Frenchwoman is in the midst of a career-best season on the LPGA Tour with three victories to date, including her breakthrough major win in her home country at The Amundi Evian Championship. Boutier has kept a limited schedule over the latter half of the season, and the Ascendant LPGA benefiting Volunteers of America marks her first start since the CPKC Women’s Open in August, when she finished in a tie for 22nd. Boutier has since competed in the Solheim Cup but was unable to secure a point for the European team. The 29-year-old could be on track to picking up a fourth win of the season this week as she’s finished in the top 10 in Texas the past two years.
Boutier will play the opening rounds of The Ascendant LPGA alongside Atthaya Thitikul and Lexi Thompson. Thitikul is coming off a tie for 48th last week while trying to defend her title at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship presented by P&G. But she still remains in search of her first win of the 2023 season, having recorded nine top 10s so far this year. Thompson rounds out this group as she makes just her second start in Texas in the past six years. She’ll have fond memories to lean on as she finished 10th at Old American Golf Club last season as well as plenty of momentum as she is coming off her best finish of the season last week in Arkansas where she tied for eighth. The Texas tournament will no doubt be a tune-up for Thompson as she prepares to make her PGA Tour debut next week at the Shriners Children’s Open where she’ll become just the seventh woman ever to compete alongside the men.
Thursday, 8:20 a.m.* - Cheyenne Knight/Gaby Lopez/So Yeon Ryu
Texas’ own Cheyenne Knight returns to her home state fresh off her best finish in months. Knight finished in a tie for 18th at last week’s Walmart NW Arkansas Championship, her first start since going undefeated in her Solheim Cup debut. The Aledo native captured her second career victory this summer at the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational alongside playing partner Elizabeth Szokol, but her first win came as a rookie at The Ascendant LPGA where she broke through in 2019. She played well at Old American Golf Club again last season, tying for fifth.
Knight will play the first two rounds alongside Gaby Lopez and So Yeon Ryu. Lopez has three top 10s this season and has contended in Texas in years past, picking up a third-place finish in 2021 thanks to a final-round 65. Lopez is coming off a tie for 48th in Arkansas. Ryu rounds out this group and is looking to find a spark in the closing stretch of the season as she’s missed the cut in seven of her nine starts this year on the LPGA Tour. But Ryu has never missed a cut in Texas where she’s made seven starts during her career.
Thursday, 1:20 p.m.* - Stacy Lewis/Jenny Shin/Angela Stanford
A trio of past champions – Stacy Lewis, Jenny Shin and Angela Stanford – are grouped together for the opening rounds at Old American Golf Club. Lewis, who hoisted the trophy in 2014 and followed that victory with a tie for seventh the following season, returns to her native state where she’ll make her second start since captaining the U.S. Solheim Cup team. Lewis, who has spent much of the past two years preoccupied with Solheim Cup commitments, will look to end her own season on a high note as she has two top 10s on the year.
Shin, who became a Rolex First-Time Winner in Texas in 2016, came close to earning a second victory just last week at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship. Shin came away with a tie for third in Arkansas for her best finish of the season and her third top 10 of the year and will look to ride that momentum as she returns to Texas. Stanford, who was the 2020 winner of The Ascendant LPGA, has played a limited schedule this season while splitting her time competing and commentating for Golf Channel. This week, the major champion makes just her ninth start of the season and first since the Portland Classic as she returns to competition this week in her home state.
For a complete list of tee times for The Ascendant LPGA benefiting Volunteers of America, click here.
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