Major season is upon us with the best players in women’s golf heading down to Houston to play in the Chevron Championship, played for the first time at Memorial Park Golf Course. This major season has fantastic and varied venues, so let’s take a look at who may be standing with the trophy at the end of each of these weeks:
Chevron Championship – Nelly Korda
The 2024 champion of this event comes in showing terrific, albeit slightly frustrating, form. Korda has four top-2 finishes to begin the season, but has only closed it out once, and even then calling a 54-hole finished event “closing” is a bit of a stretch. Korda’s ball striking has been excellent as to be expected, but her putting has faltered a bit. A couple weeks off should be of benefit to the No. 2 player in the world, who typically plays well coming off breaks. Memorial Park should set up well for the long-hitting Korda, as strong ball striking usually is a big bonus on this course.
U.S. Women’s Open – Minjee Lee
While Lee can go for the career grand slam this week at Chevron, I see Lee doing well at the U.S. Open held for the first time at Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles. Lee plays well on USGA setups with five top-15 finishes in the U.S. Women’s Open over her career. Lee is fantastic overall in major championships, with three wins since 2021. As we saw this past week at the JM Eagle LA Championship, Australians tend to play well in Los Angeles, including Lee herself who has a few top-10 finishes and a win in the city.
KPMG Women’s PGA Championship – Hannah Green
It is yet to be seen how long Hannah Green’s hot streak continues, but the start to her season has been wildly impressive. Green has two wins on the LPGA Tour and LET already in 2026, and now she returns to Hazeltine in Minneapolis, where she won her lone major championship seven years ago. When Green plays with confidence, she is dominant, as shown by her incredible play at Wilshire Country Club and in Singapore. Between her play this season and her history on Hazeltine, she should be a popular pick to win her second major and continue a strong Player of the Year campaign.
Amundi Evian Championship – Jeeno Thitikul
It seems crazy to say that Thitikul is over due, she is only 22-years-old, but with the resumé she has built up, a major championship has to be coming soon. The most obvious place to get it done is clearly at Evian. Thitikul has four top-10 finishes in six appearances at Evian and nearly won last year if it wasn’t for historic heroics from Grace Kim. Dating back to 2022, Thitikul has eight top-10 finishes in majors overall to go along with her eight LPGA Tour titles. While Thitikul is young, and still has so much golf ahead of her, it is time for her to break her winless run in majors.
AIG Women’s Open – Akie Iwai
It is so hard to project a winner for the AIG Women’s Open, especially because the players so infrequently play links golf courses. The AIG Women’s Open is at Royal Lytham and St. Annes Golf Club in England and it is tough to get much of a read on the profile of winners there. I do think one of the Iwai twins will win their first major this year though, and looking at their history in this event, Akie feels like the more likely. Akie has two top-11 finishes in the AIG Women’s Open and has made cuts in all three appearances. Japanese players have performed well in this event in recent years, and I see that trend continuing.
