Round one of the 2026 Chevron Championship is in the books, here are some of the biggest storylines from Thursday’s action:
- Memorial Park is an improvement over The Club at Carlton Woods, I think it would be tough to find a dissenting opinion to that. Despite the wet conditions, the setup was fantastic and the tournament organizers did a good job with choosing some difficult pin positions, even in round one.
- Nelly Korda looked in prime form Thursday. It wasn’t just the score, which led by two following the round, it was how easy it looked. Korda never seemed to be in trouble and was giving herself consistent birdie looks and she was really never in danger of making worse than par. She has a huge leg up on the field now on a course where many believed she had a huge advantage on the field.
- Amateur Farah O’Keefe, who plays her college golf at Texas, was one of the stories of the round showing off her aggressive play, at one point getting into a share for second.
- Jeeno Thitikul looked out of sorts Thursday, especially with the putter. She is sitting nine strokes behind Korda at +2 and is going to be in serious danger of missing the cut. According to the incredible Justin Ray, Thitikul has the most weeks at No. 1 for a women’s player without a major championship by 29 weeks.
- Patty Tavatanakit is really capitalizing on some of the momentum from her solid week in Los Angeles. This seems like a big moment in Patty T’s career, looking for her second major championship. She needs to stay consistent throughout the weekend, but her scrambling has been fantastic over the last couple weeks.
- As many projected, the leaderboard is filled with long hitters, Korda, Patty T, Koerstz Madsen and Linn Grant, but lack of length off the tee may not be the disqualifier that some thought it might be. Jin Hee Im, Allisen Corpuz and Hyo Joo Kim are among the players that may not be super long who played well Thursday.
- The crowds continue to be a huge issue in Houston. Last year, players were clearly frustrated with the lack of gallery sizes. This year, it looks even worse. The course looks completely empty, which is not the case typically with even non-major LPGA Tour events. From what it looked like on TV, this looked like the smallest crowd of the year, and Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols, who is at the event, remarked how small they were. It is embarrassing for the Tour, as non-LPGA Tour fans are seeing the screenshots on social media that show the biggest star in the sport putting together a great round, in front of nobody. The LPGA Tour needs to find a way to get Houston engaged in this event if it will continue to be held there every year.
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