The LPGA season's first Grand Slam tees off in Texas on Thursday, when the world's top golfers will compete for a piece of the $8 million purse at the 2025 Chevron Championship.
After a record-breaking 2024 run, world No. 1 Nelly Korda enters her 10th Chevron Championship as the tournament's reigning champion, though the 26-year-old US star has yet to win a major event this year.
Korda will be attempting to hold off some of the sport's biggest names this weekend, as the 132-player field includes 24 of the world's top 25 golfers and all eight champions from the 2025 LPGA Tour so far.
Joining Korda in seeking another victory at the event are the annual tournament's 2023 winner, world No. 4 Lilia Vu, and 2022 champion No. 53 Jennifer Kupcho.
Both Korda and Vu are returning to play after dealing with lingering injuries, while fellow US golfer Kupcho hasn't won an LPGA Tour event since July 2022.
Other US players to watch include No. 8 Lauren Coughlin, fresh off a third-place finish at the 2025 LA Championship, and No. 58 Lexi Thompson, with the 2014 Chevron champion emerging from retirement to compete in her first tournament of 2025.
Rising international stars like Sweden's No. 42 Ingrid Lindblad as well as Japan's No. 17 Rio Takeda and twin sisters No. 18 Akie and No. 41 Chisato Iwai are also favorites to claim the 2025 Chevron trophy.
How to watch the 2025 Chevron Championship
The 2025 Chevron Championship tees off on Thursday at 8:15 AM ET.
Select live coverage of the four-day tournament will air across ESPN+, The Golf Channel, and NBC/Peacock.
After a planned seven-week break from the LPGA Tour, world No. 1 golfer Nelly Korda is back in action, with the US star beginning her 2024 title defense at the 2025 Ford Championship on Thursday afternoon.
While last year’s inaugural event saw Korda in the midst of a historic five-tournament winning streak, the 26-year-old has been more strategic with her participation this year, sitting out the tour’s recent Asia swing after kicking off her 2025 campaign with two Top 10 finishes.
"I mean, it’s always nice to take time off where you’re not injured and you're kind of trying to hopefully become better and catch up on maybe some lost time," she told Golfweek on Wednesday.
Incorporating rest is a strategy world No. 3 Lydia Ko is also employing this year, as the New Zealander travels to the Phoenix, Arizona, event after a three-week break of her own. Ko is also packing winning momentum in her golf bag this weekend, having snagged her 23rd career title at the 2025 HSBC Women's World Championship in Singapore on March 2nd.
Joining Korda and Ko on this weekend's Ford Championship links are all 10 of the LPGA's top-ranked golfers, who will be competing together for the first time this year at the event.
That means Australia's world No. 5 Hannah Green, the US star No. 6 Lilia Vu, and South Korea standout No. 8 Jin Young Ko will all be competing for a chunk of the $2.25 million purse.
Top LPGA golfers take aim at low-scoring history
With Phoenix's warm climate known for producing low golf scores, this weekend's at the 2025 Ford Championship athletes will also take a swing at history by chasing the near-impossible single-round score of 59.
"That's kind of like the trend of golf here in Arizona," said Korda about the area's ideal setting for the sport. "I mean, the weather is usually perfect. The grass is usually perfect as well. So that all sets up for low scoring ability, and then it's hot, so it flies really far. So the par 5s are pretty reachable."
Korda once came close to the elusive score during her 2021 Olympic gold medal-winning run in Tokyo, though a few extra late swings saw her finish the round at 62.
"I came pretty close at the Olympics, then I doubled my last one," she explained. "It was like starting to creep into my head and I was like, yeah, I don't even think about it, no."
If any of this weekend's LPGA stars do snag a sub-60 round, they'll become just the second LPGA player to ever do so, joining former pro Annika Sörenstam, whose historic 59 came in Phoenix in 2001.
How to watch Nelly Korda at the 2025 Ford Championship
Running through Sunday's fourth and final round, the 2025 Ford Championship tees off on Thursday, with streaming coverage beginning at 6 PM ET and broadcast coverage airing at 7 PM ET.
All rounds of the tournament will air on the Golf Channel.
US golf star Nelly Korda will look to launch yet another historic run on Thursday, when the 2025 LPGA season kicks off at the Tournament of Champions in Florida.
Korda registered seven victories on the 2024 LPGA Tour, catapulting to No. 1 in the world rankings and taking home LPGA Tour Player of the Year.
Calling last season "very, very, very crazy," the 26-year-old tied an LPGA record with five of her wins coming in successive starts. The fifth victory came at the 2024 Chevron Championship, earning Korda the second major title of her career.
A fresh start for Korda as 2025 LPGA Tour begins
Despite aiming to continue her record run, Korda acknowledges that the 2025 LPGA season will present its own challenges.
"The field is different. There [are] different girls in the field. Weather is different. Golf course could be different. There are so many variabilities that just completely changes it," she told reporters on Tuesday.
Her first test takes place in Orlando. That's where Korda will enter her seventh Tournament of Champions — a competition she's yet to walk away from as a winner.
Following its 2019 launch, the annual four-day event is limited to players who've won major LPGA competitions in the last two years. Due in part to Korda's recent dominance, only 32 professional golfers fit this year's criteria, including defending title-holder and world No. 2 Lydia Ko and 2024 runner-up Alexa Pano.
Also in this weekend's field are US stars No. 5 Lilia Vu, No. 14 Rose Zhang, No. 15 Lauren Coughlin, No. 20 Angel Yin, and No. 21 Megan Khang.
The pro competition will also run concurrently with a 72-hole celebrity contest that includes USWNT icon Brandi Chastain, among others.
"It’s a different, relaxed vibe," Korda said about the tournament. "And no better way to start off the year than playing in this event."
How to watch the LPGA Tournament of Champions this weekend
The 2025 Tournament of Champions starts at 11:30 AM ET on Thursday. Live coverage of the competition will air across NBC networks.
Fever rookie Caitlin Clark rocketed to the upper tiers of Sportico's annual highest-paid women's sports athletes report on Wednesday, landing in 10th place with an estimated $11 million in yearly earnings.
With tournaments like the US Open guaranteeing equal purses across men's and women's events, tennis players dominated the findings, accounting for nine of the 15 entries. This includes first-place Coco Gauff, who, with $9.4 million in prizes plus $21 million in endorsements, tops the list for the second year in a row.
Skier Eileen Gu came in second, complementing her individual earnings with the list's highest-estimated endorsement profits at $22 million. Gymnast Simone Biles came in at No. 9 with an estimated $11.1 million in total income.
Golfers Nelly Korda and Lydia Ko also made the cut, mirroring the LPGA Tour's expanded purses.
Report highlights endorsements in women's sports
The report underlines the continued importance of endorsements in the women's game — particularly within team sports, where many athletes rely on supplemental income to boost relatively small pro salaries.
However, 2024's estimated $221 million in total earnings is up 27% over last year, with 11 athletes making at least $10 million compared to six in 2023.
Sportico's 15 highest-paid women's sports athletes
1. Coco Gauff: $30.4 million
Prize money: $9.4 million | Endorsements: $21 million
2. Eileen Gu: $22.1 million
Prize money: $62,000 | Endorsements: $22 million
3. Iga Świątek: $21.4 million
Prize money: $8.4 million | Endorsements: $13 million
4. Zheng Qinwen: $20.6 million
Prize money: $5.6 million | Endorsements: $15 million
5. Aryna Sabalenka: $17.7 million
Prize money: $9.7 million | Endorsements: $8 million
6. Naomi Osaka: $15.9 million
Prize money: $870,000 | Endorsements: $15 million
7. Emma Raducanu: $14.7 million
Prize money: $671,000 | Endorsements: $14 million
8. Nelly Korda: $14.4 million
Prize money: $4.4 million | Endorsements: $10 million
9. Simone Biles: $11.1 million
Prize money: $135,000 | Endorsements: $11 million
10. Caitlin Clark: $11.1 million
Salary/bonus: $100,000 | Endorsements: $11 million
11. Jasmine Paolini: $10 million
Prize money: $6.5 million | Endorsements: $3.5 million
12. Jeeno Thitikul: $9.1 million
Prize money: $7.1 million | Endorsements: $2 million
13. Jessica Pegula: $8.2 million
Prize money: $4.2 million | Endorsements: $4 million
14. Elena Rybakina: $7.9 million
Prize money: $3.9 million | Endorsements: $4 million
15. Lydia Ko: $6.7 million
Prize money: $3.2 million | Endorsements: $3.5 million
The 2024 Solheim Cup tees off on Friday, with US golf stars looking to topple three-time defending champs Europe in the team tournament's 19th iteration.
Alternating between European and US host courses each edition, teams compete in three days of match play, collecting one point for every win and a half-point for every tie. The US needs a total of 14.5 points to take this year's Cup outright, while Europe needs just 14 to retain it.
Team USA spans 12 of the sport's top-ranked and most decorated athletes, including Nelly Korda, Allisen Corpuz, Lauren Coughlin, Megan Khang, Ally Ewing, Lilia Vu, Rose Zhang, and the soon-to-retire Lexi Thompson.
US golfers on a mission to reclaim Solheim Cup dominance
Team Europe has held the Cup since 2019, but the margins have been razor thin. The 2023 event actually ended in a 14-14 tie, but as reigning champions, Europe retained the title in what the team considers their eighth victory over the US.
While the US holds the advantage over Europe in overall Solheim Cup wins, they haven't raised the trophy in seven years. And unlike other competitions with continuously swelling prize purses, only international bragging rights are on the line here.
Neither team has ever won four consecutive titles, and the US will aim to keep Europe from claiming that historic victory on home soil in Gainesville, Virginia, this weekend.
Star US golfer Nelly Korda sees Solheim Cup as "unfinished business"
All eyes are now on Team USA's Korda, who's coming off a banner 2024 after winning six different LPGA Tour events, including her second major.
"Whenever you get to wear the red, white, and blue and stars and stripes, there's a different meaning to it," the world No. 1 golfer told the BBC earlier this week. "You're playing not just for yourself, but for your captains, for your teammates, and your country, and there's just nothing like it. We have got some unfinished business."
How to watch the 2024 Solheim Cup women's golf tournament
The Solheim Cup starts Friday, September 13th, at 7:05 AM, with live coverage across NBC, the Golf Channel, and Peacock.
Lilia Vu won her fifth LPGA Tour event on Sunday, taking home the Meijer LPGA Classic title in her first tournament appearance since March.
The World No. 2 had been sidelined with a back injury, but returned with a vengeance last weekend. She began the final day eight shots back of leader Grace Kim, before surviving a three-hole playoff against Kim and former champion Lexi Thompson to take the title.
"I think this is the most meaningful win," Vu told reporters. "Because there was a time two months ago where I was just crying on the range not being sure if I would ever play a tournament again without pain."
This was Vu's first Meijer LPGA Classic win, and a birdie on the third playoff hole helped secure it. A two-time major champion, she's now two for three in LPGA Tour playoffs.
She said on Sunday that being unable to defend her title at the Chevron Championship was the "breaking point" in her season.
"Not being able to compete there really killed me," she said. "I feel like I thought I was taking the steps in the right direction, but I’m glad that I was able to take a couple months off and reevaluate my body, let it recover, do what I needed to do to get back out here again.
"And we did the right thing and took two months off. I think it hurt me not to play competitive golf because I literally live for competitive golf, but we did the right thing and that’s why I’m here today."
Vu walked away with $450,000 in prize money from the $3 million overall purse.
Lilia Vu captured her second major of 2023 at the Women’s British Open on Sunday.
The victory caps off a big season for Vu, which featured her first LPGA Tour win and two major championships. And soon she’ll be ranked No. 1 in the world.
“It sounds almost unreal,” Vu said.
The 25-year-old American won her first event in February in Thailand before taking the Chevron Championship in a playoff two months later. She’s missed the cut in four of six stroke-play events since then as she has tried to adjust to the expectations of a major champion.
“Honestly I just wanted to win golf tournaments out here on the LPGA,” Vu told reporters in England. “It’s just been a crazy year for me, just doing pretty well at the beginning of the season and just hit a lull in the middle, just struggling. I thought at the U.S. Open after I played so bad, I didn’t know if I could ever win again.”
She finished at 14 under par, six strokes ahead of Charley Hull, her co-leader at the start of the day.
On Sunday, she felt a bit of relief, she said. She became the first female player to win two majors in the same year since Jin Young Ko did it in 2019. And she’s the first American woman to do it since Juli Inkster in 1999.
“How I felt afterward, honestly I was thinking those two wins were a fluke,” she said. “It just comes down to not thinking about winning, just playing one shot at a time. This golf course forces you to do that. It really tests you. That was my only goal. To drive the ball well and give myself chances for birdie.”
Lilia Vu became a major winner Sunday at the Chevron Championship, capping off a wild weekend in The Woodlands, Texas.
The 25-year-old American birdied her last two holes, bringing her to a 4-under 68 for the day pushing her into a playoff for the title. Angel Yin also qualified for the playoff, but on the first playoff hole, Yin’s second shot came up short and left, splashing into the pond.
From there, Vu converted on the birdie putt to take the win.
“I knew on that last putt, all I had to do was just do my routine, read the putt how I usually do and just hit this putt because I’ve hit that putt a million times,” Vu said. “And I knew I could make it.”
Yin finished as runner-up in a major for the second time in her career after she tied for second at the 2019 U.S. Women’s Open. World No. 2 Nelly Korda finished in third at 9 under, rounding out the trio of American golfers in the top three.
Vu came into the tournament ranked No. 12 in the world. She earned her first-ever LPGA victory at the Honda LPGA Thailand in February. With her win in this weekend’s major, Vu takes home $765,000, the largest prize in the history of the event.
Lilia Vu only made one cut during her rookie LPGA Tour season in 2019. 😳
— LPGA (@LPGA) April 24, 2023
Vu spent the 2020 and 2021 seasons on the @EpsonTour, where she won three times and re-qualified for the LPGA Tour. ⛳️
She's now won twice on Tour in 2023 and is a major champion. 🏆
Never give up. pic.twitter.com/Dsik8adwOG