Seven Australasians tackle women’s first major of year
Lydia Ko with her 2016 ANA Inspiration ( now Chevron) trophy. – photo Getty / LPGA
The first major of the year for women’s golf is played this week in Houston, Texas, when the time honoured Chevron Championship (formerly known under various names including Nabisco Dinah Shore, Nabisco Championship and ANA Inspiration) begins on Thursday.
The event first became a major in 1983 and was held at the Mission Hills Golf Club in Rancho Mirage in Californian until the move to Houston for the first time for this week’s edition.
Australians will perhaps remember the event most vividly when Karrie Webb won the title for the second time by holing out from the fairway for eagle at the 72nd hole in 2006 and going on to defeat Lorena Ochoa in a playoff to win her 7th and last major title.
Lydia Ko is another from this part of the world to have won the event claiming the title in 2016, to date just the second major championship amongst her 19 LPGA Tour victories.
In 2023 the event moves to the Jack Nicklaus designed signature course at The Club at Carlton Woods to the north of Houston where a new era for the event begins.
Australasians in the field this week include Ko, Minjee Lee, Hannah Green, Grace Kim, Stephanie Kyriacou, Sarah Kemp and Karis Davidson, Kim the most recent of those to win on the LPGA Tour with a victory in Hawaii last week.
Recently married Ko has made a slow start to her 2023 LPGA Tour season having one top ten in three starts but she did win an event in Saudi Arabia and the current leading world ranked female golfer is sure to give a good account of herself given her consistent record in majors despite winning only two. Ko has been ten times inside the top three in majors and should feature again.
“Yeah, I’m excited,” said Ko referring to the new venue. “Like I said earlier, it’s sometimes weird to have change, but I think it’s change for the better, and Chevron just did a great job last year, and I think to be able to also respect the history that we had there and to bring it here into their backyard, I think it’s exciting.
“Hopefully a lot of people will be able to come out and watch us play, and yeah, it’s a very cool place for us to be in, and as a Tour I think we’re very grateful for these kind of partnerships.
“I had two weeks off after PV, (LA Open) so just worked on my game and took some good time off, as well. Like I came here, I was overseas a little bit, so I actually got here a little early, so got here on Saturday, so I feel like when you come to a new golf course it’s nice to kind of play the golf course a little bit more just to get familiar with the holes and just get familiar with the golf course itself.
“But it’s just good to get used to the golf course and just see like which areas are not bad places to miss, and I think with major championships and especially golf courses like this, sometimes a bogey is not the end of the world, and when you do have an opportunity you can make birdie, and just being really patient out here, and I think the more you get used to it, the better I’m able to understand that.”
Minjee Lee is chasing a third major championship having won the 2021 Evian Championship and the 2022 US Women’s Open. Lee too has made a slow start to her LPGA Tour season but she has become a consistent player in majors and should improve sharply this week.
Grace Kim will play in her first major championship and after her breakthrough win last week there will be much interest in just how she performs against a considerably stronger field than was the case in Hawaii. There is little doubting a great future for the 22 year old and just how she handles this level will be watched with interest by Australian golf fans.
Hannah Green has recorded a best of 20th in four LPGA starts in 2023 but she is a major winner and a big event player to a large extent and could do well.
Kyriacou, Kemp and Davidson have done well to make the field and while not likely to be contenders as such they offer depth to the Australasian Challenge.