After three successive tournaments in New Jersey, the LPGA Tour heads to Blythefield Country Club in Michigan for the Meijer LPGA Classic.
Like most weeks, another strong field will participate too, including five of the world’s top 10.
The defending champion is Jennifer Kupcho, and she will be eager to recreate the form that saw her win in 2022 after fending off the challenges of Nelly Korda and Leona Maguire in a playoff.
Kupcho came desperately close to adding to her haul of three LPGA Tour victories in the Mizuho Americas Open two weeks ago. However, this time she was on the receiving end of defeat in a playoff after 20-year-old Rose Zhang beat her in her very first professional tournament.
It’s been a disappointing season so far for Kupcho by her high standards and she will be hoping her relatively recent success in the tournament will stand her in good stead before heading into next week second’s Major of the year, the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.
She will face plenty of stiff competition though, not least from Maguire, who will be looking to avenge that narrow defeat of 2022. Maguire is undoubtedly one to watch here, and not just because of last year’s near miss. In 2021, she finished in the same position having been edged out by Korda.
Meanwhile, another formidable player teeing it up this week is Lydia Ko. The New Zealander has been in patchy form of late, although she did finish tied for third in last month’s Aramco Team Series Florida tournament on the LET, which served as a reminder that she is not too far away from recovering the form that saw her at the top of the world rankings as recently as April.
Lydia Ko is looking to return to top form at Blythefield Country Club
(Image credit: Getty Images)
As well as Ko, others currently in the world’s top 10 in the field are Minjee Lee, Hyo-Joo Kim, Lexi Thompson and Brooke Henderson.
In the latter two’s case, they also have experience of winning the tournament. Thompson claimed the title in 2015, while Henderson has won it twice, in 2017 and 2019.
Both players will be keen to kickstart their seasons following disappointing runs. Thompson has not posted a top-10 finish since her tie for third in February’s Saudi Ladies International. Meanwhile, Henderson has endured an even more disappointing run since winning January’s Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament Of Champions. Elsewhere, another former winner in the field is 2018 champion So Yeon-Ryu.
The most recent winner on the LPGA Tour’s
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