CNN
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As soon as once more, the primary girls’s golf main of the season tees off with The Chevron Championship. But on Thursday, that tee is shifting some 1,580 miles from its Californian desert roots.
After a 51-year keep at Mission Hills Nation Membership in Rancho Mirage, the LPGA Tour’s opening main is taking on new residence at Carlton Woods in The Woodlands, Texas, underneath a sponsorship cope with vitality firm Chevron.
The Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course – personally designed by ‘The Golden Bear’ – will play host to a stellar 132-player subject boasting 29 main winners, together with defending champion Jennifer Kupcho and world No. 1 Lydia Ko.
US viewers can watch the primary and second rounds on the Golf Channel, with protection working from 10 a.m. CST till 7 p.m. CST. The Golf Channel will then present stay protection of the weekend’s remaining two rounds from 2 p.m. to three p.m CST earlier than the motion strikes over to NBC from 3 p.m. to five p.m. CST.
Within the UK, Sky Sports activities Golf will broadcast the opening two rounds stay from 4 p.m. to eight p.m. BST and 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. BST earlier than protection switches to Sky Sports activities Combine for the Saturday and Sunday rounds from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. BST.
A transfer to The Lone Star State marks merely the most recent – albeit essentially the most substantial – growth to a match that has seen loads of change over time.
Based in 1972 because the Colgate-Dinah Shore Winner’s Circle – a nod to co-founding actress and singer Dinah Shore – the occasion wasn’t upgraded to main standing till 1983. Since retitled The Nabisco Championship, The Kraft Nabisco Championship and the ANA Inspiration, Chevron’s cope with the match was introduced in 2021, ushering in a brand new identify, a brand new location and an elevated prize purse of over $5 million.
In waving goodbye to Mission Hills, the occasion additionally stated farewell to certainly one of its most well-known traditions – the Poppie’s Pond leap, a development began by Amy Alcott in 1988.
Virtually 34 years to the day, Kupcho turned the ultimate ‘Woman of the Lake’ together with her dive into the waters beside the 18th inexperienced after her maiden main triumph in 2022.
Nonetheless, a lake alongside the boundaries of the par-five 18th inexperienced at Carlton Woods gives Sunday’s champion the chance to regenerate the custom.
World No. 20 Kupcho will face stiff competitors in her bid to retain her crown. The entire world’s top-20 ranked gamers will headline a glittering subject who’ve amassed 41 main wins and 247 titles between them, in line with match organizers.
A two-stroke benefit over US compatriot Jessica Korda sealed a powerful victory for Kupcho ultimately 12 months’s occasion, having shared the lead from the shut of the primary spherical.
The victory lifted Kupcho, who had arrived because the world No. 53, from a grueling rut of kind. The 25-year-old returns to defend her title in a extra comfy place.
“I believe I used to be in a little bit of a panic final 12 months,” Kupcho instructed reporters Tuesday.
“I used to be struggling hitting the ball, so I had a bit little bit of a panic, calling my swing coach … making an attempt to determine what was going flawed with my swing and hitting the ball.
“I might say I’m a bit bit extra relaxed this 12 months. Really feel like I’ve my toes underneath me and able to go.”
New Zealand’s Ko arrives because the participant to beat, with three wins in her final eight begins consolidating her place on the summit as she seeks to finish a seven-year await a 3rd main after victory at Mission Hills in 2016.
Victory would include the added bonus of ushering the 25-year-old into the LPGA Tour Corridor of Fame, with Ko simply two factors – or one main win – shy of assembly the purpose threshold for entry.
“It could be fairly cool to get it completed within the first main of the 12 months and be within the Corridor of Fame, however that’s not what’s vital to me,” Ko instructed reporters.
“I simply need to have an excellent week and put myself in place, and if I’ve an opportunity at it and be the one which’s holding the trophy on the finish of the week, that’s fairly superior. However I don’t assume that’s going to be my driving power going to any of those occasions this 12 months.”
A win for world No. 2 Nelly Korda, who missed final 12 months’s occasion as a consequence of a blood clot in her arm, would see the 24-year-old American add to the maiden main title she gained on the 2021 Girls’s PGA Championship.
Ought to she win, Korda has promised to make the leap into the waters on the 18th inexperienced, a convention she is glad to proceed regardless of the change of surroundings.
“I believe Chevron and everybody concerned within the match is doing a tremendous job to sort of maintain the traditions alive,” she instructed reporters.
“Clearly, altering areas is totally different for positive, however … in case you win, you continue to get to leap … and you continue to get to hoist the trophy, so on the finish of the day, that’s what issues. They’re stepping in and supporting girls’s golf, and I believe that’s the massive image that everybody ought to give attention to is that they stepped up and so they’re those which can be supporting us.”
World No. 10 Georgia Corridor, England’s highest ranked participant, touches down in Texas in imperious kind. With two runner-up finishes in her final three begins, the 2018 British Open champion hasn’t positioned exterior the top-15 in any 2023 occasion.
“I don’t assume I’ve a weak spot in my recreation in any respect, and I believe that’s partially why I’ve been very constant,” Corridor instructed reporters.
“I believe my mentality is the strongest a part of my recreation, and that’s the important thing to why I play effectively. It’s only a mixture of the final 12 months or two of exhausting work and stepping it up one other stage.
“Now, it’s simply coming all collectively very properly, and I’m glad the exhausting work is paying off.”
