With 40% of its major championship schedule yet to be contested, there’s still a boatload of captivating golf left on the 2023 LPGA Tour schedule.
This week’s Amundi Evian Championship kicks off a run of four straight events in Europe before the Tour returns to North America for the CPKC Women’s Open in Vancouver. Races for Player and Rookie of the Year are shaping up, with contenders from the U.S. and Europe battling for spots on their respective Solheim Cup teams, too.
KPMG Performance Insights provide deeper, more precise analysis of the LPGA Tour than has ever been previously available. Those numbers tell plenty of interesting stories about the season’s first six months.
Rise of Rose
One of the most exciting moments so far of the 2023 season was phenom Rose Zhang winning the Mizuho Americas Open in her first LPGA Tour start as a professional. Before Zhang, no woman had won in her first LPGA event as a pro since Beverly Hanson at the 1951 Eastern Open. What Zhang did in her next two starts – both major championships – was almost as impressive, finishing tied for eighth at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and tied for ninth two weeks later at the U.S. Women’s Open.
In those two majors, Zhang gained a total of 22.5 strokes on the field, the third-most of any player. Still, it feels like we have not yet seen her best ball striking in a major championship setting – Zhang ranked 52nd in the field in strokes gained approach at Baltusrol and 25th at Pebble Beach. What she has shown on the sport’s biggest stages is an exquisite short game. Of all players with eight or more rounds in the majors this year, Zhang has the best scrambling percentage (59.7%). Her 1.67 strokes gained per round on shots around the green and putts rank second to only Danielle Kang.
Zhang’s three top-10 finishes in a row at the Mizuho Americas Open, the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and the U.S. Women’s Open tied the longest run by any player so far on the LPGA Tour this season.
Big Names Looking for Breakthrough
Five players have picked up six or more top-10 finishes on the LPGA Tour so far in 2023. Of that group, only one – Ashleigh Buhai – also has a win to her credit. It’s a testament to the depth of the fields at LPGA Tour events that even when a player the caliber of Nelly Korda is playing great golf (highest birdie or better average on Tour, seventh in strokes gained total), it’s difficult to close the deal against the world’s best. Just ask Ayaka Furue and reigning Rookie of the Year Atthaya Thitikul: That duo has combined to finish 10th or better 14 times so far this season, but neither have won.
The Tour has had seven different players pick up their first career LPGA victory this season, nearly twice as many as there were entering last year’s Amundi Evian Championship (four). The talent pool is as deep as it has ever been on this circuit.
Jin Young Ko Back in Business
One enormous name in the sport who has won this season is Jin Young Ko. Twice in fact, with one of three multi-win seasons so far in 2023 (Lilia Vu, Ruoning Yin). Ko fought a wrist injury in 2022, a battle reflected in some uncharacteristic ball striking metrics. The woman who at the 2021 CME Group Tour Championship hit 63 consecutive greens in regulation languished in 29th in strokes gained approach last season. A clean bill of health has led to more familiar figures, though, in 2023: Ko ranks third on Tour in strokes gained approach this season, with those shots accounting for more than two-thirds of her strokes gained total.
Ko will go off as one of the pre-tournament favorites this week in France, and justifiably so. Ko won this championship back in 2019 and finished in a tie for eighth place a season ago.
Corpuz a Primetime Performer
Just two players have finished in the top-15 at each of the first three majors this season: Xiyu Lin of the People’s Republic of China and American Allisen Corpuz. The latter of that pair, Corpuz, is averaging more than 3.5 strokes gained total per round in the majors this year, more than seven-tenths of a stroke better than any other player. To put that excellence another way, Corpuz is a combined 19-under-par at the major championships in 2023, 10 shots better than anybody else.
There are 81 players with at least eight major rounds played this season. Of that group, Corpuz’s average of 2.45 strokes gained ball striking per round are easily the best of any player. She enters this week on a run of nine consecutive rounds under par on the LPGA Tour, gaining nearly three full strokes per round tee-to-green in that span.
Ruoning Yin is a Flusher
Anybody who watched her performance at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Baltusrol last month doesn’t need a spreadsheet full of stats to confirm what they already know about Ruoning Yin: She absolutely stripes the ball. But here’s a number to drive that fact home, anyway: Yin is the only player on the LPGA Tour currently ranked in the top-10 in both strokes gained off-the-tee (third) and strokes gained approach (first).
The average proximity to the hole this season on the LPGA Tour on approach shots from 150 to 175 yards away is 34 feet, 1 inch. Yin is the only qualified player averaging under 27 feet. Yin gained almost two-thirds of her strokes against the field at Baltusrol with her stellar approach play.
Cheyenne’s Big Summer
A run of seven top-20 finishes in nine starts was capped off with a win at the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational last weekend for Cheyenne Knight, where she teamed with Elizabeth Szokol. Knight has seen performance metrics improve across the board in 2023, ranking 19th or better this season in bogey avoidance, strokes gained tee-to-green, scoring average and strokes gained total. She did not rank in the top-20 in any of those numbers in 2022.
Knight’s recent run has been even more pronounced. Since The Chevron Championship began in April, Knight is gaining 1.19 strokes with her approach play per round, good for 11th-best among qualified players in that stretch. In two of her first four events of the season, she lost strokes to the field in that category. Knight is in great position for her first career top-10 result in a major this week at Evian Resort Golf Club.
)
)
)
)
