PEBBLE BEACH, Calif | Pebble Beach Golf Links is hosting the 78th U.S. Women’s Open this week and the 156-player field is comprised of top talent from across the globe. Twelve past champions are set to tee it up alongside every top-20 player in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings and against a challenging, historic backdrop like Pebble Beach, drama is sure to ensue at the third major championship of the 2023 LPGA Tour season. Here are just a few of the featured groups you’ll want to watch as they take on the U.S. Women’s Open.
Thursday, 8:28 a.m.* - Annika Sorenstam/Michelle Wie West/In Gee Chun
A trio of major champions highlight the 8:28 a.m. group off No. 10 on Thursday. Annika Sorenstam is a three-time U.S. Women’s Open champion, winning the event in back-to-back seasons in 1995 and 1996, and again in 2006. After missing the cut at the 2022 edition of the event, held at Pine Needles Lodge and Golf Club, it was uncertain if the 72-time LPGA Tour winner would be in this week’s field at Pebble Beach. But ever the competitor, Sorenstam is looking forward to another major moment as she works to show her younger counterparts just how a legend does it.
After announcing that she was stepping away from professional golf at last year’s U.S. Women’s Open, Michelle Wie West is playing in her final LPGA Tour event this week at Pebble Beach. Wie West won the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open at Pinehurst No. 2, winning by two shots over Stacy Lewis to capture her only major title. When thinking of an event that at which she’d like to retire, there seemed no better place than the U.S. Women’s Open for Wie West to bid farewell to the game, putting an exclamation point on what has been an incredible career.
In Gee Chun made her return to the LPGA Tour a few weeks ago at the Meijer LPGA Classic for Simply Give after taking time off to rehab a back injury. Now, she comes to Pebble Beach off a solid T24 showing at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship as defending champion. The 2015 U.S. Women’s Open at Lancaster Country Club was Chun’s first win on the LPGA Tour, and since then, she’s added two more majors to her resume, the 2016 Amundi Evian Championship and the 2022 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. Chun is a player who tends to perform in tough, damp, windy conditions and who has a propensity for major atmospheres, key attributes that could make her a threat at a place like Pebble Beach.
Thursday, 8:39 a.m.* - Celine Boutier/Georgia Hall/Nasa Hataoka
The 8:59 a.m. threesome off the 10th tee have 11 LPGA Tour wins between them, only one of which is a major title, a trend that they will all look to buck at this week’s U.S. Women’s Open. Frenchwoman Celine Boutier finally captured her third career LPGA Tour victory earlier this season after defeating Georgia Hall in a playoff at the LPGA Drive On Championship at Superstition Mountain. Although things have been a little ho hum for the 29-year-old since then – Boutier has missed two cuts and finished in the top 15 three times in her last seven starts – she’s a player that relishes the challenge of difficult conditions, something that Pebble Beach is sure to deliver with thick rough and small, Poa annua greens.
Georgia Hall finished no worse than T14 in her first six starts of the 2023 LPGA Tour season, a stretch that saw her record back-to-back runner-up results at the LPGA Drive On Championship and DIO Implant LA Open. But the 2018 AIG Women’s Open champion has cooled as of late, earning just one top-10 finish in her last five starts, coming at the Cognizant Founders Cup, and missing the cut at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in her last five starts. Even so, according to KPMG Performance Insights, Hall is still inside the top 10 in strokes gained total, currently sitting seventh and gaining an average of 1.76 strokes per round on the field. She is inside the top 20 in strokes gained putting (+0.92) and strokes gained approach (+0.98), sitting at 13th and 16th, respectively, and she is also ranked seventh in scoring average (70) and rounds under par (26) on the LPGA Tour so far this season.
Six-time LPGA Tour winner Nasa Hataoka is a player who seems to like Poa annua greens. The Japan native won the JTBC Classic presented by Barbasol in 2019, which was held at Aviara Golf Club, a venue whose greens are known to have the signature bumpiness that’s caused by that type of grass. She also finished T7 in her title defense at the DIO Implant LA Open at Palos Verdes Golf Club earlier this season, another facility that also has Poa annua putting surfaces. Though it has been a quiet season for the 24-year-old – Hataoka has only finished in the top 10 in three of 11 starts this year – she still sits inside the top 15 in three strokes gained categories, sitting at 11th in strokes gained total (+1.40), 12th in strokes gained tee to green (+1.19) and 14th in strokes gained approach (+0.84).
Thursday, 2:24 p.m. - Jennifer Kupcho/Atthaya Thitikul/Leona Maguire
Three LPGA Tour winners make up the 2:24 p.m. grouping on Thursday afternoon. Jennifer Kupcho had a banner 2022 season on the LPGA Tour, becoming a Rolex First-Time Winner at The Chevron Championship and grabbing two more victories at the Meijer LPGA Classic for Simply Give and the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational. The beginning of 2023 was frustrating for Kupcho as she just couldn’t get things into gear, but she appears to have turned a corner. The Colorado native has recorded two top-10 finishes in her last three starts, a runner-up at the Mizuho Americas Open after she lost in a playoff to Rose Zhang and a tie for sixth in her title defense at the Meijer LPGA Classic.
It's shocking that Atthaya Thitikul hasn’t managed to find the winner’s circle yet in 2023 as the 20-year-old has recorded seven top-10 finishes so far this season, including a tie for fourth at The Chevron Championship. Thitikul is third in strokes gained total (+1.88), eighth in strokes gained putting (+1.10) and 14th in strokes gained driving, a deadly combination for a place like Pebble. She also knows how to perform on Poa annua greens, winning her first LPGA Tour title in 2022 as a rookie at the JTBC Classic presented by Barbasol after defeating Nanna Koerstz Madsen in a playoff.
Leona Maguire had a chance to win in back-to-back weeks at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship after capturing her second career LPGA Tour victory at the Meijer LPGA Classic the week prior. While she ultimately fell away on Sunday, her tie for 11th is her best result in that major championship and her fourth best major result of her career. With the misty, bouncy and soon-to-be windy conditions that players will face on tournament days, keep an eye on the Irishwoman who will be sure to use her heritage to her advantage to attack this difficult venue.
Thursday, 2:35 p.m. - Brooke Henderson/Rose Zhang/Lydia Ko
Three former teenage phenoms make up Thursday’s 2:35 p.m. group off No. 1. After a momentum dip following her win at the season-opening Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, Brooke Henderson appeared to find something at Baltusrol Golf Club’s Lower Course that helped her to a T15 finish at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, her best result since the Bank of Hope LPGA Match-Play presented by MGM Rewards. She’s had 28 rounds under par this season, 15 of which have been in the 60s, including two rounds at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. Despite the struggles, Henderson has hung tough and stayed patient, something that could finally be rewarded this week at Pebble Beach.
Rose Zhang is the name on everyone’s lips at the 78th U.S. Women’s Open as the 20-year-old is a favorite to take home the title this week. Not only has she won and finished tied for eighth in her first two starts as a professional, Zhang holds the women’s course record at Pebble Beach, carding an astounding 63 in last year’s Carmel Cup, a collegiate event, to set the new benchmark. While it would be quite the feat to win twice in your first three pro starts, anything can happen at major championships and Zhang proved she has more than enough guts to do the improbable with her final-round performance at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship a couple of weeks ago.
Last year’s Race to the CME Globe champion Lydia Ko hasn’t been playing up to her standards so far this season, recording just one top 10 in her eight previous starts this year, and isn’t shy about sharing her frustration with her recent results. But Ko knows things are heading in the right direction, saying that despite finishing outside the top 50 at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, she didn’t feel like her game was very far off and that it was much closer than it had been in recent months. And if there’s any player who could flip the script of a season in a hurry and win this week at Pebble Beach, it’s Ko, who will be looking for her third career major title and first since the 2016 Chevron Championship. An added incentive is the Hall of Fame points that would come with a victory as Ko needs just two more to have the 27 points necessary for induction, two that she could capture with a win at the 78th playing of the U.S. Women’s Open.
*Off No. 10
To view all other featured groups and tee times for the 2023 U.S. Women’s Open, please click here.
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