A $1.75 million purse is there for the taking at this week’s Dana Open at Highland Meadows Golf Club in Sylvania, Ohio. Five of the top 10 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings and six past champions are in the field, joined by four 2023 LPGA Tour winners and 26 of 32 LPGA Tour rookies. Here’s a look at some of this week’s featured groups who will be looking to join a storied list of Dana Open winners alongside Se Ri Pak, Annika Sorenstam and Dame Laura Davies.
Thursday, 8:26 a.m.* Jin Young Ko/Rose Zhang/Linn Grant
The Rolex Rankings No. 1 Jin Young Ko will play the Dana Open for the first time in her LPGA Tour career this week, coming off a missed cut at last week’s U.S. Women’s Open. The Republic of Korea native has won twice this season, successfully defending her title at the HSBC Women’s World Championship and winning her third Cognizant Founders Cup in five years at Upper Montclair Country Club. Like Upper Montclair, Highland Meadows Golf Club is a Parkland-style course, a type of golf that Ko knows well and has had copious amounts of success on in the past.
Rose Zhang is in her first two-week stretch of golf as an LPGA Tour professional and is still riding that wave of momentum from her win at the Mizuho Americas Open. She finished T8 at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship after firing a 5-under 67 in the final round and once again held her own at the U.S. Women’s Open at Pebble Beach Golf Links, carding rounds of 74-71-72-72 to capture her second consecutive major top-10 result. Maintaining consistency after starting on such a high note can be challenging, but Zhang is a player that knows how to do so. Be on the lookout for her at the top of this week’s leaderboard with a chance to win her second Tour title.
Sweden’s Linn Grant was a player everyone was looking forward to seeing compete this season on the LPGA Tour. She finished third at the Bank of Hope LPGA Match-Play presented by MGM Rewards, her first event in the United States since earning Membership at 2021 LPGA Q-Series. Since then, though, Grant has played sparingly, only teeing it up in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and the U.S. Women’s Open in the last two months, finishing T20 and T53, respectively. However, the five-time Ladies European Tour winner is slated to compete in all four events that are a part of the LPGA’s European swing this summer, so we will have plenty of Linn Grant golf to watch in the coming weeks, starting here at the Dana Open.
Thursday, 1:10 p.m. – Xiyu Lin/In Gee Chun/Gaby Lopez
People’s Republic of China native Xiyu Lin is set to play her fourth event in five weeks in Sylvania, Ohio this week as she once again looks to capture her maiden LPGA Tour title. The 26-year-old grabbed another top-15 finish last week at the U.S. Women’s Open, ho-humming it around Pebble Beach in the final three rounds after opening with a 4-under 68 that gave her a share of the early lead. Lin boasts three top-five finishes so far this season – she recorded back-to-back T3 performances at the Meijer LPGA Classic for Simply Give and the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship – and she’ll lean on the confidence derived from those results as she prepares to play at Highland Meadows Golf Club, a venue that saw her finish T7 in 2022.
In Gee Chun wowed on Sunday at Pebble Beach, holing out on the 154-yard, par-3 5th hole to record her second ace in a major championship of the 2023 season, ultimately finishing in a tie for 27th. It’s been a rough season for the major champion who elected to take time off following the Hanwha LIFEPLUS International Crown to rehab a lingering injury. She’s had one withdrawal, missed two cuts and recorded a best finish of T18 at The Chevron Championship, a respectable showing considering it was the year’s first event at a different venue. Playing in her fourth Dana Open at Highland Meadows Golf Club, Chun hopes this week helps her finally get into gear with two major championships on tap in the next month and a half.
Gaby Lopez roared her way to her third career LPGA Tour victory at last year’s Dana Open, rolling in a lengthy birdie putt on the final green to fire a final-round 63 and defeat Megan Khang by one. She played solidly for the rest of the 2022 season, missing no cuts and grabbing another top-five finish at The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican where she finished in a tie for fourth. This year has been a bit of a different story as Lopez has only found the top 10 once, recording a T6 result at the season-opening Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, and missed four cuts in 12 total starts. Just like it did last year, though, this week’s Dana Open could serve as a turning point for the Mexico native, getting her back on track with the second half of the 2023 season looming large.
Thursday, 1:21 p.m. – Lydia Ko/Allisen Corpuz/Minjee Lee
Lydia Ko is a two-time winner of the Dana Open, taking home the title in 2014 and 2016, and has never finished outside the top 20 in the event in her seven previous appearances. This week will mark her eighth time teeing it up in Sylvania, Ohio and Ko comes to Highland Meadows looking for a massive momentum shift as the 26-year-old has struggled this year after a banner 2023 season. She’s uncharacteristically missed two cuts and recorded just one top-10 finish, a T6 at the Honda LPGA Thailand, her first event of the year. This week’s Dana Open is her third event in four weeks and Ko is looking to improve upon her T57 and T33 showings at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and U.S. Women’s Open, respectively.
Allisen Corpuz finally broke through on Sunday, becoming a Rolex First-Time Winner with her resounding three-shot victory at the U.S. Women’s Open. While most newly crowned major winners might have taken the next week off, Corpuz has chosen to ride her hot streak into the Dana Open this week and is hoping to have a better week in Sylvania this year than she did last season when she missed the cut in her debut. Even without the win, the 25-year-old has had a solid 2023, recording two top-five finishes at the HSBC Women’s World Championship (T3) and The Chevron Championship (T4) as well as a top 15 at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship (T15).
Australian Minjee Lee will play in her second consecutive Dana Open this week, fresh off a T13 showing at the U.S. Women’s Open. This is her fifth appearance at Highland Meadows, and in her four previous showings, Lee has never finished worse than T49, recording a best finish of solo fourth in 2020. Lee has finished inside the top-five once this season, earning runner-up honors after falling to Jin Young Ko in a playoff at the Cognizant Founders Cup. She also has recorded four additional top-20 finishes, all of which have come in her last four starts. Along with her T13 at Pebble Beach, Lee has grabbed two other T13 results at the Mizuho Americas Open and the Meijer LPGA Classic for Simply Give and a T20 at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.
To view all other featured groups and tee times for the 2023 Dana Open, please click here.
)
)
)
)
