SAMMAMISH, Wash. — The 2024 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship is being contested at Sahalee Country Club, a visually intimidating major test that will be a challenge for the world’s best players this week in Sammamish, Wash. Difficult conditions are often the great equalizer at major championships, leveling the playing field for the 156 athletes competing, but some players still have slight statistical advantages on which they hope to capitalize as they work to capture some of the biggest titles in all of women’s golf.
Take a look at just a few of those athletes teeing it up this week at Sahalee for the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship:
Allisen Corpuz
Allisen Corpuz currently leads the LPGA Tour in driving accuracy this season, hitting the fairway off the tee 86.6 percent of the time, a number that equates to her finding the short grass on 518 of 598 total drives. Sahalee has incredibly narrow visuals off the tee, views that are intimidating to even the most storied of LPGA Tour veterans. But with tee shots that fly as straight as those of Corpuz, the Hawaii native should be able to consistently find the fairway throughout the course of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, something that should translate to more hit greens in regulation and birdie opportunities for the 26-year-old.
According to KPMG Performance Insights, Corpuz has struck the ball well in major championships over the last two seasons, ranking fifth in strokes gained ball striking (+1.46), sixth in strokes gained approach (+1.06) and sixth in strokes gained total since the major season began in 2023. She became a Rolex First-Time Winner at the U.S. Women’s Open at Pebble Beach Golf Links last July and finished in the top 15 of three other major championships last season – tying for fourth at The Chevron Championship, tying for 15th at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and tying for sixth at the AIG Women’s Open.
Her 2023 major prowess hasn’t yet translated to the 2024 season, but considering her success at some of golf’s most challenging venues, Corpuz is a player who shouldn’t be left out of the contention conversation this week in Washington.
Brooke Henderson
Brooke Henderson might seem like an obvious player to watch at Sahalee Country Club, particularly as she won the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship the last time the championship was contested at this venue in 2016. But her statistics indicate that a third major title could be just around the corner for the Canadian, and why couldn’t it come at a place at which Henderson has a resoundingly positive history?
According to KPMG Performance Insights, the 26-year-old leads in strokes gained total per round in all major championships since the beginning of the 2021 season, picking up an average of 2.15 shots on the field in each round of the LPGA Tour’s five major tournaments in the last four years. In that span, Henderson has won her second career major title at the 2022 Amundi Evian Championship and earned an additional nine top-15 finishes, one of which came earlier this season when she tied for third at The Chevron Championship. She is also at the front of the pack in major championships when it comes to scoring average and score to par, recording a 70.60 stroke average and shooting 59 under par across the 17 majors that have been played since the start of the 2021 LPGA Tour season.
As it pertains to Sahalee, Henderson is fairly long and fairly accurate off the tee, hitting it an average of 264.375 yards with her driver and finding the fairway 74.1 percent of the time while doing so. She is ranked ninth in strokes gained driving (+0.63), 10th in strokes gained total (+1.39) and 17th in strokes gained tee to green (+1.14) on the LPGA Tour so far this season, per data provided by KPMG Performance Insights. Couple that excellent ball-striking with a venue at which Henderson knows how to win, and the Canadian just might be deadly this week at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.
Rose Zhang
Rose Zhang recently collected her second career LPGA Tour title last month at the Cognizant Founders Cup, winning by two shots over Madelene Sagstrom at Upper Montclair Country Club in Clifton, N.J. While it doesn’t even slightly compare to the narrowness that Zhang and the rest of the field are facing off the tee this week at Sahalee Country Club, Upper Montclair is quite tight in spots, making her recent success in the Garden State a potential weapon for Zhang to wield in Washington State.
Zhang ranks 16th on the LPGA Tour in driving accuracy, hitting 279 of her 350 total fairways this season, a conversion rate of 79.7 percent. According to KPMG Performance Insights, the 21-year-old is tied for fifth in most strokes gained tee to green per round in major championships over the last two seasons, as Zhang has picked up 1.62 shots on the field with her long game. Additionally, Zhang is ranked second in strokes gained approach (+1.34), third in strokes gained total (+1.98) and fifth in strokes gained tee to green (+1.46) so far this year, an amalgamation of stats that could be a deadly combination at a course like Sahalee that requires precise ball striking.
The Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings No. 9 is another player who seems to thrive in difficult conditions, as Zhang finished in a tie for eighth at last year’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Baltusrol Golf Club’s Lower Course and then tied for ninth at the U.S. Women’s Open at Pebble Beach Golf Links, and she just might contend again this week at Sahalee considering that fact.
Madelene Sagstrom
It was Madelene Sagstrom who went toe-to-toe with Zhang last month in New Jersey, and while the Swede ultimately fell to the American at the Cognizant Founders Cup, her performance in the Garden State could be a good indicator of how she fares this week at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. Even though Sahalee is much narrower off the tee than Upper Montclair, her ability to keep the ball in the fairway that week led to a litany of birdie and eagle opportunities, many of which the 31-year-old took advantage of en route to posting a four-round total of 22-under to finish 13 strokes ahead of her next closest competitor.
Sahalee likely won’t be giving up that many shots to the 156-player field this week, but Sagstrom is a player who, on paper, just might be able to throw a few punches at this formidable venue. She isn’t exceptional when it comes to driving accuracy, only finding the fairway 66.9 percent of the time off the tee, but Sagstrom does rank 10th on the LPGA Tour in average driving distance (273.640 yards), length that is typically a benefit during major championships. She is also ranked 12th in strokes gained driving, according to KPMG Performance Insights, picking up 0.59 shots on the field with her shots off the tee.
Sagstrom has also been deadly with her putter this year, ranking fifth on the LPGA Tour in strokes gained putting (+0.96), and if she can combine solid ball striking with a hot putter, we might see the Swede contend for her second career LPGA Tour title at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.
)
)
)
)
