The LPGA Tour kicks off its 75th season in star-studded fashion with the return of the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions. The seventh playing of this unique event, which pairs winners from the past two seasons on the LPGA Tour with celebrities from the music, entertainment and sports industries, gets underway Thursday at Lake Nona Golf and Country Club. Here is a closer look at what you need to know about the first event of the 2025 LPGA Tour season.

The Format

Players who were lucky enough to clinch a victory during the 2023 or 2024 LPGA Tour seasons are eligible to compete in the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions. This year, 32 players have committed to the field, with just five qualifiers – Mone Inami, Grace Kim, Jeeno Thitikul, Ruoning Yin and Lilia Vu – opting to skip this year’s event. Starting on Thursday, LPGA players will compete in a 72-hole, stroke-play competition for a total purse of $2 million, with the winner claiming the first official victory of the season. While the LPGA Tour’s finest are vying for the first trophy of the year, they’ll be doing so while playing alongside celebrities who are squaring off in a competition of their own. Over the four tournament days, the celebrities will compete in a points-based Stableford for a $500,000 purse.

Lydia Ko Defends

Who could have foreseen the remarkable season that would unfold following Lydia Ko’s victory 12 months ago at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions? Ko’s two-stroke victory on her home course was the first of many magical moments the New Zealand native had in 2024. Ko’s season-opening win was the first of three victories she earned last year in addition to her gold medal performance at the Paris Olympics. As the 27-year-old kicks off a new season, she will be looking to continue the consistency she has displayed over the past six months, as Ko hasn’t finished outside the top 15 on Tour since last July. En route to her victory last year at Lake Nona, Ko found 75 percent of the fairways and over 77 percent of the greens. She averaged 28.5 putts for the week.

The Field

When the entire field is made up entirely of winners, how do you determine a headliner? It’s an easy problem to have when the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions rolls around each season. This year, the field features reigning Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings No. 1 Nelly Korda, who was a seven-time winner last season, in addition to Lydia Ko, the No. 2-ranked player in the world. They’re joined by several first-time participants, including Lauren Coughlin, who made headlines with her breakout performance in 2024, in which she captured her first two LPGA Tour victories. Bailey Tardy is also making her debut at the Tournament of Champions after winning the Blue Bay LPGA. Rookie Rio Takeda, who competes on the JLPGA and earned her breakthrough victory at the TOTO Japan Classic, is also slated to compete on the heels of a standout season in which she racked up eight worldwide wins.

A pair of Aussies in Minjee Lee and Hannah Green will also make their first appearance at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions. The duo has qualified several times over for the tournament in recent seasons, but they both chose to skip the season-opening event in years past in order to allow themselves more time to return home to Australia during the off-season.

Like the Aussies, Jin Young Ko often delayed her start to the season by skipping the Tour’s first event of the year, but in 2025, she will begin her season at Lake Nona. Although Ko went without a victory on Tour in 2024, a first for the former world No. 1, who had won every year since joining the Tour in 2018, she earned a spot in this week’s field thanks to her two victories in 2023. Even though she was qualified to compete last year, Angel Yin is also making her tournament debut after missing the 2024 edition of the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions due to injury.

While there are a slew of new faces, there are also quite a few familiar names who will be kicking off their season this week at Lake Nona. Past Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions winner Brooke Henderson, as well as Megan Khang, Linn Grant, Leona Maguire and Rose Zhang, are amongst the recent winners on Tour who are returning to the field again this year.

Celebrities in the Field

There are nearly 50 stars of screen, entertainment, music and sport poised to compete in this year’s Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, including several new celebrities who will make their debut. For the first time, LPGA winners will get a chance to play alongside newcomer and actor Don Cheadle, the NBA’s Blake Griffin and J.R. Smith, soccer star Brandi Chastain, Backstreet Boys’ AJ McClean and actor Anthony Anderson. There are also plenty of fan favorites who will be teeing it up again this year at Lake Nona, including World Golf Hall of Fame member Annika Sorenstam, who calls Lake Nona home, past champion Mardy Fish, the MLB’s Aaron Hicks, actor Michael Pena and comedian Larry the Cable Guy. MLB All-Star Jeff McNeil won the celebrity division in 2024.

Nelly Korda Kicks Off Her Season

After Mickey Wright set the record for the most wins in a year with 13 victories during the 1963 season, Wright managed to back that up with 11 victories the following year. How will Korda follow her seven-win season in 2024? She’ll begin to answer that question come Thursday when she tees it up in the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions. This season, Korda will look to build on what was a banner 2024, in which she not only won five events in five consecutive starts but also picked up her second major title at The Chevron Championship and took home Rolex Player of the Year honors for the first time in her career. There are few events in which Korda has played as well as she has at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions and not gone on to win. In her six prior starts at the season-opener, she has five consecutive top 10s, including four top-four finishes. Her worst result in the event is a tie for 16th that came in 2024.

Five Things to Know About the 2025 Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions

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