The Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions in Orlando, Fla., marks the start of the 2025 season on the LPGA Tour. This week’s field is comprised of 32 LPGA Tour winners, who have captured titles over the last two years, and 51 celebrities, who are competing in their own points-based Stableford competition.

The 2024 season had a slew of great storylines and was chock full of incredible moments produced both by some of the game’s greatest superstars and new faces that fans might not have immediately recognized. With Nelly Korda collecting seven victories, five of which came consecutively, and Lydia Ko taking gold at the Paris Olympics to gain automatic entry into the LPGA Hall of Fame, plus athletes like Lauren Coughlin and Hannah Green having multiple-win 2024 campaigns, there are plenty of players to keep an eye on as the calendar flips to a fresh 2025 schedule.

Who will wind up making the biggest impact in 2025? It’s anyone’s bet at this point, but the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions provides a perfect starting place for the world’s top talent to toe the line and begin a sprint to the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship.

Take a look at three players who have a good chance of making an early statement at Lake Nona:

Nelly Korda
Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings No. 1 Nelly Korda is the clear favorite this week at Lake Nona Golf and Country Club. The 26-year-old is coming off a banner 2024 season that saw her collect a whopping seven victories, five of which came in five consecutive starts and one of which was her second career major title at The Chevron Championship, a season-long performance that earned Korda both Rolex Player of the Year honors and the Rolex ANNIKA Major Award.

In her six prior appearances at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, Korda has racked up four T4 or better results, only finishing outside the top 10 once, and she has also captured a win at Lake Nona in previous seasons, doing so in 2021 when the Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio was hosted at the venue.

Looking at Korda’s past couple of performances at this course through a statistical lens, the 15-time LPGA Tour winner ranked sixth in strokes gained ball striking per round in 2023 (+1.04) and led the field in that same metric in 2024 (+2.15) despite recording her worst career finish in the event last season. It was her putting that ultimately kept her from victory, as Korda finished last in the field in strokes gained putting (-2.06), something she quickly rectified before winning the first of her seven titles in 2024 the very next week at the LPGA Drive On Championship.

At the end of last year, Korda ranked in the top 25 of four major strokes gained categories, most notably leading in strokes gained off the tee (+0.88) and sitting at third in strokes gained around the green (+0.43). She was also ranked first in strokes gained total (+2.44), percentage of rounds in the 60s (63.2 percent) and par-4 scoring average (3.96). A combination of scoring ability and excellent ball-striking should set the world No. 1 up for more success at Lake Nona this week if she can bring some heat with her putter, making Korda an easy pick to win the season-opening Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions.

Lydia Ko
Lydia Ko is right behind Korda in terms of winning probability, as the Lake Nona member captured the 2024 edition of this event last season. Ko won by two shots over Alexa Pano in Orlando, Fla., to collect what was her 20th career LPGA Tour title in just her third career start in the year’s first tournament. The victory was her third top-10 result in the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions as Ko also finished solo eighth in her debut in 2019 when the event was contested at Four Season Golf and Sports Club and tied for 10th in 2022 at Lake Nona.

The LPGA Hall of Fame member was firing on all cylinders en route to victory last year, leading the field in strokes gained approach (+1.36) and co-leading in par-4 scoring (3.83), additionally ranking second in putts per green in regulation (1.70) and strokes gained ball-striking (+1.76). Those trends continued for Ko throughout the rest of the year, as she was one of only three players who finished the 2024 season ranked in the top 20 of both strokes gained approach and strokes gained putting, sitting at 17th and 14th in those two categories, respectively.

Considering her familiarity with the layout and her ability to create and capitalize on birdie opportunities, Ko would be another reliable choice as she works to defend her title at home.

Alexa Pano
Going a bit further down the field list, Alexa Pano might be considered a bit of a longshot at Lake Nona Golf and Country Club, but don’t count the Florida native out at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions. The young talent made her debut in this event last season after winning the 2023 ISPS Handa World Invitational and finished solo second, posting a four-day total of 12-under to sit just two strokes behind champion Lydia Ko.

She carded rounds of 69-70-67-70 to earn her season-best result and led the field in both strokes gained tee-to-green and strokes gained around the green in her runner-up performance. Pano was also fourth in scrambling, getting up and down after missing the green in regulation 79.2 percent of the time.

While her year-long statistics from the 2024 season aren’t particularly stellar, Pano is a Floridian and has extensive knowledge of how to succeed on these types of golf courses, giving this dark horse some threatening potential this week at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions.

Players to Watch: 2025 Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions

Related Articles