The professional golf spotlight shifts to the LPGA Tour this week with the Chevron Championship, the first major of the season, while Rory McIlroy makes his return to the course following his recent career Grand Slam completion at the Masters.
World No. 1 Nelly Korda will defend her title at The Club at Carlton Woods in The Woodlands, Texas. Last year, Korda matched LPGA legends Nancy Lopez and Annika Sörenstam with a streak of five consecutive wins, culminating in her victory here. However, she is still searching for her first win of the current year.
Following his playoff win against Justin Rose at Augusta National, McIlroy is scheduled to compete in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, the only team event on the PGA Tour.
McIlroy and his playing partner, Shane Lowry, will aim to become the first pair to successfully defend their Zurich Classic title since the team format was adopted in 2017.
The LIV Golf League is also back in action this week at Club De Golf Chapultepec in Mexico City.
Korda`s Major Defense
Reflecting on last year, Nelly Korda arrived at the Chevron Championship having already won four times that season. Her victory here marked her fifth straight win and second career major. She went on to secure seven wins throughout 2024.
This season, Korda is making her sixth start without a victory yet. Her results include a runner-up finish at the season-opening Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions and a tie for seventh at the Founders Cup.
Korda commented on her current status: “I would say last year is last year. This is a brand new year. What I achieved last year, no one can take that from me. That`s always going to be such a great memory, but it`s a fresh week and fresh mindset.”
She feels her iron play improved last week but notes her putting is not yet at the level it was last year.
“I think that`s where it`s been lacking, is the putts that I was making last year,” Korda explained. “I`m just not making as many this year, but that`s just golf. I`ve gone through waves like this before, and if I just continue working at it, hopefully it does click.”
Away from the course, Korda finds relaxation in building Lego sets, recently completing a McLaren Formula 1 set and a Simba model from `The Lion King.`
She plans to use this hobby to de-stress during the tournament week: “Going to make my dad do LEGOs with me this week. Maybe do some games. We both are really competitive. Something we always played together, Sequence. I think I am going to pick that up. Stuff like that gets my mind off it.”
Vu`s Happy Return
Lilia Vu, the defending Chevron Championship winner from 2023, shared her concerns about ever playing golf competitively again after withdrawing from last year`s tournament due to a back injury. At the time, she revealed she couldn`t hit a ball further than 40 yards.
Vu reflected on her panic: “I think last year I was so much in panic with would I ever play a golf round again, let alone a tournament round? At that point, you think about different things. Not even defending that tournament; I can`t even play one hole, so that was kind of going through my mind. It was a good time to reevaluate everything.”
She described her two-month absence as the “hardest two months” of her life, spent reading and listening to audiobooks during her recovery. She missed the U.S. Women`s Open but had a strong return later in the season with runner-up finishes at the Women`s PGA Championship and Women`s British Open.
“Just tried my best to become a better person,” Vu stated. “That`s all I could improve at that point. Physically, I was trying my best with [physical therapy] and learning how to breathe correctly and fixing my posture, the way I sit.”
She sees the injury as a catalyst for positive change: “Just a whole kind of life change I would say. I think everything happens for a reason, and I think that needed to happen so that I could have more body awareness.”
Zhang on the Mend
Rose Zhang, a former two-time NCAA Division I national champion, will miss her second consecutive event as she recovers from a neck injury suffered during her first-round match at the T-Mobile Match Play in early April, which forced her withdrawal from that event.
Zhang shared an update on Instagram, writing, “Safe to say, things haven`t been too hot for me in the golf realm and I found myself struggling to compete in high spirits due to an injury. Just remember, this isn`t a sob story. While this period is unique and frustrating, I find great optimism in getting better and working hard to compete at the highest level.”
Still finishing her studies at Stanford, Zhang has had a limited LPGA schedule this year, playing only three events with a T10 finish and a missed cut.
Her timetable for returning to competition is currently uncertain.
Lindblad`s Fast Success
Ingrid Lindblad, a rookie fresh off her first LPGA victory in just her third start at last week`s JM Eagle LA Championship, received some surprising messages afterward.
Among the notable direct messages on Instagram were congratulations from golf legends Annika Sörenstam and Suzann Pettersen.
“Couple of bigger names, in my opinion, that kind of congratulated me,” Lindblad said, adding, “Pretty cool. Your name is out there. You`re not a total stranger.”
Given her impressive amateur background, which includes a runner-up finish at the Augusta National Women`s Amateur and holding the World Amateur Golf Ranking No. 1 spot for 53 weeks, Lindblad is quickly becoming a recognized name.
She holds an amateur scoring record at the U.S. Women`s Open, carding a first-round 65 in 2022 and finishing tied for 11th. Last year, she tied for 26th at the Amundi Evian Championship.
The Swedish pro earned her LPGA card rapidly last year, needing only nine starts on the Epson Tour.
Beyond the congratulatory messages, she also encountered a pleasant surprise while traveling.
Lindblad shared, “I`m supposed to pay for one bag when I fly Delta. They waived my baggage fee and I`m like, `Alright.` But I don`t know if that was me or they did something wrong.`”
Schauffele`s Unexpected Putting Help
After claiming his first PGA Tour win in nearly three years at last week`s RBC Heritage, Justin Thomas provided a surprising reason for his significant putting improvement this season.
He credited advice from fellow competitor Xander Schauffele. Thomas sought Schauffele`s help near the end of last year, arranging a practice round near their homes in Florida.
Thomas commented on Schauffele`s detail-oriented approach: “You guys obviously know Xander, but he doesn`t leave any box unchecked. Like he said that day, he`s like, `If it has anything to do with you potentially improving in golf, I`ve probably done it or tried it.` So I just was talking to him about this process and how he reads greens and how he sees things and his practice and everything.”
Through their discussion, Thomas realized he lacked a consistent approach or “home base” for his putting practice.
The impact is clear in his stats: Thomas has climbed from 174th in strokes gained: putting last season to 24th this year, and he finished seventh in the field in putting at the RBC Heritage.
Schauffele offered his perspective on Thomas`s struggles: “I think more than anything, it was just sort of he was searching and maybe trying too hard. He`s done so many good things in the past that it was sort of like maybe an eye-opening. Sort of like, `I used to do, three, four, five of the things we were talking about, and I stopped doing them because I was down this crazy rabbit hole of trying to get better.`”
He felt the solutions were straightforward: “[I] felt like all the answers were right in front of him. JT is so good that he figured it out pretty quickly.”
JT Sticking with Regular Caddie
Although Justin Thomas won the RBC Heritage with Joe Greiner, formerly Max Homa`s caddie, he confirmed that his regular caddie, Matt `Rev` Minister, will return once he recovers from a back injury.
Speaking on SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio, Thomas clarified the situation: “We all knew that going in — it was very much a fill-in situation. We were so lucky that Joe was available until Rev got healthy.”
