As Rory McIlroy makes his first appearance since achieving the career Grand Slam at the Masters, the golf world`s attention this week shifts to the LPGA Tour. The sport`s top female players are set to compete in the Chevron Championship, marking the first major tournament of the season.
World number one Nelly Korda is aiming to defend her title at The Club at Carlton Woods in The Woodlands, Texas. Last year, Korda joined an elite group, becoming only the third player in LPGA history, alongside Nancy Lopez and Annika Sörenstam, to win five consecutive starts. Korda is still seeking her first victory of the current year.
Following his playoff win against Justin Rose at Augusta National, McIlroy is back in action at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. This event is unique on the PGA Tour schedule as its only team competition.
McIlroy and his partner, Shane Lowry, are attempting to become the first pair to successfully defend their title at the Zurich Classic since the team format was adopted in 2017.
The LIV Golf League also resumes play this week at Club De Golf Chapultepec in Mexico City, starting Friday.
Here’s a look at the key storylines in golf this week:
Korda`s Major Defense
A year ago, when Korda arrived at the Chevron Championship, she had already secured four wins that season. She added a fifth with a two-stroke victory over Maja Stark, claiming her second career major title. Korda went on to win seven times in 2024, including the Mizuho Americas Open in May and The Annika in November.
This season, Korda is still searching for her initial win in her sixth start. She finished as the runner-up in the season-opening Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions in early February and tied for seventh at the Founders Cup.
“I would say last year is last year,” Korda commented. “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.”
Korda feels her iron play improved after tying for 16th at 14 under in last week`s JM Eagle LA Championship at El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana, California. She is now hoping her putting will return to form.
“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.”
Earlier this month, Korda shared that she relaxes by building Lego sets. Last week, she completed a McLaren Formula 1 set given to her by a fan, as well as a Simba model from `The Lion King`.
“Going to make my dad do LEGOs with me this week,” Korda said. “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.”
Happy to Be There
Lilia Vu, the champion of the 2023 Chevron Championship, wasn`t sure if she would ever play golf again after withdrawing from the first major last year due to a back injury. Vu revealed on Tuesday that before her withdrawal prior to the first round, she couldn`t even hit a ball 40 yards on the driving range.
“I think last year I was so much in panic with would I ever play a golf round again, let alone a tournament round?” Vu stated. “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.”
Vu described her extended break from competitive golf as the “hardest two months” of her life. She spent time reading and listening to audiobooks during her recovery. She also missed the U.S. Women`s Open before returning to tie for second place at both the Women`s PGA Championship and the Women`s British Open.
“Just tried my best to become a better person,” Vu said. “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.”
“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
Former two-time NCAA Division I national champion Rose Zhang will miss her second consecutive tournament as she recovers from a neck injury. The injury occurred during her first-round match at the T-Mobile Match Play in Las Vegas on April 3, forcing her to withdraw from her second-round match.
In an Instagram post on April 6, Zhang wrote: “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.”
Zhang is currently finishing her studies at Stanford, which has limited her LPGA appearances to just three events this year. She tied for 10th in the Tournament of Champions and missed the cut at the Ford Championship in late March.
Her return to competition date remains uncertain.
Lindblad`s Rapid Success
After securing her first LPGA victory in only her third start as a rookie at last week`s JM Eagle LA Championship, former LSU standout Ingrid Lindblad received a couple of unexpected direct messages on Instagram.
One message came from Annika Sörenstam, a 10-time major champion, and the other from Suzann Pettersen, the recent European Solheim Cup team captain.
“Couple of bigger names, in my opinion, that kind of congratulated me,” Lindblad shared. “Pretty cool. Your name is out there. You`re not a total stranger.”
It might not be long before Lindblad becomes a widely recognized name in women`s professional golf. She finished as the runner-up at the 2022 Augusta National Women`s Amateur and held the number one spot in the World Amateur Golf Ranking for 53 weeks.
In the 2022 U.S. Women`s Open at Pine Needles Lodge and Golf Club, she shot a 6-under 65 in the first round, setting a record for the lowest score by an amateur in the event. She finished tied for 11th at 1 under. Last year, Lindblad tied for 26th at 5 under in the Amundi Evian Championship.
Lindblad, who is from Sweden, earned her LPGA card after just nine starts on the Epson Tour last year.
The congratulatory messages from Sörenstam and Pettersen weren`t her only surprises since her win on Sunday.
“I`m supposed to pay for one bag when I fly Delta,” Lindblad recounted. “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 Unlikely Assist
After ending a nearly three-year victory drought on the PGA Tour with his win at last week`s RBC Heritage, Justin Thomas provided reporters with an unexpected answer when asked about his significant improvement in putting this season.
He credited fellow two-time major champion Xander Schauffele for helping him turn things around. Towards the end of last year, Thomas asked Schauffele to play a practice round near their homes in Jupiter, Florida.
“You guys obviously know Xander, but he doesn`t leave any box unchecked,” Thomas said. “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.”
What Thomas realized was that he lacked a consistent “home base” or routine when practicing his putting.
A year ago, Thomas ranked 174th on tour in strokes gained: putting (minus-.478). This season, he has improved dramatically, ranking 24th in that statistic (.459) and finishing seventh in the field over 72 holes at Hilton Head Island.
“I think more than anything, it was just sort of he was searching and maybe trying too hard,” Schauffele commented. “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.`”
“[I] felt like all the answers were right in front of him. JT is so good that he figured it out pretty quickly.”
JT Sticks With His Caddie
While securing his first tour win since the 2022 PGA Championship, Thomas was assisted by Max Homa`s former caddie, Joe Greiner. However, Thomas confirmed on SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio on Monday that his regular caddie, Matt “Rev” Minister, will return to his bag once he recovers from a back injury.
“We all knew that going in — it was very much a fill-in situation,” Thomas stated. “We were so lucky that Joe was available until Rev got healthy.”
