KPMG After five decades of memories and traditions built at Mission Hills Country Club, a new era of The Chevron Championship began last week at The Club at Carlton Woods in The Woodlands, Texas. If the opening act is any indication, the next chapter of the championship will be every bit as interesting as the last.

A whopping 16 players entered Sunday at or within five shots of the lead, all but guaranteeing a volatile Sunday leaderboard at Carlton Woods. Birdies by Lilia Vu at 17 and 18 put her in the clubhouse lead at 10-under, where she waited on a playoff against Angel Yin. Her birdie putt on the first playoff hole made her the sixth consecutive first-time major winner at The Chevron Championship.

With 13 top-20 finishes in her last 14 LPGA Tour starts, Vu’s victory capped off a long run of consistently good play. The win moved her to fourth in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings, up 145 spots from this time one year ago.

Lilia Vu’s Sunday Charge

Though she was just four shots off the lead, a bunched leaderboard meant that Lilia Vu started the final round in a tie for 11th. To leapfrog that many players in the final round to win a major championship isn’t just rare – it hadn’t happened in a generation. Vu was the first player to start the final round of a major outside the top 10 and come back to win since 1988, when Sherri Turner was tied for 11th through 54 holes of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.

Even in a regular LPGA Tour event, coming back from outside the top 10 on Sunday to win is a rarity. Vu’s victory marked just the fifth time since 2010 – a span of more than 350 official events – where a winner on the LPGA Tour was outside the top 10 through 54 holes. In fact, Vu entered the final round with just a 3% chance of winning the tournament.

Value of Finding Fairways

Entering last week, players who missed the fairway on par 4s and 5s had hit the green in regulation 51.6% of the time on the LPGA Tour in 2023. A missed fairway was significantly more penalizing last week in The Woodlands, with that number dropping down to 36.8%. Perhaps no player’s performance better emphasized that course trait than our champion.

Vu hit 45 of 56 fairways for the week in regulation. On the holes where she found the fairway, she went on to hit the green in regulation 84.4% of the time, playing those holes in 8-under. The 11 times she missed the fairway, she hit the green only twice – and was a combined 5-over-par. Vu was also a field-best 7-under-par on the par 3s, further emphasizing her success when she had a clean approach shot. Vu’s last two approach shots in regulation on 17 and 18 combined to gain more than a full stroke on the field.

Lights out on the Greens

Vu’s run of 13 top-20 finishes in her last 14 LPGA starts has coincided with her becoming, according to the KPMG Performance Insights, the best putter on the LPGA Tour. Since last August’s CP Women’s Open, Vu leads the tour in strokes gained putting per round, picking up more than a stroke per round on the field. In Sunday’s final round, Vu racked up more than 2.5 strokes gained putting, her best performance of the week.

For the season, Vu is making 64.2% of her putts from 5 to 10 feet, a clip 7% better than the LPGA Tour average. From 10 to 20 feet, she’s making 30.4%, while the Tour makes 24.0%. It’s no wonder she hit the winning putt in the playoff with such speed and confidence.

A Scrambling Clinic from Angel Yin

Our other playoff qualifier, Angel Yin, would not have been that close to her first victory without an exceptional performance around the greens. Yin led the field in scrambling for the week, getting up and down 18 of 21 times. That included a perfect 11-for-11 on the back nine up until a bogey at 16 on Sunday slipped her back into a tie with the clubhouse leader, Vu. For the season, Yin is now averaging 0.83 strokes gained around the green per round, best of any player with 10 or more rounds in the books.

Another High Finish for Nelly Korda

Nelly Korda’s eagle on the 72nd hole ended a frustrating finishing day on the greens at Carlton Woods. Korda’s 38-foot bomb to finish the day was longer than the other eight putts she made on the back nine combined (18 feet), and the only one she made on the back side longer than four feet. She hit 13 of her first 17 greens in regulation Sunday but converted only one of those opportunities into birdie – a 24-foot make on the fifth hole.

Korda’s solo third-place finish marks the fifth time since the beginning of 2019 she has finished in the top three in a major championship. That’s the most such finishes of any player in that span. Her performance also moved her back to the No. 1 spot in the Rolex Rankings, her 32nd career week in the top spot – most all-time of any American player.

Awesome Atthaya Thitikul

Though she didn’t have the ideal finish to the week, Atthaya Thitikul again showed why she will be a force in the game’s biggest championships for years to come. Her tie for fourth place made her the only player to finish in the top 10 in each of the last four LPGA Tour majors contested. Thitikul is a combined 29-under-par in those four championships, three shots better than any other player in that span.

Maybe the most impressive thing about Thitikul statistically is how balanced she is through the bag despite being so young. Since the beginning of 2022, the 20-year-old ranks inside the top 10 on the LPGA Tour among qualified players in both strokes gained ball striking and putting. It’s added up to 58 rounds in the 60s over the last two seasons, most of any player in that span.

The season’s next women’s major – the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship – begins June 22 on the Lower Course at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J.

Behind the Leaderboard – The Chevron Championship

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