Five Things to Know About the 2025 Chevron Championship

Credit: Amy Rogers

It’s been eight, long months since the last major championship was played on the LPGA Tour. But the wait is finally over as The Chevron Championship gets underway this week and ushers in the start of the 2025 women’s major season. For the third consecutive year, the championship will be played at The Club at Carlton Woods in the Woodlands, Texas, which is a 40-minute drive north of Houston. That’s where 132 of the best players in women’s golf will compete for a $8 million purse and a chance to hoist the Dinah Shore Trophy. Here’s a closer look at what you need to know about the first major of the year.

Korda Defends

Nelly Korda’s epic run of golf at the beginning of the 2024 LPGA Tour season came to a thrilling culmination at The Chevron Championship. With her victory at the season’s first major, Korda made history as she joined Nancy Lopez and Annika Sorenstam as the only players to have won five consecutive events in five consecutive starts on the LPGA Tour. Korda’s win also marked her second career major title after she recorded rounds of 68-69-69-69 to win by two strokes ahead of Maja Stark. It wasn’t the first time that Korda played well at The Club at Carlton Woods, though, as she finished just one stroke shy of getting into the playoff with Angel Yin and eventual champion Lilia Vu in 2023. This year, Korda returns to The Woodlands, Texas in search of her first win of the season having finished T16 in her last start at the JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro.

The Field

Korda headlines a field that features two dozen major champions, winners already this season on the LPGA Tour and several players who have contended over the past two years at The Club at Carlton Woods, all of whom are eager to put that experience to work in pursuit of a major win.

Jeeno Thitikul comes into The Chevron Championship as the highest-ranked player in the world who has yet to win a major championship. She’s also one of the hottest players in the game in recent weeks having earned five top 10s in the early part of the season. Thitikul held the third-round lead at The Chevron Championship last season before play was suspended due to severe weather in the area and ultimately finished 12th for the week. Thitikul also finished tied for fourth in 2023 and will be leaning on that past success in pursuit of her first major title.

Maja Stark, who finished runner-up to Korda last season, is back in the field and will make her first start since the T-Mobile Match Play presented by MGM Rewards, where she recorded her first top 10 of the season. Lauren Coughlin and Brooke Henderson, who shared third place last year at The Chevron Championship, are also competing again this year. In 2024, Coughlin opened with a round of 66 to vault up the leaderboard, and the top finish became a springboard to a breakout season in which Coughlin won twice. Henderson also had a hot round in Houston, but hers came during the third round last year when she carded a 64 to jump into contention.

Angel Yin and Yealimi Noh have already hoisted trophies this year on the LPGA Tour but are both in pursuit of a first major victory. In 2023, Yin came close to a major breakthrough when she lost in a playoff to Lilia Vu at The Chevron Championship. Albane Valenzuela, who was tied for fourth that year, is also in the field.

Chasing History

For several players in the field, a victory at The Chevron Championship carries much more weight than just a major title, as many athletes have a chance to pick up a third or even fourth leg of the career Grand Slam with a win in Houston. The LPGA Tour has five major championships, but the organization considers a player who has won four of the five different majors available to her during her career as having completed the Career Grand Slam. If an athlete were to win all five majors, that player would be considered to have completed the Super Career Grand Slam. The five current major championships are The Chevron Championship, U.S. Women’s Open, KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, AIG Women’s Open, and The Amundi Evian Championship.

Brooke Henderson, a two-time major champion with victories at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and Amundi Evian Championship, could pick up the third leg of the Slam with a win this week. The same goes for Minjee Lee, winner of the U.S. Women’s Open and Amundi Evian Championship.

For In Gee Chun and Anna Nordqvist, each could complete the Career Grand Slam with a win at The Club at Carlton Woods. In Gee Chun has already captured the U.S. Women’s Open, KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and Amundi Evian Championship, and Nordqvist secured the first three legs of the Career Grand Slam with her win at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, AIG Women’s Open and Amundi Evian Championship.

Past Champions

There are 11 past champions of The Chevron Championship who are returning to The Club at Carlton Woods. Vu was the first to win the championship in its new home in Houston in 2023 and will tee it up on the course for the first time since her victory, as she was unable to defend her title in 2024 when she withdrew prior to the start of the first round with a back injury.

Also in the field is Lydia Ko, who hoisted the trophy in 2016 and is already a winner early this season in Singapore, recording two additional top 10s this year. Ko finished tied for 17th here last season. Lexi Thompson, who won in 2014, and Brittany Lincicome, who announced her retirement last year, are also back in the field. Lincicome is a two-time winner of The Chevron Championship, with victories in 2009 and 2013. Other past champions in the field include Stacy Lewis (2010), Yani Tseng (2011), Pernilla Lindberg (2018), Jin Young Ko (2019), Patty Tavatanakit (2019) and Jennifer Kupcho (2022).

Continuing a Tradition

The long history of welcoming amateurs to the field at The Chevron Championship continues again this season as exemptions were extended to eight of the best female amateurs.

Carla Bernat Escuder, winner of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, will make her Chevron Championship debut on the heels of her victory a couple of weeks ago. Asterisk Talley, who was runner-up to Bernat Escuder at Augusta National Golf Club, will compete on the LPGA Tour for the second consecutive week, having also teed it up last week at the JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro.

World Amateur Golf Rankings No. 1 and 2024 ANWA winner Lotte Woad returns to the field again this season, looking to build on her top-25 finish in Houston last year. Also receiving invites are Clarisa Temelo, the reigning Women’s Amateur Latin America champion, and Jeneath Wong, the current Women’s Asia Amateur Pacific champion. Chayse Gomez, Jasmine Koo and Gianna Clemente are also set to tee it up in The Woodlands, Texas.