With April brings the beginning of majors' season in world golf; the Masters signalling the start of this year’s haul, as the top players look to hit peak form for the most coveted prizes in the game.
And while it was the men who kicked things off for 2023 in Augusta as Jon Rahm donned the green jacket in the Butler Cabin, this week it is time for the women to compete for the year’s opener.
All roads lead to Texas, and to The Club at Carlton Woods to be precise, for the Chevron Championship with a purse of over US$5million to play for in the opening major.
The first of five, compared to the traditional four of the men’s game, the Chevron is perhaps the least prestigious of the women’s collective, in terms of purse, at least – the US Women’s Open prize money is almost double – yet a tournament to attract the world’s finest and the perfect barometer to gauge where the main contenders are likely to come from as the season progresses.
Only two years since the current sponsors have taken over the tournament, the first major was previously known as the ANA Inspiration; before that, the Nabisco, and going back to the Women’s Western Open, which was the first major, dating back to 1930, predating the LPGA, which was established in 1950.
The 2022 event was played at the traditional location for the opening major, Mission Hills in California, so it is the first time that the tournament will be played at the Texas location. Jennifer Kupcho was last year’s winner, securing her maiden major, beating Jessica Korda by two shots.
World number one Lydia Ko would appear to be the one to beat this year with the aforementioned Korda’s sister Nelly the current second best player in the world; Jin Young Ko, Minjee Lee and Atthaya Thitikul make up the top five in the world rankings.
The Club is a relatively new parkland track just an hour from Houston – it opened in 2001 - and this week’s tournament takes place on the Jack Nicklaus Signature Course, which measures just over 6,800 yards.
There are two Irish involved in this year’s field with Leona Maguire and Stephanie Meadow in the hunt for this year’s title.
Maguire started the year ranked 11th in the world, however, she has since dropped four places having played just three tournaments since the start of March.
A disappointing joint 66th finish in her last outing at the Dio Implant LA Open at the start of the month, yet no cause for concern for the Slieve Russell star who already has two top-ten finishes from five LPGA starts this year.
Maguire has already enjoyed 16 top-ten finishes on the LPGA Tour and secured her maiden victory in 2022 at the LPGA Drive On Championship, when she became the first Irish golfer to win on the LPGA Tour.
The next step in the remarkable career of the former amateur world number one will be to target a major victory, having already enjoyed three top-ten finishes at the majors in recent years – Maguire finished in a tie for fourth place at last year’s Women’s Open.
Meadow is currently ranked 140th in the world and has shown glimpses of the form that saw her burst onto the professional scene with a third-place finish at the US Women’s Open in 2014.
The Jordanstown native enjoyed a top-25 finish on the LPGA Tour last month and finished in a tie for 31st at the Lotte Championship last weekend.
Two-time Olympian, Meadow’s best finish at the opening major came in 2021 when she ended in a tie for 19th.
Meadow is the first of the Irish duo to get going on Thursday as she tees it up alongside South Korea’s Mi Hyang Lee and Mao Saigo from Japan at 2:43pm (Irish time).
Maguire is among the later starters in the opening round and the Cavan native goes out at 7:21pm, playing with world number nine Hyo Joo Kim from South Korea and South Africa’s Paula Reto.
