As Rory McIlroy makes his return to competitive play following his career Grand Slam victory at the Masters, the focus of the professional golf world shifts to the LPGA Tour this week. The top female golfers are set to compete in the Chevron Championship, marking the first major tournament of the season.
World number one Nelly Korda will aim to defend her title at The Club at Carlton Woods in The Woodlands, Texas. Last year, Korda joined the elite company of Nancy Lopez and Annika Sörenstam by winning five consecutive starts on the LPGA Tour. Korda has not yet secured a win this season.
McIlroy, who defeated Justin Rose in a playoff at Augusta National, will be participating in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. This event is unique on the PGA Tour schedule as its only team format competition.
Partnered with Shane Lowry, McIlroy will attempt to become the first pair to successfully defend their title at the Zurich Classic since the team format was introduced in 2017.
Additionally, the LIV Golf League resumes action this week at Club De Golf Chapultepec in Mexico City, starting on Friday.
Here`s a closer look at key storylines in golf this week:
Korda`s Title Defense at the First Major
Upon arriving at the Chevron Championship last year, Nelly Korda had already claimed four victories that season, culminating in her fifth win and second career major title with a two-stroke lead over Maja Stark. Korda went on to win a total of seven times in 2024, including the Mizuho Americas Open and The Annika events.
This season, Korda is still seeking her first victory in her sixth event. Her best finishes so far include a runner-up spot at the season-opening Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions in early February and a tie for seventh place 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 expressed optimism about her iron play after finishing tied for 16th at 14 under par at last week`s JM Eagle LA Championship. She is now focusing on getting her putting performance back to its peak.
“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 enjoys building Lego sets to relax outside of golf. Recently, she finished a McLaren Formula 1 set given to her by a fan, along with a model of Simba from `The Lion King`.
“Going to make my dad do LEGOs with me this week,” Korda mentioned. “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 Gratitude for Being Able to Compete
Lilia Vu, the champion of the 2023 Chevron Championship, revealed she had doubts about her ability to play golf again after withdrawing from last year`s first major due to a back injury. Vu shared on Tuesday that she was unable to hit a ball further than 40 yards on the practice range before her withdrawal prior to the opening round.
“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 said. “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 competition 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 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.”
“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 Recovering from Injury
Two-time former 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 commented: “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 completing her studies at Stanford University, which has limited her appearances on the LPGA Tour this year to just three events. She finished tied for 10th at the Tournament of Champions and missed the cut at the Ford Championship in late March.
The exact date for her return to competition remains uncertain.
Lindblad`s Rapid Success
After securing her first LPGA Tour 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 winner of 10 major championships, and the other from Suzann Pettersen, the most recent captain of the European Solheim Cup team.
“Couple of bigger names, in my opinion, that kind of congratulated me,” Lindblad said. “Pretty cool. Your name is out there. You`re not a total stranger.”
It may not be long before Lindblad becomes a widely recognized name in women`s professional golf. She was the runner-up at the 2022 Augusta National Women`s Amateur and held the No. 1 ranking in the World Amateur Golf Ranking for 53 weeks.
At the 2022 U.S. Women`s Open, she set a record with a 6-under 65 in the first round, the lowest score ever recorded by an amateur in the event. She finished tied for 11th overall at 1 under. Lindblad also tied for 26th at 5 under in the 2023 Amundi Evian Championship.
Lindblad, who is from Sweden, needed only nine starts on the Epson Tour last year to earn her LPGA Tour card.
The congratulatory messages from Sörenstam and Pettersen weren`t her only surprises since her victory on Sunday.
“I`m supposed to pay for one bag when I fly Delta,” Lindblad mentioned. “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 Assistance to Thomas
Following his victory at last week`s RBC Heritage, which marked his first PGA Tour win in almost three years, Justin Thomas offered reporters an unexpected reason for his significant improvement in putting this season.
He attributed the turnaround to two-time major champion Xander Schauffele. Towards the end of the previous year, Thomas asked Schauffele to join him for a practice round near their homes in Jupiter, Florida.
“You guys obviously know Xander, but he doesn`t leave any box unchecked,” Thomas stated. “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 conversation, Thomas realized he lacked a consistent “home base” or structured approach for his putting practice.
A year ago, Thomas ranked 174th on tour in strokes gained: putting with a stat of minus-.478. This season, his performance has improved dramatically, ranking 24th in the same statistic at .459. At Hilton Head, he was seventh in the field over 72 holes.
“I think more than anything, it was just sort of he was searching and maybe trying too hard,” Schauffele reflected. “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.”
Thomas Sticking with Regular Caddie
While Justin Thomas secured his recent victory with Joe Greiner, former caddie for Max Homa, Thomas confirmed to 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 explained. “We were so lucky that Joe was available until Rev got healthy.”
