Don’t be surprised if a handful of rising stars command the spotlight in 2024.
Four of the five major champions on the women’s side in 2023 were first-time winners. As for the men? Two of four.
As the golf world moves on from 2023 and looks ahead to 2024, we got to thinking, who is most likely to add a major championship to their resume for the first time in the new year? Several writers on Golfweek‘s staff have made their picks, some surprising, some not so much.
Men’s 2024 major venues: Augusta National Golf Club (Masters), Valhalla Golf Club (PGA Championship), Pinehurst No. 2 (U.S. Open) and Royal Troon (Open Championship).
Women’s 2024 major venues: The Club at Carlton Woods (Chevron Championship), Lancaster Country Club (U.S. Women’s Open), Sahalee Country Club (KPMG Women’s PGA Championship), Evian Resort Golf Club (Amundi Evian Championship), The Old Course at St. Andrews (AIG Women’s Open).
NAPLES, Fla. – Amy Yang battles something she calls “ego talk.” It’s the stuff she tells herself that gets in the way when the pressure is on. She dealt with it early on Sunday at the CME Group Tour Championship, when she doubted herself and wondered if the day would end with just another close call.
This time, however, Yang shut down that ego talk.
“This is very meaningful,” said Yang in her new bright blue blazer, the CME trophy by her side and a $2 million cardboard check somewhere nearby.
Yang, 34, stayed strong down the stretch mentally at Tiburon Golf Club, where she holed out for eagle on the 13th hole and birdied the last two to win by three over Alison Lee and Nasa Hataoka. It was Yang’s first LPGA title since 2019, her fifth overall, and her first on U.S. soil.
Amy Yang of Korea celebrates with the CME Globe trophy and her check during the trophy ceremony after winning the CME Group Tour Championship at Tiburon Golf Club on November 19, 2023 in Naples, Florida. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
For Lee, finishing runner-up in her last three LPGA events felt bittersweet. While she’s playing the best golf of her life, that elusive first LPGA victory remains out of reach.
Good friend Megan Khang, who finally broke through with her first victory earlier this year at the CPKC Women’s Open in her 191st career start, sat in on Lee’s post-round press conference.
“This isn’t really a question,” said Khang as she took the mic, “but as a friend, I am a proud of you. You’ve been playing so good, Alison. It’s coming.”
An emotional Lee, who made her 179th career start at the CME, has credited new friend Fred Couples with helping instill the confidence she’s felt in recent months, noting that he texts her daily with words of encouragement.
“So many times I would joke around saying I’m just never going to win out here,” said Lee, who was a standout amateur player at UCLA before turning professional. “I really didn’t think I could ever do it.
“But to play the last three weeks just continuously putting the pressure on everyone on the leaderboard and putting myself in contention has just been really cool for me and been a really awesome experience.”
It wasn’t long ago that Yang, who suffered from tennis elbow after too much rock climbing, wondered if her career might come to an end earlier than expected. She also wondered how much longer she wanted to keep grinding through tour life.
Longtime coach Tony Ziegler told her life’s too short to keep playing if she wasn’t happy. She needed to make a decision.
Two weeks later, Yang came back and told him that she wanted to keep playing and she wanted to win. Ziegler repeated what he’s said to her often in recent years: “Your best golf is ahead of you.”
“Back in the day,” said Ziegler, “when she played really good golf, she had a lot of pressure and expectation, and she didn’t know how to deal with it.
“As she’s gotten older, she knows how to deal with it.”
The woman who had a smiley face stitched on the front of her visors beamed after that final-round 66. She finished at 27-under 261 for the tournament, shattering the event’s previous record by four shots.
For a long time, Yang was always in the best-to-never-win-a-major conversation on the LPGA. With 21 top-10 finishes at the majors, including two top 5s this season, she mostly flies under the radar at big events now.
“She’s just at ease with herself, no pressure, no expectation,” said Ziegler. “Basically playing for herself.”
Yang enjoyed a champagne bath on the 18th green after many of her friends came out to celebrate. Even before the injury, a burned-out Yang wondered if it might be best to retire. In time, she learned how to create a more balanced life, and wrapped up her 16th season on tour looking like a woman who has more time to shine.
“You know,” said Yang, “I still can’t believe I did it.”
“Like (Couples) just was hammering into me like, you need to believe.”
NAPLES, Fla. – Scores at the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship continue to plummet at Tiburon Golf Club as Alison Lee and Nasa Hataoka set a new 36-hole scoring record of 14-under 130.
With a $2 million winner’s check on the line to close out the year, expect plenty of fireworks as many of the hottest players in the game continue to show strong form down the stretch.
As Lee looks to win for the first time in 179 starts on the LPGA, veteran Amy Yang looks to win for the first time on American soil while Nasa Hataoka looks to close out a big title after several close calls at the majors in 2023.
Here are five things to know heading into the weekend in Naples:
With 18 holes left to play at the LPGA’s Toto Japan Classic at Taiheiyo Club Minori Course, Nasa Hataoka and Shiho Kuwaki are tied for the lead at 20 under, one ahead of Mone Inami.
After opening with a 64, Hataoka has signed for consecutive 66s while Kuwaki has gone 65-65-66.
In all, eight Japanese players sit inside the top 10 (12 players), including Hataoka, Kuwaki and Inami.
One of the big movers on Day 3 was American Rose Zhang, who fired a 7-under 65 thanks to eight birdies and one bogey. She’s tied for ninth after 54 holes, five back of the leaders.
Final-round coverage will be aired on Golf Channel on Saturday night and Sunday morning from 11 p.m.-2 a.m. ET.
Rookie @rosezhang rose up the leaderboard with 8 birdies on Saturday 👀
View photos of Nasa Hataoka throughout her professional career.
Already with double-digit wins before the age of 25, Nasa Hataoka is a force to be reckoned with in professional golf.
With six wins on the LPGA Tour since joining in 2018, Hataoka is still looking for her first major title. In fewer than 30 major starts, Hataoka has racked up eight top-10 finishes with five finishes inside the top five.
Her closest call with a major title came at the 2021 U.S. Women’s Open. In a playoff against Yuka Saso, she finished runner up at the Olympic Club. Hataoka suffered a similar fate at the 2018 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.
Bound to etch her name into the history books eventually, it’s not a question of if Nasa Hataoka will ever win a major, but when.
Celine Boutier is the 15th-ranked player in the world, has won three times on the LPGA, has played in two Solheim Cups and represented France at the Olympics. But if she wins Sunday, she’ll elevate her career to the next level.
Boutier holds a three-shot lead after 54 holes of the 2023 Amundi Evian Championship at Evian Resort Golf Club in Evian-les-Bains, France.
The 29-year-old followed up her first two rounds (66-69) with a 4-under 67 on Saturday to solidify her spot atop the leaderboard at 11 under.
The Frenchwoman will have to hold off a slew of big-name players on Sunday if she wants to hoist her first major championship trophy on home soil.
The low round of the day belonged to Nelly Korda, who shot a bogey-free 7-under 64. She rocketed up the board on Day 3, now sitting at T-5 with Yuka Saso, five back of Boutier.
Nasa Hataoka is alone in second at 8 under while Minjee Lee and Brooke Henderson are tied for third at 7 under.
Coverage of the final round will be available on Golf Channel from 5:30-11 a.m. ET Sunday.
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Standing on the dais next to a trophy so big and shiny it practically overwhelmed her, Allisen Corpuz told assembled scribes that she never really thought she’d get this far.
No one watching, however, would ever guess it. Not given the way Corpuz calmly went about her business on one of the most historic weeks in the game, where the largest paycheck in women’s golf wasn’t even the biggest headline.
This was bigger than money; it was a chance at history. A chance to stand on the shoulders of the giants in the game who came before and claim the honor of being the first woman to win a major championship at Pebble Beach Golf Links, an American treasure that’s breathtaking in its beauty and brawn.
“My coach told me this morning, no one is going to give it to you,” said Corpuz, who calmy went out on a sun-splashed day and took it from a horde of chasers.
Corpuz joins the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Tom Watson as major winners at Pebble Beach. In a week when fellow Punahou School grad Michelle Wie West retired from competitive golf, Corpuz said aloha to the world.
Allisen Corpuz celebrates with her caddie Jay Monahan after winning on the 18th green during the final round of the 78th U.S. Women’s Open at Pebble Beach Golf Links on July 09, 2023 in Pebble Beach, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
The 25-year-old USC grad now in her second year on tour, came into the week 29th in the world but largely overlooked. She ended the week with a congratulatory tweet from former President Barack Obama, who also requested a tee time.
May Corpuz walked nervously down the famed 18th fairway late Sunday evening, praying as she clutched a water bottle. She sat down inconspicuously below the gallery rope as her youngest child made her way up the fairway with a three-shot lead.
There was no reason to fret. Corpuz smoothly parred the last hole to secure a three-shot victory and a $2 million check. A packed grandstand broke out in chants of “U-S-A! U-S-A!” as Corpuz, a Hawaii native of South Korean and Filipino descent, became the first American to hoist the U.S. Women’s Open trophy since Brittany Lang in 2016.
Allisen Corpuz celebrates with the Harton S. Semple Trophy alongside her father Marcs Corpuz and mother May Corpuz after winning the 78th U.S. Women’s Open at Pebble Beach Golf Links. (Photo: Harry How/Getty Images)
After getting off to a hot start with two birdies in the first three holes, Corpuz was put on the clock on No. 11. Her caddie, Jay Monahan, candidly noted after the round that the timing was particularly brutal given that he had to go to the bathroom.
On the par-4 13th, Corpuz was between a 5-iron and 6-iron on her approach, and with 5-iron in hand, the wind died down and she backed off. At that point, a rules official approached to say that if she received another bad time, she’d get a one-stroke penalty. Because the LPGA typically hands out fines, Monahan turned around and asked, “We get stroked if we get another one?”
“I think she heard me say that,” said Monahan, who could feel the tension rise.
After his boss two-putted for par, however, Monahan said he was eerily calm the rest of the day.
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“I’ve had a few instances in the past where I kind of let that get to me,” said Corpuz of being put on the clock. “Obviously not happy about it, but just kind of rushed things a little and didn’t hit a good shot. I told myself, that’s just kind of how the course plays sometimes. You have a tough hole, you fall behind. I just told myself that we’d catch up later and just stay calm, just keep doing everything at the same pace.”
All week – really since she joined the LPGA – Corpuz has been telling herself that she belongs here, that she’s good enough to compete. Earlier this year in Singapore, she found herself paired with the top two players in the world – Jin Young Ko and Nelly Korda – in the final round. While she didn’t win the tournament, Corpuz closed with a 69 and for the first time felt really comfortable in that position.
When the stakes rise, Corpuz finds that she often starts to get too quick. Taking time to look at the bigger picture, she said, helps her to keep things slow and steady.
“Every few holes,” said Corpuz, “I just kind of looked out and said, ‘I’m out here at Pebble Beach. There’s not many places that are better than this.’ ”
She closed with a 3-under 69 to beat a hard-charging Charley Hull (66) and former No. 1 Jiyai Shin (68) by three strokes. She was the only player in the field to card four rounds under par, playing Pebble’s demanding final 11-hole stretch in 1 under.
Corpuz grew up on Oahu on the left side of the seventh hole on Kapolei Golf Course and took up the game with her older brother George around age 4 or 5. At age 6, she told her father, Marcos, “If you want me to play golf, don’t scold me.”
Marcos, a dentist, and May were not overbearing parents, but even at such a young age, Corpuz knew that she was intrinsically motivated to get better. No one needed to push her.
Mary Bea Porter-King a former LPGA player who helped found the Hawaii State Golf Association, said Allisen was about 7 years old when she first came to her junior program. She was no-nonsense even then, too.
“She was quietly strong and very gracious, always very gracious,” said Porter-King.
When asked by the media what made her fall in love with the game at young age, Corpuz gave an amusingly honest answer: “Honestly, I sucked. I just wanted to get better. I think that’s just kind of who I am, like as a person. Just if something can be done better, that’s how I want to do it.”
In 2008, Corpuz surpassed Wie West as the youngest to ever qualify for the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links at 10 years, 3 months and 9 days. Comparisons naturally followed.
“I’ve never really compared myself to her,” said Corpuz. “I’ve always wanted to make my own name. “She’s just served as a really big inspiration.”
Corpuz did follow in her father’s footsteps to USC, where she stayed an extra year to obtain a Master’s degree in Global Supply Chain Management and a graduate certificate in Business Analytics.
There’s no doubt that Corpuz’s strongest asset is her mind.
Now, she can finally let it rest. She’s made history.
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This week is Henderson’s first event using new clubs.
Brooke Henderson had never played alongside Annika Sorenstam until this week. Two rounds later, Sorenstam was quick to praise Henderson’s steady, even-keel performance.
“I think that was one of my strengths, a lot of fairways, a lot of greens,” said Sorenstam, one of the best to ever play the game.
Henderson has certainly made a strong first impression on the 10-time major winner, taking a three-stroke lead into the final round of the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions over Nelly Korda and Nasa Hataoka, who posted a sizzling 66 on Saturday that included six birdies in her last eight holes.
Henderson, a 12-time winner on the LPGA, has a 41 percent success rate on the LPGA when holding the lead.
Henderson called it a privilege to play alongside Sorenstam at Lake Nona Golf and Country Club, the Swede’s home for decades. She trails former tennis player Mardy Fish by 15 points in the celebrity division, which uses a Stableford format.
“If I can just take little pieces of her game and add it to mine,” said Henderson, “that would be phenomenal.”
What impressed Henderson the most about the 72-time LPGA winner?
“I think just the toughness,” said Henderson. “She’s a tough competitor, and I really admire that about her.”
Henderson looks to win the season-opening TOC in her first week using a full bag of TaylorMade equipment at an LPGA event.
“I wasn’t as smooth out there today,” said Henderson of her third-round 69, “but I feel like we fought it out pretty well. I still was hitting the ball very well and giving myself a lot of opportunities, so no complaints there.”
A birdie putt on the ninth hole propelled No. 2 Korda to post four more birdies on the back nine and shoot 4-under 68. Korda won the 2021 Gainbridge LPGA at Lake Nona.
“You know, my style of play is pretty aggressive,” said Korda, “so I wasn’t really hitting it too great on the front nine. I was hitting it fine. I was just missing pretty much my spot by a couple of yards here and there, and obviously, that goes from 10 feet to maybe 15, 20 feet. Right there, that’s kind of a little bit of the problem.
“On the back nine, I kind of picked a target, a little bit more of an aggressive target and really dialed into that, and I think that really helped.”
Three birdies in four holes 👏 @NellyKorda is making her move in Orlando
The LPGA has returned to Cincinnati for the first time since 1989.
MADEIRA, Ohio – The first round of the LPGA’s Kroger Queen City Championship presented by P&G kicked off Thursday morning at Kenwood Country Club under clear skies.
The battle for the top of the leaderboard was heated, but Nasa Hataoka found herself on top early with a 7-under round of 65 to pace the field. Hataoka is followed by Sarah Kemp and A Lim Kim, both at 6-under. While Hataoka’s scorecard didn’t feature any eagles, she did card eight birdies and only one bogey.
Amateur sensation Gianna Clemente, the 14-year-old who Monday qualified after shooting a 65, shot a bogey-free 2-under 70, good enough to be T-22 alongside fellow amateur and Xavier University golfer Emma McMyler.
On the opposite end of the leaderboard, Minjee Lee, the top-ranked player on the LPGA, found herself T-138 after carding a 4-over 76. Brooke Henderson, the fifth-ranked player and one of Lee’s playing partners this week, finished with a 1-under 71.
Perhaps the most interesting round of the morning wave came from Paula Creamer, who was grouped with Lee and Henderson. Creamer’s adventure around the Kendale course included a double bogey on the par-4 16th hole, a hole-out eagle at the par-4 fifth hole and a hole-in-one on the par-3 eighth hole.
🚨 ACE ALERT 🚨
An eagle hole out and now a hole-in-one for @ThePCreamer?! 🤯
This is the first time the highest level of professional women’s golf has been played in Cincinnati since 1989 when the Jack Nicklaus Golf Center near Kings Island hosted the LPGA Championship.
Built in 1930, Kenwood also hosted the U.S. Women’s Open in 1963.
Using a new left-hand low putting grip, Brooke Henderson earned her 11th LPGA victory.
Brooke Henderson took the clubhouse lead at 12 under Sunday after making a birdie on the 18th hole. A few minutes later, Lindsey Weaver-Wright joined her at 12 under after also making a birdie at the last, and that forced a playoff at the LPGA ShopRite Classic.
Golf fans watching on TV had to then scramble to a livestream after CBS cut out of its live TV coverage to pick up the final round of the PGA Tour’s RBC Canadian Open.
On the first playoff hole, Henderson, showing she’s more comfortable with a new left-hand low putting grip, drained a six-footer to close out her 11th LPGA win with an eagle on the 18th hole.
Henderson made the grip change in the days leading up to the U.S. Women’s Open, where she finished tied for 15th at Pine Needles.
Seven days later, she capped off her week with a bogey-free, final-round 64 at Seaview Golf Club in Galloway, New Jersey. Henderson had five birdies and an eagle in regulation. Weaver-Wright, seeking her first LPGA win, had four birdies in her last six holes to force the extra golf session.
It’s Henderson’s 11th LPGA win and first since the 2021 Hugel-Air Premia LA Open. She now has at least one win in seven of her eight seasons on the LPGA.
The $262,500 first-place check pushes her career LPGA earnings over $9 million.
Jodi Ewart Shadoff eagled the 18th hole to get to 11 under and claim solo second. Lydia Ko and Albane Valenzuela tied for fourth at 10 under.
Brittany Lincicome, who is about six months pregnant, was in contention for most of the week but bogeys on Nos. 14 and 17 on Sunday damaged her chances. She finished tied for sixth at 9 under along with Alex Marina and Nasa Hataoka.
The defending champion of the ShopRite, Celine Boutier, finished tied for ninth at 8 under.
Next week, it’s the Meijer LPGA Classic in Belmont, Michigan, which will serve as the final tune-up for the third major on the LPGA’s 2022 schedule, the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland.
