2023 Chevron Championship: How to watch, who’s playing as season’s first LPGA major makes its Texas debut

This week marks the start of a new era in LPGA history as the season’s first major — The Chevron Championship — makes its debut at a new home in The Woodlands, Texas. After five decades at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California, the tournament moves outside Houston to The Club at Carlton Woods, where 132 players will compete for the $5.1 million prize purse.

World No. 1 Lydia Ko and defending champion Jennifer Kupcho are among the star-studded names leading the field, which will cut to the top 65 and ties after 36 holes. For the 25-year-old Ko, the reigning Rolex Player of the Year and winner of the 2016 Chevron Championship, a win on Sunday would give her the two points she needs to become the youngest player ever to qualify for the LPGA Hall of Fame. But she’ll face stiff competition from the other nine players in the Rolex Rankings’ top 10 including No. 2 Nelly Korda, who’s making her return to The Chevron after missing the 2022 event due to injury. Korda finished T-3 at the 2021 Chevron and T-2 in 2020, and she arrives in Texas with four finishes inside the top six in five starts this season.

Also teeing it up at the Jack Nicklaus Signature Design are all six LPGA winners to date in 2023, including last week’s LOTTE Championship winner Grace Kim. The 22-year-old Australian became the season’s third Rolex First-Time Winner (joining Lilia Vu and Ruoning Yin) last Sunday in Hawaii, beating Yu Liu and Yu Jin Sung in a playoff to also become the first 2023 rookie to win this season.

The new-look Chevron Championship, which secured a six-year sponsorship deal with Chevron in October 2021 that increased the purse and moved the event, includes several nods to tradition from the tournament affectionately