Leona Maguire and Stephanie Meadow primed for opening major of year in Texas as Nelly Korda chases five in a row

Leona Maguire and Stephanie Meadow are the two Irish golfers in the field for the opening major of the year on the LPGA Tour.

The Chevron Championship is the first of five majors on the women's schedule, taking place at The Woodlands in Texas, starting on Thursday.

Maguire comes into the event buoyed by her excellent performance at the recent T-Mobile Match Play event, where she was beaten in the final by Nelly Korda.

Maguire said after the tournament that there were plenty of positives to take from the gruelling week in Las Vegas.

Having slipped to 30th in the world rankings, Maguire’s latest appearance has seen her move back towards the top 20 and enters this week in 23rd place on the Rolex list.

This week’s event takes place at The Club at Carlton Woods, the par-72 track playing 6,824 yards, while there is an increase in the purse, with $7.9m to be won, including $10,000 for those who do not make the cut - a 50% increase on last year.

Maguire is out early for her opening round and will tee it up at 2.15pm (Irish time) playing alongside Grace Kim from Australia and Sweden’s Anna Nordqvist.

Fellow Olympian Meadow is also among the early starters, and in fact the Jordanstown woman is first out on the track at 7.15am local time (1.15pm Irish time), teeing it up with American Kristen Gillman and Germany’s Isi Gabsa.

Meadow has fallen out of the world top 100, however, she has shown some recent form this year with a top ten in March at the Blue Bay LPGA followed up by a tie for 25th at the aforementioned Match Play.

Meadow's best performance at a major came in her very first attempt, finishing third at the US Women's Open back in 2014. She shared third place at last year's Women's PGA Championship, while T19 was her best finish at