The LPGA Tour’s best are set to tee it up at Wilshire Country Club this week for the sixth edition of the JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro. Six of the top 10 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings are competing for a share of a $3.75 million purse, as are four past winners of the event, including defending champion and 2024 HSBC Women’s World Championship winner Hannah Green, six-time LPGA Tour winner Nasa Hataoka, major champion Minjee Lee and Thailand’s Moriya Jutanugarn.
Take a look at just a few of the featured groups this week at the JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro, using KPMG Performance Insights:
Thursday, 7:29 a.m.* – Angel Yin/Hyo Joo Kim/Maja Stark
LPGA Tour winner Angel Yin is making just her third start of the 2024 LPGA Tour season at the JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro. She withdrew from The Chevron Championship last week as Yin is still dealing with a foot injury she suffered during the offseason, but she finished in a tie for fifth at the T-Mobile Match Play presented by MGM Rewards in her season debut. The Arcadia, Calif., native has played in all five previous editions of the JM Eagle LA Championship, and her best finish in the event is a tie for 27th which came in 2022. Yin had a banner season in 2023, becoming a Rolex First-Time Winner at the Buick LPGA Shanghai after defeating Lilia Vu in a playoff in the People’s Republic of China, and earned five additional top-10 finishes. Two of those top 10s came in major championships as Yin finished solo second at The Chevron Championship, losing to Vu in a playoff at The Club at Carlton Woods, and tied for sixth at the AIG Women’s Open at Walton Heath Golf Club in Surrey, England. The runner-up showing in The Woodlands, Texas is Yin’s career-best finish in a major.
It was a rare missed cut from Hyo Joo Kim at The Chevron Championship last week, as the Republic of Korea native hadn’t missed playing the weekend on the LPGA Tour since the 2022 Kroger Queen City Championship. She’ll look to get the train back on the tracks this week at Wilshire Country Club, a venue at which Kim has teed it up only twice before, missing the cut in 2018 and tying for 17th in 2023. Despite her struggles last week, the 28-year-old has played solidly thus far in 2024, earning two top-10 finishes in her six total starts this season, including a tie for fifth at the Honda LPGA Thailand and a tie for eighth at the Ford Championship presented by KCC. Kim has drastically improved her putting this year, according to KPMG Performance Insights. The six-time LPGA Tour winner ranked 50th in strokes gained putting at the end of the 2023 season and now ranks fifth in that same metric in 2024, gaining 1.08 shots per round on the field with her putter. Kim is also first on the LPGA Tour in putting average (27.62) and second in putts per green in regulation (1.70), additionally ranking seventh in driving accuracy (84.35%) and 14th in strokes gained around the green (+0.43).
Maja Stark recorded her best career finish in a major on Sunday at The Chevron Championship, finishing runner-up to Nelly Korda after carding a four-day total of 11-under at The Club at Carlton Woods. The solo second is the Swede’s best result out of her eight total starts this season on the LPGA Tour and joins her tie for third showing at the Ford Championship presented by KCC as her second top-three result of 2024. The key to Stark’s major success was her putting, as the 24-year-old was second in strokes gained putting (+2.43), tied for third in one-putts (9.3) and tied for sixth in total putts (26.8) in The Woodlands, Texas, according to KPMG Performance Insights. She’ll look to keep that rolling this week at Wilshire Country Club as Stark makes just her second start in the JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro and will be working to improve upon her T53 result that she earned in her tournament debut last year in Los Angeles.
Thursday, 8:21 a.m.* – Celine Boutier/Hannah Green/Nasa Hataoka
Celine Boutier struggled last week at The Chevron Championship, missing her first cut on the LPGA Tour since the 2023 ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican at The Club at Carlton Woods, and will be looking to quickly turn the page this week at the JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro. It’s her sixth time teeing it up at Wilshire Country Club, and in her five previous starts, the Frenchwoman has only made two cuts, ultimately tying for 32nd in 2021 and tying for 14th in 2022, the latter of which is her career-best showing in this event. After a four-win season in 2023, things have been a bit quiet for the 30-year-old so far this year as Boutier has earned just three top-20 finishes in her seven total starts, tying for 16th at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, finishing runner-up at the HSBC Women’s World Championship and tying for 12th at the Blue Bay LPGA. Statistically, Boutier hasn’t been as strong this season as she has in years past, currently ranking 69th in strokes gained putting in 2024 compared to 20th in 2023 and is tied for 36th this year in bogey avoidance, a metric she was first in at the end of last year, according to KPMG Performance Insights. But the Rolex Rankings No. 3 is still ranked inside the top 25 in strokes gained around the green (15, +0.42) and strokes gained approach (24, +0.64) after her first seven starts of the 2024 LPGA Tour season.
Hannah Green picked up her third career LPGA Tour victory at the 2023 JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro, winning in a two-hole playoff over Aditi Ashok and Xiyu Lin at Wilshire Country Club. The win was her first since the 2019 Portland Classic, and since then, Green has collected four top-20 results and her fourth Tour title, winning this year’s HSBC Women’s World Championship by one shot over her groupmate Boutier. According to KPMG Performance Insights, her off-the-tee performance and putting were the keys to her success in 2023, as Green was second in the field in strokes gained off the tee (+1.42) and sixth in strokes gained putting (+2.00) en route to victory last year. Green’s putting has remained in solid form so far in 2024, and she is currently fifth in putts per green in regulation (1.72), 19th in one-putts per round and 22nd in strokes gained putting. She also ranks 12th on the LPGA Tour in scoring average this season (70.44). This is Green’s sixth time competing in the JM Eagle LA Championship, and along with her victory, she has earned two other top-three finishes, tying for third in 2021 and finishing solo second in 2022, as well as one additional top 15, a tie for 14th that came in 2019.
Nasa Hataoka won the 2022 edition of the JM Eagle LA Championship in resounding fashion, defeating her groupmate Green by a whopping five shots at Wilshire Country Club to claim her sixth LPGA Tour victory. Hataoka hasn’t won on the LPGA Tour since that dominant triumph despite earning 15 top-10 finishes in that span and will be looking to recreate the magic she found two years ago this week in Los Angeles, Calif. The Japan native comes to her ninth tournament of the 2024 season off a solid T13 finish last week at The Chevron Championship, her third top-15 result of the year alongside a tie for ninth at the LPGA Drive On Championship and a tie for third at the HSBC Women’s World Championship. Statistically, the Rolex Rankings No. 18 currently ranks ninth in strokes gained approach (+0.94) and 15th in strokes gained tee to green (+1.13), according to KPMG Performance Insights. Hataoka is also fourth in greens in regulation (72.62%) and fourth in rounds under par (20).
Here are the #KPMGInsights to know ahead of the @JMEagleLAChamp.
— KPMG Golf (@KPMGGolf) April 24, 2024
💪 Hannah Green's strong putting as defending champ
🚀 Charley Hull's improvement off the tee pic.twitter.com/Bcyfj2QpUY
Thursday, 1:21 p.m. – Rose Zhang/Ayaka Furue/Alison Lee
Irvine, Calif. native Rose Zhang is making her sixth start of the 2024 LPGA Tour season this week at the JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro and is looking to find some form ahead of her title defense at the Mizuho Americas Open in just a few weeks. She has missed two cuts and earned three top-25 finishes so far this year, tying for seventh at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, tying for 22nd FIR HILLS SERI PAK Championship and then tying for fifth at the T-Mobile Match Play presented by MGM Rewards. While it’s been a mixed bag of results for the 20-year-old, according to KPMG Performance Insights, her game has statistically been on point this season. She currently ranks sixth on the LPGA Tour in strokes gained approach (+1.09), seventh in strokes gained total (+1.46), is tied for 14th in par-4 scoring (4.01) and 17th in fairways hit (81.4%). This week marks Zhang’s tournament debut at the JM Eagle LA Championship, as she was still an amateur collegiate athlete this time last year, representing Stanford University.
Ayaka Furue has played in every LPGA Tour event this season, earning five top-15 finishes, three of which were T4s or better and the best of which was a solo third at the Blue Bay LPGA in the People’s Republic of China. According to KPMG Performance Insights, she is the only player on Tour this year to be ranked in the top 20 in strokes gained approach and strokes gained putting, currently sitting at 18th and 17th, respectively, in both metrics. She leads the LPGA Tour in rounds under par (25) and birdies (130) so far this year and is third in driving accuracy (87.14%) and seventh in scoring average (70.23). Furue became a Rolex First-Time Winner at the 2022 Women’s Scottish Open and hasn’t found victory lane on the LPGA Tour since, even though she has earned 14 top-10 finishes in that span. Considering she finished in a tie for fourth in this event in 2023, Furue just might accomplish her goal of winning a second Tour title this week at the JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro.
UCLA alum Alison Lee will surely be the subject of this Los Angeles crowd’s fascination at Wilshire Country Club as she works to regain her footing this week at the JM Eagle LA Championship. Lee finished runner-up in her last three starts on the LPGA Tour last season, and after a prolonged off-season due to a hand injury she sustained from a dog bite and a T51 in her season debut, struggles that she mentally had to fight through, it felt like Lee was right back where she was supposed to be earlier this year, earning back-to-back top 10s at the FIR HILLS SERI PAK Championship (T3) and the Ford Championship presented by KCC (T8). Even though she tied for 53rd and missed the cut in her two starts before this week in Los Angeles, on paper, the 29-year-old has been in excellent form, gaining 1.68 strokes on the field and earning five top-10 results since the end of last season with a scoring average of 69.6 and a score-to-par of 59-under, according to KPMG Performance Insights. This is her sixth appearance in the JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro, and in her five previous starts, Lee has missed two cuts and recorded a best finish of T9 in 2023.
*Off No. 10
For a full list of tee times, please click here. All times above are local.
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