Chevron Championship Power Rankings: 15 players to watch in LPGA's first major

The LPGA has finally hit the meat of the 2025 season, and by meat we mean majors. The Chevron Championship at The Club at Carlton Woods outside of Houston starts on Thursday, and we’ve got the goods on players we think have the best shot to win.

It all starts, of course, with defending champion Nelly Korda. She had four consecutive victories going into this event in 2024. This year, while being winless so far, she changed her pre-major game plan heading into Texas. The World No. 1 said she’s planning to play in events before majors, and that approach got off to a decent start, with Korda contending into Sunday at the JM Eagle LA Championship before fading with a 72 to tie for 16th. While yet to claim a title in 2025, Korda has played consistently well, with three top-10s so far, including a runner-up in the season-opening Tournament of Champions.

After Korda’s early domination last year, parity has been the theme this season in the first eight events of the LPGA's 75th season, with no multiple winners.

1. Nelly Korda

Rolex Rankings: 1; Chevron starts: 9; Best finish: Won, 2024

Korda will kick off the week with her Czechoslovakian-themed Champions Dinner Monday (we’re dreaming of those fruit-filled dumplings) and hopes the good vibes from her play, with top-five finishes the last four years in the Chevron, continues. Last year, when Korda shot 13 under and beat Maja Stark by two shots, it was her fifth consecutive victory, tying the LPGA record set previously by Nancy Lopez and Annika Sorenstam.

2. Jeeno Thitikul

Rolex Rankings: 2; Chevron starts: 3; Best finish: T-4, 2023; '24 Finish: 12th

Thitikul won a record $6.1 million last year on tour and is a top-10 queen, with 12 of those finishes in 17 starts in 2024. At 22, she already has seven top-10s finishes in 23 career majors, but has yet to lift a trophy. Her form heading into the Chevron is excellent, with five top-10s already this year.

3. Angel Yin

Rolex Rankings: 8; Chevron starts: 10; Best finish: second, 2023 (lost in playoff); '24 Finish: WD (ankle injury)

Yin has already celebrated a victory this year at the Honda LPGA Thailand, and she had seven top-10s last year. So far in 2025, she’s finished in the top 20 in five of her seven starts (with one WD).

4. Lilia Vu

Rolex Rankings: 4; Chevron starts: 4; Best finish: Won in 2023 in playoff; '24 Finish: WD (back injury)

Vu’s Chevron victory in 2023 came in the first time the tournament was held in Texas, with the Californian birdieing the first playoff hole to beat Angel Yin. Vu’s withdrawal last year set off two of the worst months of her life, she has said, but she believes she’s figured out how to manage her back. Vu’s best result of this season came in late March with she lost a playoff to Hyo Joo Kim in the Ford Championship, although she followed that by missing the cut last week in L.A.

5. Lydia Ko

Rolex Rankings: 3; Chevron starts: 12; Best finish: Won in 2016; '24 Finish: T-17

Ko has won three of the LPGA’s five majors, and the Chevron is one of them, though the 2016 victory came before the move from California. In Texas, the newly crowned LPGA Hall of Famer so far has a missed cut and T-17. Ko already has collected a win this season in the HSBC Women’s World Championship—her 23rd career LPGA victory. And she’ll be playing her first stroke-play event since a T-6 in the Ford Championship, following that by not getting out of group play in the T-Mobile Match Play Championship.

6. Lauren Coughlin

Rolex Rankings: 11; Chevron starts: 2; Best finish: T-3, 2024; '24 Finish: T-3

After missing the cut in her first time playing the Chevron in 2023, Coughlin opened last year with a 66 and closed with a 68 to tie for third—the first of two top-five finishes in majors for the season. Two months later, the 32-year-old won her first two LPGA events in a span of three weeks. The LPGA late-bloomer nearly won her third tournament at the T-Mobile Match Play Championship earlier this month before losing in the final round to Madelene Sagstrom, and was T-3 last week in L.A.

7. A Lim Kim

Rolex Rankings: 29; Chevron starts: 4; Best finish: T-4, 2023; '24 Finish: T-9

Kim has two top-five outings in the last two years here, making her a clear choice to contend again. She has already won a major at the 2020 U.S. Women’s Open, which happened to be at nearby Champions Golf Club in Houston when it was moved to December because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Kim opened this season by shooting 20 under to win the Tournament of Champions and followed with two more top-seven finishes.

8. Charley Hull

Rolex Rankings: 10; Chevron starts: 11; Best finish: T-2, 2016; '24 Finish: T-23

Hull has two LPGA Tour victories and is still searching for her first major. With all those jaw-dropping gym workouts and long-distance runs she’s added to her routine, perhaps she’s got the extra muscle to power her way to a win in the Chevron, in which she has three top-10s. The Englishwoman is off to a strong start this year, with three top-20 finishes in stroke play, including a T-4 in the HSBC.

9. Carlotta Ciganda

Rolex Rankings: 42; Chevron starts: 12; Best finish: T-4 in 2015, 2019; '24 Finish: 12th

Ciganda, whose two LPGA victories came in the same 2016 season, already has three top-20 finishes in four events this year, and she’s among the top choices this week because of sixth- and 12th-place finishes, respectively, the last two years at Carlton Woods.

10. Minjee Lee

Rolex Rankings: 19; Chevron starts: 11; Best finish: T-3, 2017; '24 Finish: Missed cut

Lee is playing well this season with a pair of top-fives, including a solo second in March’s Blue Bay, and she doesn’t have a finish worse than T-35. Among Lee’s 10 LPGA wins are the U.S. Women’s Open and Amundi Evian Championship, but this major has been elusive, and the move to Texas hasn’t helped, with finishes of T-41 and a missed cut.

11. Jin Young Ko

Rolex Rankings: 13; Chevron starts: 8; Best finish: Won, 2019; '24 Finish: Missed cut

Ko was the LPGA’s player of the year in 2019 when she won two majors—the Chevron and Evian. She has three top-10s in this major, too. Ko started the year by finishing in the top five in the first two events, including a second-place finish at the Founders Cup.

12. Brooke Henderson

Rolex Rankings: 32; Chevron starts: 10; Best finish: T-2, 2020; '24 Finish: T-3

Henderson has won 13 times on the LPGA, including two majors—just not this one. She’s made the Chevron cut in all 10 starts and finished in the top 20 seven times, including three top-10s. Last year, the Canadian charged with a 64 in the third round, but could only shoot 72 on Sunday. She’s as reliable as almost anyone to put herself in contention on the weekend at this major.

13. Yealimi Noh

Rolex Rankings: 18; Chevron starts: 4; Best finish: T-9; '24 finish: T-9, 2024

With middle rounds of 63-64, Noh won her first LPGA Tour event this year at the Founders Cup. The win jumpstarted a strong early season for the 23-year-old that includes two more top-10s. She’s got that broomstick putter going and seems there are no holes in her game.

14. Hyo Joo Kim

Rolex Rankings: 12; Chevron starts: 9; Best finish: T-6, 2019; '24 Finish: Missed cut

Kim already has a win this year in the Ford Championship, beating Lilia Vu on the first playoff hole in the LPGA’s best non-major field in 15 years. A missed cut last year in the Chevron followed Kim’s 11th-place finish in 2023. The 29-year-old, with seven tour wins, seems long overdue to win another major. Her first LPGA victory came at the 2014 Evian, but she has gone without a major trophy since, despite an impressive 12 top-nines.

15. Ingrid Lindblad

Rolex Rankings: 224; Chevron starts: 0; Best finish: N/A; '24 Finish: N/A

Why pick a rookie to be among the top contenders in a tournament she’s never played before? Because Lindblad isn’t any first-year player, but one with a highly decorated amateur career who now is coming off a one-stroke victory on Sunday in the JM Eagle LA Championship. The former World Amateur No. 1 also has already played in eight majors, though Chevron will be her first as a pro. And Lindblad showed she had the game for big trophy hunting when she tied for 11th as the low amateur in the 2022 U.S. Women’s Open.