This is a milestone week for the PGA of America. For the first time, its Fields Ranch East at PGA Frisco course in Texas, close to the PGA’s new headquarters, hosts a major championship, and that honor goes to the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.
This is the last of the three women's majors on American soil, and the Lone Star state is hosting its second of the year following April’s Chevron Championship in Houston, when first-time winner Mao Saigo jumped in the lake at The Club at Carlton Woods.
There will be no such dive at Frisco, but the winner will no doubt have a refreshing champagne celebration. The course will essentially be new to everyone, and as for the favorites to hoist the sterling silver trophy, how much time do you have?
Will World No. 1 Nelly Korda finally break through with her first win of the season? Saigo could figure to be in the mix, and maybe Sweden’s Maja Stark, who won her second career event and first major in the U.S. Women’s Open.
If you like to go on current form, that’s a tough one this year, because there’s so much parity on the LPGA right now that there haven’t been any repeat winners in 15 events this season. So the prospects for a Women’s PGA champion run deep in the field.
Here’s our look at 20 players we think can get the job done.
20. Carlota Ciganda
Rolex Rankings: 20; KPMG starts: 12; Best finish: T-3, 2020 & 2023; '24 Finish: MC
Ciganda won the Meijer LPGA Classic on Sunday and her putting was sizzling late, which helped her birdie three of the last four holes. What a way to head into this major. She has five top-10s this season but missed the cut at the U.S. Women’s Open. She’s been in the hunt at this tournament with two top-10s and has 12 career top-10s in majors. Still, she’s looking for her first major win.
19. Lauren Coughlin
Rolex Rankings: 12; KPMG starts: 4; Best finish: T-15, 2023; '24 finish: T-24
Coughlin, 32, had her breakout season last year with two wins. While she hasn’t followed with a victory this year, she’s played well and lost in the T-Mobile Match Play Championship final match. She has three top-10s in 2025 and was T-18 at the Chevron. Her one blemish? A missed cut at the U.S. Women’s Open.
18. Hinako Shibuno
Atsushi Tomura
Rolex Rankings: 66; KPMG starts: 5; Best finish: T-7, 2024; '24 Finish: T-7
The major winner (AIG Women’s Open, 2017) has seven career top-10s in majors, and she was T-7 in the Women’s PGA last year. She had a strong showing at Erin Hills with a T-7 and was 44th in the Chevron.
17. Haeran Ryu
Rolex Rankings: 5 KPMG starts: 2; Best finish: T-9, 2024; '24 finish: T-9
The three-time LPGA winner was victorious at the inaugural Black Desert Championship in Utah and has done well in both majors, finishing T-6 in the Chevron and T-36 in the U.S. Women’s Open. The 24-year-old already has five top-10s in majors but no wins.
16. Jennifer Kupcho
David Cannon
Rolex Rankings: 40; KPMG starts: 6; Best finish: T-27, 2020 '24 finish: T-35
She just won the ShopRite LPGA Classic, weeks after she’d lost her swing and didn’t know where the ball was going at the Chevron Championship. What a turnaround! Winning is contagious for Kupcho, who won three tournaments in 2022. She’s won one major, the Chevron Championship, during that successful streak. Her great ball-striking is back but she made a pressure birdie putt to win ShopRite in regulation or she would’ve fallen into a playoff. She missed the cut in the first two majors of the year, but golf is all about riding the wave of confidence and she’s got it.
15. Sarah Schmelzel
Rolex Rankings: 49; KPMG starts: 6; Best finish: T-9, 2024; '24 finish: T-9
The 31-year-old is still searching for her first LPGA Tour win, but she’s playing some of the best golf of her career. Her performance in majors is evidence. She finished T-6 at the Chevron and T-14 at the U.S. Women’s Open. She has two top-10s this year and hasn’t missed a cut in 11 starts.
14. Charley Hull
Andrew Redington
Rolex Rankings: 17; KPMG starts: 10; Best finish: T-6, 2018 '24 finish: T-16
Hull has two career LPGA wins but is still trying to get that elusive major. She has nine career top-10s in the big five and has finished in the top 10 of every major. This year, she missed the cut at the Chevron but tied for 12th at the U.S. Women’s Open, even if she looked frustrated with slow play at times.
13. Akie Iwai
Katelyn Mulcahy
Rolex Rankings: 23; KPMG starts: 1; Best finish: T-32, 2024; '24 finish: T-32
The 22-year-old wants a win badly, as her identical twin sister Chisato already won once this year. Akie dreams of playing in a pairing with her sister in a major, and they’re both so talented that it just might happen this week. They already made history doing so at the JM Eagle LA Championship, one of two tournaments this season where Akie finished second. She’s made the cut in eight of nine starts in majors, including the Chevron and U.S. Women’s Open this season.
12. Angel Yin
Rolex Rankings: 10; KPMG starts: 8; Best finish: T-4, 2018; '24 finish: 72
Yin won the Honda LPGA Thailand this season and has four top-10s. She was 13th at the Chevron and shot an opening-round 68 at the U.S. Women’s Open en route to a T-9. Yin has missed the cut only once in eight KPMG starts and has seven career top-10s in majors, but is still looking for that first victory.
11. Ayaka Furue
Scott Taetsch
Rolex Rankings: 16; KPMG starts: 3; Best finish: T-8, 2023; '24 finish: T-19
Furue has a second-, third- and fourth-place finish this season, but has yet to have a victory. Why not a major? She won the Evian Championship in 2024 by making an eagle on the 72nd hole to win by a shot. She has five top-10s in 20 starts in majors. She finished T-30 in the Chevron, but missed the cut at the U.S. Women’s Open. Furue rebounded with a fourth-place finish at the ShopRite. Since 2023, she leads the LPGA with most rounds in the 60s with 99.
10. Ariya Jutanugarn
Rolex Rankings: 22; KPMG starts: 10; Best finish: 3, 2016; '24 finish: T-32
The former World No. 1 let this year's Chevron Championship slip away on the 72nd hole and lost in the playoff, but she finished in the top 10 in both events that followed and has four top-10s in 2025. She’s trying to add a third major to her resume, as she’s already won the U.S. Women’s Open and AIG Women’s Open.
9. Amy Yang
Steph Chambers
Rolex Rankings: 26; KPMG starts: 16; Best finish: Won, 2024; '24 finish: Won
The defending Women’s PGA champion has quite a history in this event with six top-10 finishes. This season, she’s made eight of nine cuts, but has no top-10s. She finished T-36 at the U.S. Women’s Open, including an eight-over 80 in the third round. Overall, she has 22 top-10s in majors.
8. Jin Young Ko
Rolex Rankings: 14; KPMG starts: 6; Best finish: T-2, 2024; '24 finish: T-2
The two-time major champion, who won the Chevron Championship and Evian Championship in 2019, has made the cut in all six appearances at the KPMG and finished in the top 20 four times. Last year, Ko finished tied for second. This year, she has four top-10s and finished T-14 in the U.S. Women’s Open.
7. Rio Takeda
Rolex Rankings: 13; KPMG starts: 1; Best finish: T-32, 2024; '24 finish: T-32, 2024
Takeda is playing some of the best, most consistent golf on tour with a win at the Blue Bay LPGA and six top-10s this season. She finished T-2 at the U.S. Women’s Open. The 22-year-old is still looking for her first win on U.S. soil and her first major.
6. Mao Saigo
Rolex Rankings: 9; KPMG starts: 3; Best finish: T-7, 2024; '24 finish: T-7
Saigo won the Chevron Championship and perhaps she can do the Texas two-step by winning in the state again. She has put herself in contention nearly every tournament since, with five top-10 finishes this year, including two following the major win. She had the 36-hole lead at Erin Hills after a second-round 66 (the lowest round of the tournament) but a third-round 75 negated her lead and she finished T-4, then finished T-5 the following week at the ShopRite. She’s always lurking on the leaderboard.
5. Jeeno Thitikul
Rolex Rankings: 2; KPMG starts: 3; Best finish: 4, 2022; '24 finish: T-52
The top-10 queen has seven top-10s in majors and an impressive six top-10s this season. She already won the Mizuho Americas Open in May and finished T-11 at the recent ShopRite LPGA Classic. She finished T-24 at the Chevron, but missed the cut at the U.S. Women’s Open. Thitikul is the current leader in CME points and won the CME Group Tour Championship—and the $4 million that came with it—last year.
4. Lydia Ko
Yong Teck Lim
Rolex Rankings: 3; KPMG starts: 12; Best finish: 2nd, 2016; '24 finish: T-46
The 28-year-old has won three majors—Evian Championship, Chevron Championship and AIG Women’s British Open. If she wins the KPMG, she’ll have the career slam (the LPGA considers four of the five majors to be the slam). She has 18 top-10s in major starts. This year, Ko won the HSBC Women’s World Championship and has three top-10s in building off her Olympic gold medal and Hall of Fame induction.
3. Ruoning Yin
Rolex Rankings: 4; KPMG starts: 3; Best finish: Won, 2023; '24 finish: T-24
Yin won this event in 2023, becoming just the second woman from China to capture a major. She was T-4 at the U.S. Women’s Open and T-2 at the Chevron Championship, giving herself two solid chances to win another major. Yin was part of the five-woman playoff in the Chevron won by Mao Saigo.
2. Maja Stark
Rolex Rankings: 6; KPMG starts: 2; Best finish: T-60, 2024; '24 finish: T-60
Watch out for the 25-year-old Stark, who just became a major champion by winning the U.S. Women’s Open. She had the 54-hole lead at Erin Hills, extended it to three shots and kept her foot on the gas. She has a pair of top-10s this year, so she’s on her way to a possible breakthrough season. After winning in Wisconsin, she missed the cut at the ShopRite LPGA Classic, and an emotional letdown isn’t hard to fathom after becoming the first Swede to win a major since Annika Sorenstam and third overall.
1. Nelly Korda
Rolex Rankings: 1; KPMG starts: 8; Best finish: Won, 2021; '24 finish: MC
Korda played really well at the U.S. Women’s Open, finishing tied for second. She gave herself a chance as she tried to catch Maja Stark but bogeyed two holes on the back nine. After nearly missing the cut at the Chevron Championship in April, she gutted out a solid weekend to tie for 14th. She won the KPMG in 2021 and tied for third in 2019, and has 13 career top-10s in majors. She’s looking for her third major title and first win of the season after seven victories last year.