Charley Hull and Minjee Lee form part of Matt Cooper's staking plan for the first women's major of 2026, the Chevron Championship.
- Nelly Korda the clear favourite
- Memorial Park is the new host
- Japanese star can add to her country’s major tally
Golf betting tips: Chevron Championship
1.5pts e.w. Minjee Lee at 28/1 (SpreadEx, Sporting Index 1/4 1,2,3,4,5)
1.5pts e.w. Charley Hull at 33/1 (BetMGM, VirginBet 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6)
1pt e.w. Auston Kim at 50/1 (Ladbrokes, Coral 1/4 1,2,3,4,5)
1pt e.w. Rio Takeda at 66/1 (General 1/4 1,2,3,4,5)
1pt e.w. A Lim Kim at 66/1 (BetMGM, VirginBet 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6)
When Japan’s Mao Saigo triumphed in last year’s Chevron Championship she was compelled, in spite of the fact that she couldn’t swim, to maintain tournament tradition and jump into the pond by the 18th green.
Metaphorically, at least, many of those who had watched the tournament’s finale felt like making a similar plunge.
Because while, in theory, the notion of a major championship being settled by a five-golfer play-off seems like a dramatic one, last year’s renewal proved decisively that it could be anything but.
The golfers themselves were not faultless because the action was glacial. More at fault, however, was the venue, Carlton Woods, which had sucked the atmosphere from of the first major championship of the year in a manner that would have been spectacular had it not been quite so dull.
Where once there were the parties and festivals of Mission Hills in California, there were now the quiet fairways of an exclusive gated community in Texas.
It was a terrible look, and it was perhaps telling that one of the first announcements made by the new LPGA commissioner Kraig Kessler was that the tournament has a new home – Memorial Park in Houston.
Everyone can breathe a sigh of relief, not least Saigo who panicked when her feet couldn’t touch the bottom of the pond and was eventually rescued by her caddie.
Memorial Park is, of course, the current home of the PGA Tour’s Houston Open and, while it might play differently for the women, it is surely worth noting that the idea that the course has favours longer hitters is, in the words of Ben Coley’s preview of this year’s edition, “something of an understatement.” He later added: “Grip it and rip it is a formula there’s no reason to deviate from.”
There were some thoughts early in that event last month that conditions had changed but, by the end of the week, Gary Woodland was prevailing over Nicolai Hojgaard with Johnny Keefer and Min Woo Lee T3, and Chris Gotterup and Jake Knapp T6. All six of them rank inside the top 13 for driving distance on the PGA Tour this season.
We might, perhaps, caution that this is a major and the officials may want to toughen things up, but bear in mind that Tom Doak, the architect who undertook a redesign in 2019, has stated that the layout’s priority is, “not to defend par, but to provide opportunities for dramatic lead changes and excitement.”
The first field question surrounds the favourite Nelly Korda who has been very particular with her schedule this year, playing just four times. She won the season-opening Tournament of Champions and has been second three times since then. She also has a win, second and two thirds in her last five starts in this championship.
Her career is in an interesting place because she’s unquestionably the biggest name in women’s golf but ranks second in the world rankings to Jeeno Thitikul. She has also struggled to dominate in the majors with only two wins in 47 starts.
By contrast, both Inbee Park and Karrie Webb won their seven major titles in their first 40 starts while Annika Sorenstam landed her 10th in her 48th appearance (eerily her seventh came in her 39th start).
As impressive as Korda’s case is – and it undoubtedly is given she has length from the tee – it’s been that way ahead of so many majors in the last five years. 11/2 is not tempting for someone who finds closing out the big ones so difficult.
Thitikul won the Honda LPGA Thailand, her third win in five starts either side of New Year, but has since then – and for the first time since 2019 – gone four starts since without recording a top 10. She will surely win a major, but she currently has none in 27 starts.
Hyo Joo Kim won the Founders Cup and Ford Championship back-to-back in late March, but makes up a trio of major championship underwhelmers at the head of the market. She won the first one she entered – the 2014 Evian Championship – but has since gone 49 events without adding to it.
Hannah Green has been in sparkling form this year, winning the HSBC Women’s World Championship and last week’s LA Championship either side of landing the LET’s Australian Open and Australian WPGA Championship. Victory this week would make it five wins in six starts. It might be a W too far.
That quartet can win this week, of course, but I’m content to swerve them all at the prices. Instead, first pick is MINJEE LEE who is not among the very longest drivers but she ranked 31st for driving distance last year so is far from a diddy hitter. She is also a three-time major championship winner – and those three triumphs have come in her last 22 starts.
This year she was third in the HSBC World Championship (when the 54-hole co-leader) and fifth in the Founders Cup. She did miss the cut on her last completed start, but rebounded with a good 69 in last week’s first round before food poisoning forced her withdrawal.
Her three major wins have all come in different championships. If she is to complete the career grand slam she needs this one and the AIG Women’s Open. That’s potential motivation. So is the fact that her brother Min Woo won his first PGA Tour title on this week’s course. And she also won in Texas in last summer’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.
A winner on the LPGA late last year and on the LET earlier this year, could this week’s course dynamics be what turns CHARLEY HULL’s four major championship runner-up finishes into a first win? Three of those near misses have come in the last three seasons and the most recent was when second at last year’s AIG Women’s Open. It really stung because she played superbly on that final day.
She has a fine record in Texas highlighted by victory at The Old American and second late last year at Golfcrest, and she has also just turned 30. This could be her time.
Japan’s RIO TAKEDA might be my favourite pick. It’s good that she is among the longer hitters in the field and that she was T5 on her last start back home in Japan – she has also been T5 and T8 on the LPGA this season.
But it is her excellent record in the recent majors that is most persuasive, especially in comparison with players who are half her price. In 2024 she was T9 in the US Women’s Open and she was T2 a year later. Last year she was also T23 in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship (when second at halfway), T11 at Evian and T4 in the AIG Women’s Open.
Takeda has it in her to be the fifth different Japanese winner in the last 10 majors and looks terrific value at 50/1 and above.
Back in 2020 South Korea’s A LIM KIM made her major championship debut in the US Women’s Open at The Champions Club in Houston and did so in style with victory. Since then she has been T11 at The Old American and T4 and T9 at Carlton Woods in this event so she likes Texas.
She’s long from the tee box and, like Hull, maybe has a sense of what might have been from the last major of 2025 – in her case she was one shot off the 54-hole lead before finishing fourth.
Japan’s Shumi Sakura came close to a pick. The 24-year-old has been a winner in the past, but she has never been so consistently at the top of leaderboards: she has a win, three seconds and a third from just seven starts this year. But it’s her first venture to the States and she’s a short hitter.
Instead, AUSTON KIM gets the final pick. She’s a big hitter (ranking fourth for driving distance this year and third last year) who was second at last year’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in Texas and showed a bit of form earlier this year when second in the HSBC World Championship and third in the Blue Bay LPGA.
Posted at 11:05 BST on 21/04/26
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