The fourth playing of The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican is set to begin on Thursday in Belleair, Fla., at Pelican Golf Club, and the field is loaded with the LPGA Tour’s best ahead of next week’s CME Group Tour Championship. Eight of the top 10 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings will tee it up, including current world No. 1 and KPMG Women’s PGA Championship winner Ruoning Yin, and so will 17 of the 32 total 2023 LPGA Tour rookies. Other notable names include two-time ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican champion Nelly Korda, Amundi Evian Championship winner Celine Boutier and two-time major champion Lilia Vu. Here’s a look at just a few of the featured groups this week at The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican.
Nelly Korda/Jin Young Ko/Linn Grant
A pair of former Rolex Rankings No. 1s will go at 7:43 a.m. alongside 2023 Dana Open winner Linn Grant in group seven on Thursday at Pelican Golf Club. Nelly Korda is making her third start in The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican and has won the last two editions of the event, defeating Sei Young Kim, Lydia Ko and Lexi Thompson in a playoff in 2021 and once again beating Thompson in 2022 by just a single shot. The eight-time LPGA Tour winner is still looking for her first 2023 victory, recording four top-five finishes and four additional top 10s this season, most recently tying for sixth at the Maybank Championship. Two of those top-10 results came at major championships as Korda finished solo second at The Chevron Championship in April and tied for ninth at The Amundi Evian Championship in July. Statistically, the Rolex Rankings No. 6 is fifth in scoring average on the LPGA Tour this season (70.13), and according to KPMG Performance Insights, Korda is seventh in both strokes gained driving (+0.79) and strokes gained total (+1.71). She is also eighth in strokes gained tee to green (+1.31).
Jin Young Ko has captured two victories this season, successfully defending her title at the HSBC Women’s World Championship in March and winning again at the Cognizant Founders Cup in May after defeating Minjee Lee in a playoff at Upper Montclair Country Club. The 28-year-old has cooled substantially after capturing her 15th LPGA Tour victory in New Jersey, only managing to find the top 10 once in her nine starts since the win, finishing solo second after falling to Megan Khang in a playoff at the CPKC Women’s Open at Shaughnessy Golf and Country Club. She is making her fourth appearance at The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican, and will be looking to improve upon a tournament-best result of T6, which she earned in 2021. This week at Pelican Golf Club marks her 17th start of the 2023 LPGA Tour season, and in addition to her two victories, she has earned three other top-10 finishes, the most notable of which is a tie for ninth at The Chevron Championship. Statistically, Ko ranks third in strokes gained approach (+1.21), fourth in strokes gained total (+1.86), fourth in scoring average (70.07) and seventh in strokes gained tee to green (+1.43). She is also eighth in putts per green in regulation (1.76).
Sweden’s Linn Grant has had an incredibly solid season thus far on the LPGA Tour. She became a Rolex First-Time Winner at the Dana Open, finishing three shots ahead of the rest of the field at Highland Meadows Golf Club, and has earned three other top-10 finishes, the best of which came at the Bank of Hope LPGA Match-Play presented by MGM Rewards where Grant finished third. The 24-year-old also qualified for her first European Solheim Cup team, making her debut in the biennial team competition at Finca Cortesin in Andalucia, Spain and earning three total points for the Euros. In her two starts since the Solheim Cup at the BMW Ladies Championship and Maybank Championship, the Swede finished T22 and T40, respectively, and will be looking to generate some momentum ahead of her first appearance at the CME Group Tour Championship next week in Naples, Fla. Statistically, Grant leads the LPGA Tour in strokes gained driving (+1.12) and is ranked sixth and eighth in strokes gained tee to green and strokes gained total, according to KPMG Performance Insights.
Celine Boutier/Lexi Thompson/Lydia Ko
Frenchwoman Celine Boutier has been the hottest player on the LPGA Tour this season, capturing four victories, most recently winning the Maybank Championship in Malaysia, emerging victorious from a nine-hole playoff with Atthaya Thitikul and most notably capturing The Amundi Evian Championship title in her home country, winning by a whopping six shots. The 29-year-old also has four additional top-five results on her 2023 resume, the best of which is a tie for third at the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational alongside her playing partner, Yuka Saso. Boutier currently leads both the Race to the CME Globe and the Rolex Player of the Year standings and is third on the official money list this season with $2,730,340 in total earnings. Statistically, the Duke University alum is third in both strokes gained total (+1.88) and strokes gained around the green (+0.55), also ranking eighth in scoring average (70.31). This is her fourth appearance at The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican, and she has never finished better than T57 at Pelican Golf Club.
Lexi Thompson has had more than her fair share of close calls at this event, finishing in a tie for second in 2021 after losing in a playoff to Nelly Korda and earning another runner-up result last year when she again fell to Korda, this time missing out on her 12th career victory by one shot. This week marks her fourth appearance at The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican, and is her 14th event of the 2023 LPGA Tour season. Thompson has had a challenging year, missing eight cuts and only finding the top 10 twice, finishing T8 at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship presented by P&G and solo fifth at The Ascendant LPGA benefiting Volunteers of America, and because of that, she finds herself on the outside looking in when it comes to the CME Group Tour Championship. The 2017 Race to the CME Globe winner is currently ranked 88th in the point standings – 28 spots outside of the top 60 and ties cutoff for qualification – and will need a solid finish come Sunday in Belleair, Fla., if she wants to have an opportunity to tee it up at Tiburón Golf Club.
Last year’s CME Group Tour Championship winner, Lydia Ko, has also struggled to find her stride this season and is currently 101st in the Race to the CME Globe standings. The 26-year-old has only recorded three top-15 finishes so far in 2023, tying for sixth at the Honda LPGA Thailand in her first start of the year and most recently finishing solo third and T11 at the BMW Ladies Championship and Maybank Championship, respectively, during the fall Asian swing, both events in which she competed as a sponsor invite. Despite the challenges, Ko has remained patient in the face of adversity and is still very much a threat at Pelican Golf Club. She has played in all three previous editions of the event and has recorded two top-five finishes in those three starts, tying for fourth in 2020 and tying for second in 2021. Riding a bit of momentum gleaned from her solid finishes in Asia, she’s a player who could absolutely pull off an improbable victory at the 11th hour, one that could potentially help her eke her way into next week’s limited field.
Brooke Henderson/Lilia Vu/Atthaya Thitikul
It’s been a quiet year for Canadian Brooke Henderson since she captured her 13th career LPGA Tour victory at the season-opening Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions. The 26-year-old stalled for quite a bit after winning at Lake Nona Golf and Country Club, missing four cuts and needing 15 starts before finding the top 10 again at The Amundi Evian Championship, where she finished runner-up to Celine Boutier. She’s played solidly in her last five starts, recording two top 15s, one of which was a tie for sixth at the Maybank Championship, just her second top-10 result of the year since her victory in Orlando. This is her fourth start in The ANNIKA, and in her three previous appearances, she has earned two top-10 finishes, tying for sixth in 2020 and finishing solo fifth in 2021. Henderson only sits inside the top 10 in one statistical category, ranking fourth in rounds under par (50), but she is 14th in the Race to the CME Globe and will definitely be looking to find an extra gear before vying for the $2 million winner’s check next week at the CME Group Tour Championship.
Rolex Rankings No. 2 Lilia Vu is making her tournament debut this week at The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge and will be looking to finish what’s been a banner year strong. The Epson Tour graduate has captured three victories so far this season, becoming a Rolex First-Time Winner at the Honda LPGA Thailand, taking home her first major title at The Chevron Championship and then winning again at the AIG Women’s Open. She has also earned two additional top-10 results, most recently recording a solo second at the Buick LPGA Shanghai after losing in a playoff to Angel Yin, whom she beat en route to victory at Chevron. Vu is currently second on the official money list with $2,764,803 earned this year, is second in the Race to the CME Globe point standings and is three points behind Boutier in the Rolex Player of the Year race. Statistically, Vu ranks second in putts per green in regulation (1.75), ninth in strokes gained total (+1.57) and 10th in scoring average (70.36).
Atthaya Thitikul was oh-so-close to capturing her third career victory at the Maybank Championship, ultimately falling to Boutier in a nine-hole playoff, the second-longest in LPGA Tour history. The runner-up is the 20-year-old’s 12th top-10 of the 2023 season, her sixth top five and her third consecutive T5 or better result. This week at The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican marks her 20th start of the year, and it’s her first time teeing it up at Pelican Golf Club. Currently sitting at No. 9 in the Rolex Rankings, Thitikul is ranked second on the LPGA Tour in strokes gained total (+1.95), second in scoring average (69.76), fourth in rounds under par (50) and fifth in greens in regulation (74.71%). She is also eighth in putts per green in regulation and 10th in both birdies (286) and sub-par holes (293).
By Nadeem Faisal Baiga
