Questions about the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship? We have answers

The KPMG Women’s PGA Championship returns this week to Sahalee Country Club in Sammamish, starting with Thursday’s opening round.

Maybe you’re thinking about going or wondering what it’s all about. You’ve probably got questions, and we’ve got answers.

Why is this tournament a big deal?

The Women’s KPMG Championship is one of five major tournaments on the LPGA schedule, along with the U.S. Women’s Open, the AIG Women’s Open, the Chevron Championship and the Amundi Evian Championship.

The tournament purse of $10 million is the second biggest on the LPGA Tour, behind the $12 million of the U.S. Women’s Open. Because it is a major with a large purse, it draws all of the top players.

The tournament, known as the LPGA Championship from 1955-2014, got a big boost when the Professional Golfers’ Association of America, which runs the PGA Championship, the Ryder Cup and the Solheim Cup, elected to partner with the LPGA in forming the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship starting in 2015.

The tournament has been played on some of the top golf courses in the nation in the past decade, and Sahalee, which hosted the event in 2016, will become the first course to host the rebranded tournament twice.

Who are the top contenders?

Nelly Korda has to be considered the favorite, even though she has missed the cut in her past two events. Before that she won six of her past seven events and tied an LPGA record by winning five in a row.

Look for Korda to bounce back in a big way.

Brooke Henderson, who won the event in a playoff over Lydia Ko in 2016, is fifth in the LPGA’s Race to the CME Globe points list and has proved she likes Sahalee. Ko, who has 20 career wins and is one win from earning her way into the LPGA Hall of Fame, is fourth on the points list and has won once this season.

Australia’s Hannah Green has won twice on the LPGA Tour this year and is the only player other than Korda to win more than once this season.

There are many more players who enter this week with a legitimate chance to win, including Lexi Thompson. The 29-year-old American announced she was retiring from the LPGA Tour at the end of the year.

The last of Thompson’s 11 LPGA wins came in 2019, but she almost got No. 11 on Sunday, losing in a playoff to Lilia Vu in the Meijer LPGA Classic.

How has Sahalee changed since 2016?

That’s a question we posed to Charlie Schauwecker, who has been the director of agronomy at Sahalee since 2021 and has worked at the course since 2015.

“There are a few big changes that the players and viewers will certainly notice this week,” Schauwecker said.

The first change he talked about was the full bunker renovation in 2022 on the three nines at Sahalee, including the 56 bunkers on the South and North nines that will be used this week.

“We reshaped the bunkers, and we pushed them farther off so they would be more in play for the modern golfer,” Schauwecker said. “The bunkers are generally slightly deeper than they were before, and they’re much more charismatic as far as their appearance. They’ve got glowing edges with big noses of turf running down in the bunkers, which is a big change from our old bunkering, which was essentially kidney-bean shaped round bunkers.”

There are also a lot fewer trees than in 2016, and that brings in more light. Some of the trees were removed for strategic reasons — such as the tree in the middle of the fairway about 100 yards from the green on No. 11 and a tree on the left side of the fairway about 100 yards from the green on the 12th hole.

Others were removed for turf-health reasons. The overall effect is a more airy feeling, but there are still plenty of trees to get the players’ attention.

Where are good places to watch?

We asked Schauwecker and tournament director Jackie Endsley.

Their answers were similar. Both started by mentioning the par-5 18th hole and the par-3 17th over water, and then a spot near the green on the par-3 12th, where fans can watch the action on that hole while also watching players tee off on the 13th.

“But I would say the hole I would stand at would be the 17th,” Endsley said.

Schauwecker said he also would recommend the fourth through sixth holes.

“I think that’s a great corner of the golf course,” he said. “You see a reachable [in two shots] par 5 on the sixth, a difficult par 3 over water on No. 5, and the fourth is just a classic Sahalee hole.

“It has a tight, tree-lined fairway and a tree in the fairway, so the players will have to choose whether they want to try to get past it by hitting a driver off the tee or play more conservative there.”

Where can I buy tickets and get information?

Both can be accomplished at kpmgwomenspgachampionship.com.