Out of the Rough: KPMG Women's PGA Championship (2025)

The third major of the LPGA Tour season is upon us, as the newly appointed headquarters of the PGA Tour of Americas takes center stage. 

Fields Ranch East at PGA Frisco will play host to this week’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship for the very first time.

The KMPG Women’s PGA Championship is the second longest standing tournament of the LPGA’s schedule, only being outdated by the U.S. Women’s Open.

It was first played in 1955 and played under various names for 60 years until 2015 when the event was first played under the title sponsorship of KPMG.

The purse this week sits at $10.4 million with the winner walking away with $1.56 million.

The Field

Every member of the top 100 of the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings will be teeing it up this week in Texas.

Among them is the defending champion, Amy Yang, who cruised to a three stroke victory a season ago at Sahalee Country Club en route to her maiden major victory.

Others include World No. 1 Nelly Korda who, to her standards, is having a down season which still includes two runner-ups, three top-fives, four top-tens and six top-15’s in eight events.

The rest of the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings top-ten include Jeeno Thitikul (2nd,) Lydia Ko (3rd,) Ruoning Yin (4th,) Haeran Ryu (5th,) Maja Stark (6th,) Hyojoo Kim (7th,) Hannah Green (8th,) Mao Saigo (9th) and Angel Yin (10th.)

England’s Mimi Rhodes has received a special exemption into the field this week on the back of her three victories on the Ladies European Tour (LET.) 

Joining Yang as former winners of this event and teeing it up this week are Yin (2023,) In Gee Chun (2022,) Korda (2021,) Sei Young Kim (2020,) Green (2019,) Sung Hyn Park (2018,) Danielle Kang (2017,) Brooke Henderson (2016,) Yani Tseng (2011 and 2008,) Cristie Kerr (2010) and Anna Nordqvist (2009.) 

The Course

The Fields Rach East at PGA Frisco was designed for this very purpose, to host major championships.

This was the goal prior to the opening of this venue, as it was awarded the host of future PGA Championships for both the men and women prior to its completion, becoming the first course in history to do so.

PGA Frisco has already hosted the 2023 Senior PGA Championship won by Steve Sticker and will host again in 2029.

It will host the 2027 men’s PGA Championship and will host this very event again in 2031. 

Afterall, the new PGA Tour of Americas headquarters is a stone's throw away.

The course is a Gil Hanse design and construction began in 2020. The goal of this project, outside of hosting major championships, was to create a world-class destination partnership with Omni Hotels. The idea was to construct a championship caliber golf course that too could be played by resort goers.

It plays as a Par 72 at roughly 7,114 yards this week.

The property features rolling fairways and small sloping greens throughout with a multitude of bunkers, a creek that comes into play and thick rough.

Off-the-tee, the fairways are wide and generous but if missed, things can get dicey as the big misses will be penalized. 

Bunkers are strategically placed in the desired landing locations throughout this golf course. Most tee-shots and long-approach shots will see golfers tempted to hug these bunkers for the desired second shot but risk finding themselves in one.

These bunkers are also no walk-in-the-park as they are some of the most aggressive ever designed by Hanse. The pronounced noses on these bunkers create deep and penalizing hazards, mainly around-the-greens. 

The surrounding green complexes here are designed in a way to bring the wide fairways into them to create both desirable and undesirable locations. 

The greens themselves are small in size and are well contoured. They feature strong slopes and false edges. The greens are Bermuda.

The tone of this golf course will be set out-of-the-gate as the par-five first hole will show much of what this course has to offer. The inside of a slight dogleg right is guarded by a bunker which will force golfers to hug it to take the desired line. Golfers will then hit into a narrow putting surface that slopes left-to-right and will force any balls hit to the left to run-off. 

This first hole is a true risk-reward to kick things off as golfers will either have to lay up heading into the green to create a desired shot, or hope their irons are dialed and get the ball to stick to the small landing area. 

This is a prime example of what to expect on nearly every hole at PGA Frisco. 

In all, there are low scores to be had at this golf course if golfers find the fairways and have a dialed approach game. This of course is all dependent if the Texas winds will have their say in who wins this week.

The Weather

There is at most a 15-percent chance of precipitation across all four days this week with all of Thursday, Saturday and Sunday calling for that mark. There is currently a zero-percent chance of precipitation for Friday. It will be hot though as temperatures will range between 94-to-96 degrees across all four days this week. Winds will increase as the week progresses however, as they are set to begin at nine miles-per-hour on Thursday. Winds will increase to 12 miles-per-hour on Friday before peaking at 15 miles-per-hour on Saturday. Winds will then settle to 13 miles-per-hour on Sunday. 

Key Stats

• Strokes Gained: Approach (SG: APP)

• Strokes Gained: Driving (SG: Driving)

• Average Driving Distance

• Strokes Gained: Around the Green (SG: ATG)

• Sand Saves Percentage

• Strokes Gained: Putting (SG: PUTT)

• Ball Striking

• Scrambling

• Par Five Average Scoring

• Birdie or Better Percentage

Betting Card

Haeran Ryu (+2000)

A lot of me wanted to go with Nelly Korda this week who has great value at +1100 on some books but in my stats-based model, Ryu is very close to Korda so I went with the extra value. Ryu is currently first on Tour in both SG: APP and ball striking, fifth in SG: Driving, ninth in birdie or better percentage, 25th in both average driving distance and sand saves percentage, 34th in par-five average scoring, 39th in SG: ATG, 66th in SG: PUTT and 71st in scrambling. She placed 31st at last week’s Meijer LPGA Classic for Simply Give. She also placed 36th at the U.S. Women’s Open, 26th at the Mizuho Americas Open, won the Black Desert Championship presented by Greater Zion and placed sixth at The Chevron Championship. She placed ninth at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship last year.

Ariya Jutanugarn (+3500)

Outside of winning one of the first two majors of the season, no one has performed better than Jutanugarn across those two events. She placed ninth at the U.S. Women’s Open and was the runner-up at The Chevron Championship. She also placed sixth at the Black Desert Championship presented by Greater Zion coming in. Jutanugarn is currently seventh on Tour in SG: APP, eighth in sand saves percentage, 19th in ball striking, 23rd in par-five average scoring, 26th in scrambling, 28th in birdie-or-better percentage, 53rd in average driving distance, 54th in SG: Driving, 61st in SG: ATG and 94th in SG: PUTT. She placed T32nd in this event a season ago, T24th in 2023, T54th in 2022, T46th in 2021 and T37th in 2020. 

Jin Young Ko (+4000)

Ko was one of three runner-ups to Yang a season ago at Sahalee Country Club. She also placed T20th in this event in 2023, T30th in 2022 and T46th in 2021. She missed the cut last week at the Meijer LPGA Classic for Simply Give but prior to that placed 58th at the ShopRite LPGA presented by Acer, 14th at the U.S. Women’s Open, sixth at The Chevron Championship and seventh at the JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro. She is currently tenth on Tour in both SG: APP and par-five average scoring, 25th in both scrambling and birdie-or-better percentage, 37th in SG: ATG, 58th in SG: Driving, 61st in ball striking, 83rd in SG: PUTT, 96th in sand saves percentage and 100th in average driving distance. 

Auston Kim (+11000)

Kim is currently third on Tour in average driving distance, seventh in SG: Driving, 15th in birdie or better percentage, 21st in par-five average scoring, 33rd in ball striking, 67th in SG: APP, 68th in SG: ATG, 111th in scrambling, 113th in sand saves percentage and 114th in SG: PUTT. She too is in some good form coming into this week, placing 15th in her last outing at the ShopRite LPGA presented by Acer, 31st at the U.S. Women’s Open, 21st at the Mizuho Americas Open, tenth at the Black Desert Championship presented by Greater Zion and 44th at The Chevron Championship.