BRADENTON, Fla. — The Founders Cup presented by U.S. Virgin Islands is the second event of the 2025 LPGA Tour season and will be played this week at Bradenton Country Club in Bradenton, Fla., for the very first time. Defending champion Rose Zhang is not in the field as she has briefly returned to Stanford University to complete more classes toward her communications degree, but Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings No. 1 Nelly Korda, who the LPGA Drive On Championship that was held at this venue last season, is teeing it up, as are past Founders Cup champions Hyo Joo Kim, Jin Young Ko, Minjee Lee and Stacy Lewis. Sixteen of the 21 LPGA Tour rookies are also competing, most notably Epson Tour graduates Jenny Bae, Ingrid Lindblad, Cassie Porter, Jessica Porvasnik, Madison Young and Fiona Xu. A share of a $2 million purse is up for grabs, and 500 Race to the CME Globe points will go to the winner, the latter of which are always important as the year progresses.

Take a deeper look at just some of the featured groups this week at the Founders Cup presented by U.S. Virgin Islands using data provided by KPMG Performance Insights:

Thursday, 8:21 a.m. – Nelly Korda/Jin Young Ko/Minjee Lee

Nelly Korda outlasted Lydia Ko in a playoff at Bradenton Country Club last year at the LPGA Drive On Championship, a victory that kicked off a five-tournament winning streak for the current Rolex Rankings No. 1 that saw her capture four more titles in her next four starts at the FIR HILLS SERI PAK Championship, the Ford Championship presented by Wild Horse Pass, the T-Mobile Match Play presented by MGM Rewards and The Chevron Championship. Korda then went on to win two more times in 2024 at the Mizuho Americas Open and The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican. Even though she technically isn’t the defending champion this week, this event still has to feel a bit like a title defense for Korda, particularly as the Bradenton native is playing in front of a hometown crowd, local fans she will definitely be working to once again hoist a trophy for. This is Korda’s seventh start in the Founders Cup, and in her six previous appearances, she has finished in the top 10 twice, tying for second in 2019 at Wildfire Golf Club in Phoenix, Ariz. and then tying for seventh last year at Upper Montclair Country Club in Clifton, N.J., a finish that ultimately ended Korda’s winning streak. She kicked off her 2025 season last week at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, a performance that was highlighted by a final-round 65 which helped her to a solo second finish, her career-best result in the season-opening tournament. According to KPMG Performance Insights, Korda led the field at Lake Nona in strokes gained off the tee (+1.25), ranked third in strokes gained putting (+1.40) and was 15th in strokes gained approach (+0.53), three metrics that should indicate more success at Bradenton Country Club if the 15-time LPGA Tour winner maintains her form heading into tournament play. En route to victory at this venue last season, Korda ranked in the top 20 in all three of those aforementioned categories and also did so in strokes gained around the green (14, +0.48), a statistical performance she’ll hope to recreate this week as she pursues a 16th Tour title.

Jin Young Ko is a three-time Founders Cup presented by U.S. Virgin Islands champion, winning the event in 2019, 2021 and 2023. But all three of those victories came when the event was contested in Arizona and New Jersey, making how Ko will play this week in Bradenton, Fla., a bit of a question mark at this point. She’s coming off a T4 finish last week at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions after teeing it up in her first event of the 2025 season in Orlando, a performance that helped get the new year off to a good start for the Republic of Korea native. Statistically, Ko continued to show off the solid approach play that has led to her success over the last several seasons in Orlando, Fla., picking up over two shots on the field with that part of her game during Thursday’s first round. In fact, according to KPMG Performance Insights, Ko has recorded a round with two or more strokes gained approach 27.9 percent of the time since the beginning of 2022, the fourth-best percentage of all qualified players on the LPGA Tour in that span. But Ko is also a threat on the greens and is excellent at avoiding three-putts, only doing so 1.88 percent of the time on Tour in 2024, the lowest percentage of any member last season.

Like Ko, Minjee Lee has also won the Founders Cup presented by U.S. Virgin Islands, taking home the 2022 title at Upper Montclair Country Club in Clifton, N.J. But even though she is a past champion of this event, the Australian has never competed at Bradenton Country Club, electing not to play the 2024 LPGA Drive On Championship last year, the first LPGA tournament to be contested at this venue. Despite her lack of experience with the golf course, Lee will be riding plenty of momentum into this year’s Founders Cup, having carded a 10-under 62 in the final round of her debut at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions last week, her new career-low round on Tour and a good early-season confidence booster for the 28-year-old. According to data provided by KPMG Performance Insights, Lee is currently tied for fourth in strokes gained total (+2.29) through one event and additionally ranks third in strokes gained driving (+0.90). She is also leading in average putts per round (27.25), a statistic Lee was likely happy to see a strong performance in as she made an offseason switch to a long putter, one she will continue using this week at the Founders Cup.

Thursday, 12:17 p.m.* – Lexi Thompson/Stacy Lewis/Brooke Henderson

After announcing that she was stepping away from full-time LPGA Tour golf last year, Lexi Thompson is teeing it up this week at the Founders Cup presented by U.S. Virgin Islands, the first full-field event of the 2025 season. Thompson is a Florida native, and considering that it's a fairly short drive for the 11-time LPGA Tour winner and 2023 Founders Award honoree who resides near Boca Raton, Fla., it was an easy choice for her to decide to play in the tournament that honors the organization’s 13 founding members. Thompson was in the field last year at the 2024 LPGA Drive On Championship and finished in a tie for 16th at Bradenton Country Club, a result that she will be working to improve upon this week in her ninth Founders Cup appearance. Thompson has earned two top-12 results in her eight previous starts in this event, finishing solo 12th in 2021 at Mountain Ridge Country Club and solo second in 2022 at Upper Montclair Country Club.

Stacy Lewis won the Founders Cup back in 2013 and is fittingly making her 13th start in the event this week at Bradenton Country Club. The 2023 and 2024 U.S. Solheim Cup Team captain is finally getting to have a year in which she isn’t preparing for the biennial team competition to be contested in September, something the major champion is likely relieved about as she works to get her 17th season on Tour started on a positive note. In addition to her victory, Lewis has earned five other top-10 results at the Founders Cup, all of which came when the event was held at Wildfire Golf Club in Phoenix, Ariz., and four of which are T4 or better finishes.

Brooke Henderson has made six prior starts in the Founders Cup presented by U.S. Virgin Islands, earning four T13 or better results, the most recent of which came at the 2021 edition of the event that was held at Mountain Ridge Country Club in West Caldwell, N.J. The Canadian, who resides in Florida, was one of several athletes who competed at Bradenton Country Club in the 2024 LPGA Drive On Championship, tying for 16th in the first Tour event to be contested at the facility. Henderson was one of 32 players in the field for the season-opening Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions last week and knocked the rust off with a T14 finish at Lake Nona, a performance she will be working to better in Bradenton, Fla. According to KPMG Performance Insights, Henderson is off to a quiet start early in most strokes gained categories, most notably ranking seventh in strokes gained around the green (+0.41) following the first event of the 2025 season.

Thursday, 12:28 p.m.* – Charley Hull/Lydia Ko/Hannah Green

Charley Hull is another athlete playing for the first time at Bradenton Country Club, but the Englishwoman is also one of dozens of players making her 2025 debut at the Founders Cup presented by U.S. Virgin Islands. This week marks the LPGA Tour winner’s fourth time competing in this tournament, and in her three previous starts, two of which were at Wildfire Golf Club and one of which was at Mountain Ridge Country Club in West Caldwell, N.J., Hull has never finished better than T39, something she will be working to improve upon in Bradenton, Fla. Hull’s 2024 season was a pretty strong one, even though she didn’t wind up finding herself in victory lane at any point throughout the year. She made 15 cuts in 17 events and recorded five top-10 results, the best of which was a tie for second that came at The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican. Statistically, Hull finished last year ranked fourth in both par-4 scoring (3.99) and ball-striking (14), also sitting at eighth in greens in regulation percentage (73.92 percent). According to KPMG Performance Insights, Hull was additionally seventh in strokes gained tee to green (+1.14), tied for seventh in strokes gained driving (0.69), 10th in strokes gained total (+1.40) and 10th in strokes gained scoring at the end of the 2024 season.

After winning the 2024 Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, Lydia Ko nearly earned another title the very next week at the LPGA Drive On Championship, ultimately finishing solo second in Bradenton, Fla., after falling to Nelly Korda in a playoff at Bradenton Country Club. Those early-season performances set Ko up for plenty of other success throughout the rest of the year as she clinched the 27th point she needed for automatic induction into the LPGA Hall of Fame by winning the gold medal at the Paris Olympics in August, captured her third career major title at the AIG Women’s Open at St Andrews and then collected another victory at the Kroger Queen City Championship presented by P&G. But, Ko has proven in the past that it is hard to follow up a spectacular year with more incredible golf, so many are still wondering how she’ll fare in 2025 considering everything she accomplished in 2024. In her title defense last week at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, Ko finished alone in sixth place, a strong way to kick off the year with a lot of lofty expectations put upon her, and she will again be working to do something similar this week at the Founders Cup as she tries to hoist a 23rd LPGA Tour trophy. Looking back at her 2024 Drive On performance using KPMG Performance Insights, Ko gained 1.75 shots per round with her putting, which was her second-best tournament-long performance on the greens, only sitting behind her victory at the Old Course. She was also the only athlete who was inside the top 10 in both strokes gained tee to green (+1.83) and strokes gained putting (+1.75) at Bradenton Country Club last season, something Ko will be trying to recreate this week as she works to claim a spot at the top of the leaderboard.

Hannah Green made both her 2025 and tournament debut at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, ultimately finishing in a tie for 20th, a showing that she will be trying to outdo at the Founders Cup this week. Green had an excellent 2024, collecting victories at the HSBC Women’s World Championship, the JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro and the BMW Ladies Championship to record her first three-or-more-win season on the LPGA Tour. She also represented Australia at the Paris Olympics and nearly medaled, tying for fourth at Le Golf National in France, and finished the year ranked highly in several key statistical categories, including strokes gained total (8, +1.43), according to KPMG Performance Insights. So, like her groupmate Lydia Ko, Green is very much working to combat the internal and external expectations that often plague players after a season of prolific performances, but she will also be trying to channel her past successes as she tackles the challenge of a new venue in her sixth Founders Cup start, having never finished better than a tie for 18th in this event.

*Off No. 10

For a complete list of tee times, please click here

Featured Groups: 2025 Founders Cup presented by U.S. Virgin Islands

Related Articles