This week, LPGA and PGA Tour golfers will take the stage at two spectacular golf courses on the eastern coast of the United States.
Liberty National Golf Club on the Hudson River in Jersey City, N.J., will welcome 120 LPGA Tour players and 24 AJGA girls for the Mizuho Americas Open. Athletes will have the opportunity to earn Race to the CME Globe points and will play for a total purse of $3 million, while the AJGA participants will be working to earn one of the more prestigious titles in junior golf.
The Dunes Golf and Beach Club in Myrtle Beach, S.C., will host 132 players who will compete in the ONEflight Myrtle Beach Classic that boasts a $4 million purse and will see the winner receive 300 FedExCup points.
The Dunes Golf and Beach Club is a par-71 course totaling 7,347 yards located in one of the more golf-crazed communities in the country. It was designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr. in 1948 and was most recently renovated by Rees Jones in 2023, a year that saw the course celebrate its 75th Anniversary. The course features Bermudagrass greens that average 6,000 square feet, 72 bunkers and six water holes. Players will be heavily challenged on holes 10 through 1, which collectively are known as Alligator Alley.
Designers Bob Cupp and Tom Kite partnered to create Liberty National, which opened in 2006. These championship links span 6,690 yards with a total par of 72. The Bent grass greens are designed to be smooth and fast and are a gold-standard feature of this tournament.
Nelly Korda won the 2024 Mizuho Americas Open by one stroke over Hannah Green with a final score of 14-under (274). Korda is currently ranked No. 17 in the Race to the CME Globe and has been No. 1 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings since late March last year. She has recorded 17 top-10 finishes, including eight wins in her last 35 worldwide starts.
Chris Gotterup won the 2024 Myrtle Beach Classic with a score of 22-under (262) and was six strokes better than Davis Thompson and Alistair Docherty who tied for second place. Gotterup earned his PGA Tour card on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2023 by finishing in the top 25 in 14 of 21 events after making the cut.
Both Korda and Gotterup will be looking for victory as they face the challenge of defending this week. This will be Gotterup’s first time to defend a title on the PGA Tour compared to Korda’s 11th attempt. She has successfully defended a title two times in her career, doing so at the Taiwan Swinging Skirts LPGA presented by CTBC in 2019 after winning the event in 2018 and at The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican in 2022 after picking up a victory at Pelican Golf Club in 2021.
When comparing the defending champions, Korda leads Gotterup in driving accuracy, while both athletes averaged 28 or fewer putts per round. With similar driving distances and greens in regulation hit, both players clearly excel in course management, which helped them secure victories in their respective tournaments.