It doesn’t seem that long ago when Anna Nordqvist was winning the last major of 2021 with the Open Championship. Just 13 events have passed since the last major was held & they have all been dominated by Jin Young Ko who has won 5 of those events so rightly comes into the event world no1. This event is known to most as the ANA but was renamed under the new sponsorship this year & is now known as The Chevron championship. Mission Hills in California is hosting at its Dinah Shore Tournament course for the 40th time as a major championship. Who will be taking the leap into Poppies Pong on Sunday afternoon to Join the illustrious names that have won here before?
Course
Mission Hills in California is the destination this week with the Dinah Shore Tournament Course the venue. The Desmond Muirhead designed course is a par 72 measuring 6865 yards made up of four par 3s, ten par 4s & four par 5s. A long parkland course which can be very challenging if the wind gets up which luckily this week it’s not currently forecast to so winning score could be reaching -20 for the 1st time. Dinah Shore is very much a second shot course, getting the ball in play off the tee will be vital to controlling the second shots to give players the best opportunity of making some low numbers. The rough, 68 bunkers, trees & water in play of four holes can create numerous issues for players if they aren’t accurate off the tee or on approaches. I’m very interested to see if the 18th hole is set up without the back stop sponsorship board of previous years, the longer hitters have been able to go for the green & not risk the water behind the green as they have the board to use as a back stop. Dottie Pepper holds the cumulative score record here at -19 set way back in 1999.
Previous Winners
2021 Patty Tavatankit -18 175-1
2020 Mirim Lee -15 600-1
2019 Jin Young Ko -10 9-1
2018 Pernilla Lindberg -15 225-1
2017 So-yeon Ryu -14 14-1
2016 Lydia Ko -12 5-1
2015 Brittany Lincicome -9 66-1
2014 Lexi Thompson -14 22-1
2013 Inbee Park -15 14-1
2012 Sun-Young Yoo -9 66-1
Narrowing down some trends in the winners
- Each of the last 10 winners have played the event at least 3 times previously.
- 9 had at least one top 5 in the calendar year
- 7 hadn’t registered a top 10 here before
- 24.7 is the average age of these winners with two of them being teenagers Lydia Ko & Lexi Thompson & only one was in their 30s with Pernilla Lindberg at 31.
Players who fit this trend this year are Leona Maguire, Celine Boutier, Georgia Hall, Hannah Green, Lin Xiyu, Gaby Lopez, Marina Alex, Brittany Altomare, Hsu Wei Ling, Angel Yin & Sakura Yokomine.
Golftipster5 Picks
Danielle Kang 20-1 Skybet 7 Places
Danielle comes into the 1st major of the year in some of the best form of her career, in five starts this season she has one victory, one second place & two more top 10s. She has played this event ten times with various results, three missed cuts but then also has three top 15s & her best finish here is 6th in 2019. Also, worth noting those three top 15s were in here last three stars here. She took a short break after the Asia swing in Phuket with Ariya Jutanugarn & last week would have been great prep to get rid of any post-holiday rust before this week’s major. The current CME globe leader is one of the best putters on the LPGA which she will need to keep hot this week to have any chance of winning. Her greens in regulation percentage of 76% shows that with the course being classed as a second shot course should theoretically put her in a great position to go well this time round. She’s statistically the 3rd best golfer this year going off stroke gained total behind Jin Young Ko & Lexi Thompson who haven’t played as much as Danielle.
Minjee Lee 25-1 Skybet 7 Places
The green in regulation machine will look to claim her 2nd major this week after getting the monkey off her back last year. The Evian Champion has had a great start to the season with a 2nd first start out & two more top 25 finishes. She like Kang has played here numerous times but has had better overall performances than Kang with just one missed cut & in her other seven starts she’s hasn’t finished worse than 26th with a best finish of 3rd in 2017. She leads the field in strokes gained approach & tee to green so if she can improve her putting stats where she ranks 122nd she should have another cracking week & will certainly be challenging come Sunday afternoon.
Celine Boutier 28-1 Skybet 7 Places
I was slightly disappointed with the price of Celine but given her form I still can’t ignore her this week. She fits the trends of pervious winner perfectly; she’s had numerous top 10s already this year & hasn’t gone particularly well here before with a best finish of 44th In 5 starts. She will 100% win one if not multiple majors in her career & there is no reason why number one can’t be this week. She ranks 5th stokes gained total combining all the strokes gained categories, Strokes gained approach she is 7th, putting 11th & tee to green 18th. She won her 1st LPGA event in the states last year & is currently in excellent form with three top 5 finishes from 5 starts so she will be full of confidence this week.
Hannah Green 40-1 Skybet 7 Places
Hannah spent the off season back home in Australia playing a few mixed events with the guys & girls on the Australia tour with some success, she won the Ladies Vic Open & a mixed event in back-to-back weeks. Since returning to the LPGA she has had one top 10 a 27th & 59th last week. She is a player who fits the narrowing down the field trend but also has good form here & is in excellent form herself. She has appeared four times here before with two top 20s, one missed cut & a 62nd. The 62nd came in the September playing of the event not the usual April. This week could easily be the week she adds another major to her name.
Brittany Altomare 125-1 Skybet 7 Places
I’ve got to be honest narrowing down a long shot I normally find quite easy but this week I’ve really struggled to pinpoint a value long shot play. I looked at Pedersen, Castren & Popov but they didn’t really stick out enough for me to pick them, so I’ve gone for a slightly shorter but still a triple figure price of Brittany. She has made four appearances here with a best result of 16th on debut. She has since gone 44-20-MC. The 31-year-old didn’t have the best of Asia swings with two 51 placed finishes but came back to the states to finish 23rd last week. She has one top 10 this year from the Drive on championship where she finished 4th so another player who fits the trends & I’m happy to play with Sky’s 7 places
Other notables:
Stacey lewis 100-1 – cracking form as of late as well as a previous winner at this event but I’ve backed her numerous times slately with no returns.
Gabriella Ruffells 200-1 – playing on the futures tour currently but has two solid finishes here previously with a 15th & 19th
Odds correct as of 08:00 29/03/22
Good luck with all best
@Golftipster5 – Ryan Hamilton