Paige Mackenzie Raises Course Setup Concerns Ahead of 2026 Chevron Championship
Golf Channel analyst Paige Mackenzie is asking a question about the LPGA Majors. Speaking on the 5 Clubs golf show just before the 2026 Chevron Championship, Mackenzie questioned whether LPGA major tournaments truly reward the best players.
"I do have a problem when the Major Championships are not identifying the top players in the world. And I have more of an issue in the fact that we're getting winners that are ranked fortieth in the world, fiftieth, sixtieth, eightieth..."
Take the 2025 season, for instance. Not a single LPGA star from the top 5 won a major. Instead, the likes of Maja Stark (24th ranked at the time) and Grace Kim (26th ranked at the time), each won a major.
2024 Rookie of the Year Mao Saigo won the 2025 Chevron Championship after the biggest five-player playoff in LPGA major history. At that time, she was not one of the top-ranked players in the world.
And as Mackenzie explained, the same cannot be said for the PGA Tour. For instance, the top two players last year, Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy, won three out of four majors in 2025. And there's a reason behind the difference in results.
"I don't think it's a lack of delivering on the women's side," she said. "But maybe it's about core setup, where you're not narrowing it down to the point where we're getting the best in the world in contention."
The upcoming Chevron Championship serves as a test case for this theory.
2026 Chevron Championship Field Features All Top 10 Ranked Players
The 2026 field looks strong. World No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul leads 132 players competing for $8 million. World No. 2 Nelly Korda, the 2024 champion, is also playing.
Other players in the field include Hyo Joo Kim, Charley Hull, Hannah Green, Miyu Yamashita, Minjee Lee, and Lydia Ko. All top 10 players from the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings are in the tournament.
Mackenzie is on the call this week from the NBC Sports booth. She will work with new lead play-by-play voice Cara Banks and analyst Morgan Pressel.
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Written by
Sneha Abraham
Edited by
Siddharth Shirwadkar