LPGA’s fifth and final major is up for grabs

EVIAN-LES-BAINS, FRANCE After nine different winners in the past nine women’s golf majors, the Evian Championship has no clear favourite when play begins Thursday.

The LPGA Tour this season has proved unpredictable with 20 winners of the 25 titles so far. No one has claimed more than three.

“That’s pretty incredible,” said Lydia Ko of New Zealand, the 2015 Evian champion who went on to win back-to-back majors with her 2016 ANA Inspiration victory in California.

“It just shows that it’s not someone who’s playing well, all the players are playing great,” Ko said.

Brooke Henderson of Smiths Falls, Ont., and Brittany Marchand of Orangeville, Ont., are in the field.

When she was No. 1 as a teenager, Ko appeared to be as dominant as Annika Sorenstam was more than a decade ago. But the 20-year-old Ko has struggled and is not among the season’s 20 winners — though she was runner-up last weekend at the Indy Women in Tech Championship in Indianapolis.

Second-ranked Lexi Thompson won in Indianapolis for her second title this season. It could have been the American’s third but for a notorious incident at the ANA Inspiration where she was penalized four strokes for a rule violation reported by a television viewer, then lost a playoff to top-ranked So Yeon Ryu.

Ryu now has two career majors, six years apart. When the 27-yearold South Korean won the 2011 U.S. Women’s Open, the Evian was still two years away from major status.

For its fifth year as the fifth women’s major, the Evian has bumped its prize money fund to US$3.65 million. The winner will take home $547,500, a raise of $60,000 from In Gee Chun’s prize last year.

Chun’s winning score at 21-under-par is a major record for men and women.