4 Special Players To Watch At The KPMG Women’s PGA Championship

Formerly a teaching pro at Golf Club of Purchase and Rockrimmon Country Club in Stamford, Connecticut, Liz Caron is one of just eight club pros in the field. She won her spot in a playoff with Ashley Grier and Annika Sorenstam’s sister, Charlotta, at the 2014 LPGA Teaching and Club Professional National Championship. Caron has dominated at the Connecticut Women’s Open, winning four straight years from 2003-2006, and won the CSGA Women’s Amateur Championship five times. She now works with husband Jason Caron at the Mill River Club in Oyster Bay, New York.

Michelle Wie, the defending Women’s US Open champion, is fighting health issues, but promises to contend at the KPMG. She missed the cut at the ShopRite Classic during the last weekend in May, and didn’t start at the KPMG-tuneup Manulife Classic due to bursitis in her hip. She withdrew from the Kingsmill Championship with the same problem before the ShopRite Classic. 

Lexi Thompson, a major champion at 19 (last year’s ANA Inspiration) and in 2007 the youngest to make the cut, aged 12, at the US Women’s Open, has won six professional tournaments since going pro in 2010 and joining the LPGA Tour in 2012—all before turning 20 earlier this year. So far this season, she’s scored four top-tens and one very provocative Golf Digest cover.

A sentimental favorite in Westchester has to be Juli Inkster, winner of the JAL Big Apple Classic at Wykagyl Country Club in 1992. At 54, she’s the most senior player in the field, but the hard-charging professional hasn’t slowed a bit. She has 40 professional wins including seven LPGA majors. The last time she missed a cut in a major, by the way, was 2013.