It’s set to be a tremendous fortnight of links golf on the LPGA Tour, starting with the ISPS Handa Women’s Scottish Open at Dundonald Links.
The event has been the home of success for Celine Boutier over the last two seasons, as the Frenchwoman finished second in 2022 before winning by two shots last year. Boutier, who had a magical week at the 2024 Olympics representing France in Paris, said she has had a lot of good thoughts about the golf course and is hoping to lean on her recent success again this week.
There will be 10 2024 LPGA Tour winners in Scotland, including recent Hall-of-Fame qualifier Lydia Ko, who won the gold medal at Le Golf National. Six past champions, along with five of the top 10 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings and three dozen Olympians, are teeing it up at Dundonald, which is hosting the event for the third consecutive year.
Here’s a look at some of the featured groups at the ISPS Handa Women’s Scottish Open usingKPMG Performance Insights.
Thursday, 7:21 a.m.* – Brooke Henderson/Esther Henseleit/Patty Tavatanakit
Olympic silver medalist Esther Henseleit, who shot the second-lowest round of the day on Saturday at Le Golf National, returns to action in Scotland, where she finished T20 a year ago. Henseleit has notched three top-10 results this season, but two of them have come in major championships, so she is used to performing well on the big stage. According to KPMG Performance Insights, Henseleit was in the mix in Scotland a year ago thanks in large part to her putting. She was sixth in strokes gained putting for the week at the ISPS Handa Women’s Scottish Open in 2024. She’s 106th in that same category this season, per KPMG Performance Insights, so a solid week on the greens will be the difference for her this week as she works to ride the momentum from her finish in Paris.
Canadian Brooke Henderson is making her tournament debut and is coming into the week after finishing tied for 13th just outside of Paris. Henderson has notched seven top-10 finishes so far this season, the most recent of which is a tie for eighth in her home country at the CPKC Women’s Open. The 13-time LPGA Tour winner is 11th on Tour in strokes gained total this season, according to KPMG Performance Insights, mostly because of her ball striking. She’s 16th in both strokes gained tee to green and strokes gained off the tee. In Paris, she was third in strokes gained off the tee, and as she’s long talked about, Henderson is hopeful to keep giving herself chances and rolling in a few putts.
Like Henderson, Patty Tavatanakit is another major champion looking to continue a solid year. A winner already in 2024, Tavatanakit finished tied for sixth last year at the Women’s Scottish Open. She’s putting together a tidy campaign on the LPGA Tour this season, sitting seventh in strokes gained total, per KPMG Performance Insights. For the season, however, she’s 84th in strokes gained putting. Last year at the Women’s Scottish Open, she was eighth in that same statistic. That’ll be the difference, again, for her at Dundonald Links.
Thursday, 7:32 a.m.* – Celine Boutier/Gemma Dryburgh/Lydia Ko
Lydia Ko comes into the ISPS Handa Women’s Scottish Open on a high, having completed her Olympic medal collection with a golden triumph in Paris. She also claimed her spot in the LPGA Hall of Fame after earning the final point needed for automatic qualification. Ko is hoping her on-fire flatstick made the trip from France to Scotland, as she was first in strokes gained putting at the Olympics. Using KPMG Performance Insights, Ko is 21st in that stat this season on the LPGA Tour and has put together a solid tee-to-green game, too, sitting at 12th in strokes gained total. She won the first event of the year at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions and is as eager as ever to keep her golden run going at Dundonald Links.
Talk about horses for courses when it comes to Celine Boutier at the Women’s Scottish Open. Boutier, the defending champion, has had a bit of an up-and-down campaign by her standards, with just one top-10 finish this season, one that came all the way back in February. If there’s been anything that’s held her back this year, it’s been her driving, as she sits at 88th on the LPGA Tour in strokes gained off the tee, according to KPMG Performance Insights. But she still sits in the top 10 in the Rolex Rankings, and after going 2-1 at this event the last two years, she should be a threat once again at Dundonald Links.
Scottish hero Gemma Dryburgh finished tied for 44th at this event last year, but according to KPMG Performance Insights, she had as tidy a tournament as anyone with her ball striking. Dryburgh was 14th in strokes gained tee to green, eighth in strokes gained approach and third in strokes gained around the green. She’ll want to showcase a repeat performance in 2024 to try to climb the leaderboard as she looks to notch her third top-10 finish of the season and get closer to locking up a spot on the European Solheim Cup team.
Thursday, 12:21 p.m. – Lauren Coughlin/Charley Hull/Jin Young Ko
Lauren Coughlin finally broke through for her first LPGA Tour title at the CPKC Women’s Open, where she had a down-to-the-wire duel with Haeran Ryu in Calgary. Coughlin is playing some of the best golf of her career and heads to Scotland after three straight top-10 finishes, including a fourth-place showing at The Amundi Evian Championship. She has six top 10s this season and is 10th in strokes gained total for the year, according to KPMG Performance Insights. She finished tied for 55th at this event last season and will be keen to convert even more birdie opportunities in 2024, as she was 10th in strokes gained approach at Dundonald Links a year ago.
Former world No. 1 Jin Young Ko will return to Scotland for the first time since 2022. Ko has been a model of consistency so far this season, missing just one cut and recording four top-10 results, including a tie for second at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. Ko has had a shockingly poor season with the driver, essentially sitting last on the LPGA Tour in strokes gained off the tee. She is also 57th in strokes gained around the green. That matters little when you’re fourth in strokes gained approach, per KPMG Performance Insights, but for Ko to find success this week – and through the balance of the busy season – she’ll look to tidy up the other parts of her game.
On the opposite end of the spectrum with the driver as compared to Ko is Charley Hull, as the Englishwoman is fourth on the LPGA Tour in strokes gained off the tee. Her putting has let her down this season, however, as, according to KPMG Performance Insights, she is 102nd in strokes gained putting. Hull finished tied for 35th last year in Scotland and managed to have a very tight short-game performance. She was eighth in strokes gained around the green and 21st in strokes gained putting at Dundonald Links. The big question for Hull is how her shoulder injury will hold up. She fell in the shower prior to the Olympics and opened with an 81 but recovered well. She shot rounds of 71-69-68 and finished T27 at Le Golf National.
*Off No. 10
For a full list of tee times, please click here.
