Originally posted by Amy Rogers on lpga.com, August 26th 2024

After a thrilling month of golf in Europe, the LPGA Tour returns to the U.S. for the inaugural edition of the FM Championship. The newest event on the schedule will be staged at TPC Boston, about 25 miles south of downtown Boston, and will feature 144 of the world’s best players vying for a share of one of the biggest purses of the year at $3.8 million. Here are five things to know about this week’s Tour stop in Massachusetts.

The Field

Former Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings No. 1 Jin Young Ko headlines the field this week at TPC Boston and will once again be looking to capture her first win of the season. Ko has six top 10s so far this year, but as the Tour schedule starts to wind down into the latter half of the 2024 season, the Korean is in danger of going without an LPGA Tour victory for the first time since 2016. She is coming off a missed cut at the AIG Women’s Open at St Andrews.

Also making the trip from Scotland to Boston is Olympic bronze medalist Xiyu Lin, who tied for 55th at the Old Course alongside Lexi Thompson, who played in what is likely her last AIG Women’s Open last week at the Home of Golf as the 29-year-old intends to retire from full-time competition at the end of the season.

Lauren Coughlin is another player set to tee it up in the inaugural FM Championship, and she comes to Boston as one of the hottest players on the LPGA Tour this season, winning twice in three starts at the CPKC Women’s Open and ISPS Handa Women’s Scottish Open. Coughlin’s game cooled last week, however, as she missed the cut at the AIG Women’s Open for the third consecutive year. Hannah Green, who is already a two-time winner this season on the LPGA Tour, is also making the trip to Massachusetts, along with Rose Zhang, who won earlier this year at the Cognizant Founders Cup.

The Course

Opening in 2002, TPC Boston was designed by Arnold Palmer, and for the first time this week, the venue will welcome the best in the women’s game for the FM Championship. The course was redesigned by Gil Hanse and Brad Faxon in 2007 and has a long history of hosting PGA Tour events, beginning with the Deutsche Bank Championship in 2003. The tournament, later known as the Dell Technologies Championship, was staged at TPC Boston until 2018. The facility also hosted the Northern Trust Championship in 2020. and over the last two decades, TPC Boston has produced some of the biggest champions in men’s golf, a list that includes the likes of Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Rory McIlroy. For this week’s FM Championship, the course will play to a par 72 at 6,598 yards.

Massachusetts Connections

For the members of the LPGA Tour who travel the world week in and week out, there is nothing quite like having a home game, as it presents these athletes an opportunity to tee it up in front of friends and family and get back to their roots. This week, Massachusetts’ own Megan Khang returns to her home state for the FM Championship. Khang was born in Brockton, Mass., and grew up in nearby Rockland, which is about a 40-minute drive from TPC Boston. Khang earned her breakthrough win on the LPGA Tour last season at the CPKC Women’s Open and has come close this year to picking up a second title, racking up three top-three finishes so far in 2024.

Like Khang, Alexa Pano was born in the Bay State and hails from Westborough, Mass., which is located northwest of TPC Boston. Although Pano currently calls Florida home, she has enjoyed the honor of being the first golfer to be sponsored by the New England Patriots, a nod to her Northeastern heritage. At last week’s AIG Women’s Open, Pano played in the third-to-last group alongside eventual champion Lydia Ko, ultimately finishing in a tie for 10th.

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