NORTON, Mass. — The FM Championship kicks off at TPC Boston on Thursday, and the 144-player field features plenty of the game’s top athletes. Ten 2024 winners are set to compete, including Cognizant Founders Cup champion Rose Zhang, Australian Hannah Green and soon-to-be U.S. Solheim Cup participant Lauren Coughlin. Massachusetts natives Megan Khang and Alexa Pano will also tee it up in front of friendly crowds as everyone battles it out for a share of a $3.8 million purse and ever-valuable Race to the CME Globe points.

Take a look at just some of the featured groups this week at the FM Championship, using data provided by KPMG Performance Insights:

**Thursday, 8:10 a.m.* – Rose Zhang/Celine Boutier/Amy Yang**

Rose Zhang will be looking to keep her made-cut streak going this week at the FM Championship, as the 21-year-old hasn’t missed a cut on the LPGA Tour since the U.S. Women’s Open presented by Ally at Lancaster Country Club. She captured her second career LPGA Tour title in May at the Cognizant Founders Cup, blitzing everyone in the field except runner-up Madelene Sagstrom with a four-day total of 24-under at Upper Montclair Country Club, and has earned three other top-10 finishes this season, the most recent of which is a tie for sixth that came at the CPKC Women’s Open. Statistically, Zhang is ranked in the top 15 in three strokes gained categories at the moment, currently sitting at fifth in strokes gained approach (+1.16), sixth in strokes gained total (+1.69) and 14th in strokes gained tee to green (+1.09), according to KPMG Performance Insights. As TPC Boston is an unfamiliar venue to everyone in this year’s field, it will take a well-rounded athlete to contend come Sunday at the FM Championship, and Zhang is a player who could definitely fit that bill, particularly considering her history with golf courses in the Northeast.

It's been a steady year for Celine Boutier, who has only missed one cut in her 17 previous starts ahead of the FM Championship and has earned six top 20s this year, the best of which was a solo second that came at the HSBC Women's World Championship in Singapore. Even though she has yet to capture her seventh LPGA Tour title after winning four times in 2023, the 30-year-old Frenchwoman is ranked in the top 25 in strokes gained approach (11, +0.89), strokes gained tee to green (22, +0.92) and strokes gained around the green (24, +0.21) so far this year, according to KPMG Performance Insights. Boutier is also 18th in both birdies (215) and sub-par holes (219) on the LPGA Tour this season, additionally ranking 19th in rounds in the 60s (17). She comes to TPC Boston off a pair of top-25 results in Scotland, tying for 25th at the ISPS Handa Women’s Scottish Open and tying for 22nd at last week’s AIG Women’s Open.

Amy Yang won her first major title earlier this year at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Sahalee Country Club, winning by three shots over Jin Young Ko, Lilia Vu and Miyu Yamashita in Sammamish, Wash. She hasn’t found herself at the top of the leaderboard since, finishing no better than T37 in her last three starts on the LPGA Tour. However, Yang did earn two top-25 finishes early in the year – a T22 at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions and a T23 at the Honda LPGA Thailand – that, along with her victory, have helped her rank 28th in the Race to the CME Globe with just nine events remaining until Yang will defend her title at the CME Group Tour Championship. The FM Championship marks Yang’s 16th event of the 2024 LPGA Tour season, and the Rolex Rankings No. 5 should feel right at home as she works to contend for a second victory this season as, like Sahalee, TPC Boston presents the 35-year-old with another tree-lined test.

Thursday, 12:59 p.m. – Megan Khang/Yuka Saso/Hannah Green

Massachusetts native Megan Khang is playing mayor at the FM Championship, as the LPGA Tour winner is one of just a handful of athletes with ties to the Bay State competing at TPC Boston. She even got to throw out a ceremonial first pitch on Tuesday night at the Red Sox game against the Toronto Blue Jays to help welcome women’s golf back to the Greater Boston area. Khang will be working hard to collect her second career LPGA Tour title this week in front of a hometown crowd, having become a Rolex First-Time Winner at the CPKC Women’s Open in 2023 after defeating Jin Young Ko in a playoff at Shaughnessy Golf and Country Club. Since her win in Canada, Khang has collected six top-10 finishes on the LPGA Tour, three of which are top fives that have come this season. The 26-year-old finished solo third at the LPGA Drive On Championship in January, tied for second at the ShopRite LPGA Classic presented by Acer in June and then tied for third a couple of weeks ago at the ISPS Handa Women’s Scottish Open. She has earned four other top-15 results so far this season in 16 total starts, and statistically, Khang is also showing her mettle as she competes week in and week out among the world’s best. According to KPMG Performance Insights, Khang is second in strokes gained tee to green (+1.81), fourth in strokes gained approach (+1.21) and seventh in strokes gained around the green (+0.43). She leads the LPGA Tour this season in proximity to the hole from 125 to 150 yards and is also ranked 20th in strokes gained driving (+0.48) and 23rd in strokes gained total (+1.09), only losing shots in strokes gained putting (-1.16) this year.

Yuka Saso collected her second LPGA Tour title and second major championship victory at the U.S. Women’s Open at Lancaster Country Club earlier this season and has been a bit quiet since, missing three cuts and only finding the top 20 once in her last five starts on the LPGA Tour. Still, it’s been a solid year for the 23-year-old, who has earned five total top-20 results in addition to her win at the season’s third major in Lancaster, Penn. The FM Championship is her 15th start of the 2024 LPGA Tour season, and while her recent results may indicate a brief slip in form, Saso is still performing well on paper, something that is evidenced when looking at data provided by KPMG Performance Insights. She ranks sixth in strokes gained putting (+0.89) and eighth in strokes gained driving (+0.63), also sitting at 26th in strokes gained total (+1.05). Saso is additionally second in birdie-or-better percentage when finding the fairway this season, recording a sub-par score 30.9 percent of the time when hitting the ball in the fairway off the tee.

Hannah Green is one of only four multi-time winners on the LPGA Tour this season, capturing her fourth career title at the HSBC Women’s World Championship in Singapore and then successfully defending her title at the JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro. This week marks her 15th tournament of the 2024 season, and in addition to those two victories, the Australian has collected four other top-20 results, including a solo second that came at the Mizuho Americas Open when Green went toe-to-toe with Nelly Korda at Liberty National Golf Club. The Rolex Rankings No. 7 is gaining shots in every major strokes gained category this season, most notably ranking 10th in strokes gained total (+1.46),16th in strokes gained putting (+0.61) and 20th in strokes gained approach (+0.69), according to KPMG Performance Insights. Green is additionally ranked second in putts per green in regulation (1.76) and fifth in scoring average (70.57) on the LPGA Tour this year.

Thursday, 1:10 p.m. – Jin Young Ko/Alexa Pano/Alison Lee

It’s been a solid season thus far for Jin Young Ko, even though she has yet to find victory lane on the LPGA Tour in 2024 and has missed two cuts at major championships. The Republic of Korea native has collected seven top-15 finishes in her 13 2024 starts, the best and most notable of which was a tie for second that came at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Sahalee. Statistically, the 15-time LPGA Tour winner is third in strokes gained approach on the LPGA Tour this season (+1.26) and is 11th in strokes gained total (+1.43), also ranking 23rd in strokes gained tee to green (+0.89), according to KPMG Performance Insights. Ko also ranks third in putts per green in regulation and ninth in scoring average (70.86).

Like Megan Khang, Alexa Pano also hails from Massachusetts. The 20-year-old was born in Westborough, Mass., and will be working hard to track down a second LPGA Tour this week in front of her friends and family at TPC Boston in Norton. She became a Rolex First-Time Winner last year on her 19th birthday at the 2023 ISPS Handa World Invitational in Northern Ireland, and has collected four top-15 results after doing so, most recently tying for 10th last week at the AIG Women’s Open at St Andrews. According to KPMG Performance Insights, the young talent is ranked inside the top five on the LPGA Tour in both strokes gained around the green (+0.54) and strokes gained driving (+0.80), also ranking ninth in strokes gained tee to green (+1.21). The Epson Tour alum has also recorded 19 rounds this season during which she has gained one full shot or more off the tee, and Pano is currently tied for third-most in that statistic, only behind LPGA Tour winners Linn Grant and Jennifer Kupcho.

California native Alison Lee just qualified for her first U.S. Solheim Cup team since 2015 after finishing in a tie for 29th at the Old Course at St Andrews and will be looking to capitalize on her bolstered confidence this week in Norton, Mass. The FM Championship is her 16th tournament of the 2024 season, and the 29-year-old has picked up four top-10 finishes this year, tying for third at the FIR HILLS SERI PAK Championship and then tying for eighth at the Ford Championship presented by KCC, Meijer LPGA Classic for Simply Give and CPKC Women’s Open. Statistically, Lee has also fared well so far in 2024, currently sitting at 11th in strokes gained tee to green (+1.18) and 19th in strokes gained approach (+0.69). She is also second in eagles this season with eight total. Like many in this week’s field, Lee is using the FM Championship as one last tune-up for the Solheim Cup at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, as the LPGA Tour is off next week ahead of the biennial team competition just outside of Washington, D.C.

*Off No. 10

For a complete list of tee times, please click here.

Featured Groups: 2024 FM Championship

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