2024 JM Eagle LA Championship: Power Rankings, Defending Champion, Prize Money and Major Details

From the Jack Nicklaus Signature Course at The Woodland in Texas, the LPGA Tour will be moving to the City of Angels—Los Angeles, Nevada. The 144-player field will be playing the 6th edition of the JM Eagle LA Championship Presented By Plastpro at the Wilshire Country Club. The event has been scheduled to start on April 21st and end on April 28th.

After Chevron’s Championship, the competition at the LA will be fierce. Even though Nelly Korda will be absent from the field, 16 of the top 25 Rolex Ranking players will put their golf skills to the test at the 10th LPGA event of this season. But who will win it in the end? Here are the top five most suitable contenders for victory.

Top five pros to win the 2024 JM Eagle LA Championship

1. Hannah Green: The first on the list is Green, who is returning to the event as the defending champion. Back in 2023, she was able to claim her victory at the Wilshire Country Club by defeating Xiyu Lin in a playoff. The 27-year-old has already bagged her first win of the season from the five events in which she has participated up until now.

At the HSBC Women’s World Championship in Singapore, Green shot the final round of 5 under 67 and, led by a stroke over Celine Boutier subsequently won the event. So, although the Aussie has missed two cuts in the last three starts, Green would not let her title get away easily.

2. Maja Stark: 

While many LPGA Tour players like Jin Young Ko, Megan Khang, and Minjee Lee were unable to make the cut at the first women’s major of this season, Stark was able to put forth a stellar performance and gave the 2024 Chevron Championship a run for her money. At one point in the final round, the two were even tied for the lead.

However, the 24-year-old didn’t win, but her performance helped Stark secure her first solo runner-up finish of the season. This was her second top 5 after being T3 at the FORD Championship. Stark has won once on the LPGA Tour and with no Korda in the field of the LA Championship, she might be unstoppable at Wilshire.

3. Haeran Ryu: The 23-year-old joined the LPGA Tour in 2023 and already has one win in her portfolio. After a commendable performance at the Chevron Championship, it’s noteworthy that she was tackling the Club at Carlton Woods only for the second time. She was solo fifth at the first major after posting 9 under 279.

Add to that her three more top-15 finishes at the T-Mobile Match Play (T9), Honda LPGA Thailand (T9), and T12 at the Hilton Grand Vacations TOC, and there you have it—someone who can capitalize on her skill to win her second LPGA Tour event.

4. Lilia Vu: The 2024 season hasn’t started as exceptional as the World No. 2 might have thought. Right before the LA Championship, Vu couldn’t even defend her title at the Chevron Championship because of her recent injury issues, which resulted in her withdrawal from the first major of the season. However, the LA native has opted to play in her home state and will be in the field.

Despite being plagued with health hassles, Vu has been able to finish inside the top 20 twice, and only once was he out of the top fifty on the leaderboard. Vu is still the second-best golfer on the Women’s Golf Rolex Ranking and at the Wilshire CC, she will try to win her first title of the season and work her way up to the top of the world rankings once again.

5. Rose Zhang: The 20-year-old has played only five events so far in the 2024 season. Out of these five events, Zhang unfortunately missed the cut at two, the latest being at the Chevron Championship. However, her results also displayed two top-10 performances.

Before the first major, the 1-time LPGA Tour winner was tied for fifth at the T-Mobile Match Play in Nevada. Moreover, at the season-opening event at HGV Tournaments of Champions, Zhang was T7, which was followed by a T22 finish at the Fir Hills Seri Pak Championship. The one-time LPGA winner is one of the promising candidates to look out for on the LA greens.

Increased prize purse of the JM Eagle LA Championship

After JM Eagle and Plastpro replaced the DIO Implant as the sponsors for the Los Angeles Open, they exponentially increased the prize purse of the event. From the pool of $1.5 million, the two sponsors doubled it in 2023 to $3 million. And now, as the LPGA Tour elevated many prize purses in the 2024 season, another $750,000 was added to the prize purse.

So, the JM Eagle LA Championship boasts $3.75 million for the field of 144 players. Outside of the five majors and the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship, the LA Championship has the highest prize money. From this, the winner gets to take home a check of $562.500 from $450,000 in 2023.

Who will be the one to take the lead at the JM Eagle LA Championship and come out on top when it ends on April 28th? Share your predictions in the comments.