2024 Cognizant Founders Cup: Power Rankings, Defending Champion and More

The Cognizant Founders Cup returns to Upper Montclair Country Club. All five winners of the season, including the reigning world no. 1, Nelly Korda headline the field. Korda is one of the 29 major winners and 39 Olympians, including all three medal winners from the last edition,  in the field. Aside from the defending champion, Jin Young Ko, the field also includes four past champions: Minjee Lee (2022), Stacy Lewis (2013), and Anna Nordqvist (2017).

Honoring 13 LPGA founders, the $3 million purse event reaches its 13th year this time. Interestingly, every past champion boasts at least one major title in their resume. Before the tournament begins on May 9, here are our top four picks for the title.

Nelly Korda

The current world no. 1 is the hot favorite in any tournament she enters. Nelly Korda will be looking at her sixth consecutive victory at Upper Montclair Country Club. Korda matched Nancy Lopez and Annika Sorenstam’s tally of five consecutive victories by winning the Chevron Championship. The Norwegian went on to clinch ten titles in the 2004–05 season. Sorenstam had a T12 in her next start after the Kraft Nabisco Championship, the stage of her fifth consecutive title. Korda will look to extend her streak and become the only LPGA pro to win six times in consecutive starts.

Jin Young Ko

Jin Young Ko had a spectacular run at the Cognizant Founders Cup earlier. The defending champion is eyeing her fourth victory at the $3 million purse tournament. She won in 2023 and 2021, and before that, in 2019 at Wildfire Golf Club, when the tournament was known as the Bank of Hope Founders Cup. The South Korean bounced back after a missed cut at the Chevron Championship with a T4 at the JM Eagle Championship. Barring the missed cut at the Chevron Championship, the World No. 6 has finished no worse than T20 in her three starts.

Lydia Ko

The Kiwi is still on the hunt for the elusive one point that would open the Hall of Fame doors for her. Lydia Ko has netted three top-10s this season, making her 2023 season look like just a bad dream. In her last three starts, Ko has finished no worse than 18th. Among her 20 LPGA Tour victories, the Founders Cup is still missing, and the two-time Major champion is eager to change that.  

Hannah Green

Green has already won twice this season—the HSBC Women’s World Championship and the JM Eagle LA Championship. The five-time LPGA Tour winner defended her title last week, banking on a final-round score of 5-under-66. Last year, Green missed the cut of the Cognizant Founders Cup. Green ranks third in scoring average this season, 

Aside from these four, don’t rule out Maja Stark from the mix. The Swedish pro has notched two back-to-back runner-ups in her last two appearances. On the other hand, Brooke Henderson also returns to the green after a T2 at the Chevron Championship. As does Minjee Lee. The Australian has some unfinished business, as she came close to defending her title last year. The Founders Cup boasts a purse size of $3 million, the same as last year. A $450,000 paycheck awaits the eventual winner. Aside from that, 500 CME Globe Points are also on offer. What’s different, though, is the added importance of the event.

What else to know about the Cognizant Founders Cup?

Nelly Korda’s historic run has put the LPGA Tour back on the map that it had been missing for the last few years. After the Chevron Championship, once again, ESPN+ will broadcast the feature groups. There will be 40 hours of live coverage, with two featured groups in each morning and evening slot. 

Upper Montclair Country Club, famous for featuring in The Sopranos, has hosted LPGA Tour events more than seven times in the past. The Par 71, 6566-yard layout, designed by A. W. Tillinghast, will host the Founders Cup for the third consecutive year. Robert Trent Jones completed the renovated 1920s design three decades later. The LPGA Tour hasn’t released the tee times and pairings yet.  The 11th tournament of the LPGA Tour will follow the traditional 36-hole cut.