As the LPGA returns to the Old Course at St. Andrews for the third time to play the AIG Women’s British Open, the Home of Golf is greeting the tour with a howling forecast. It’s expected to pour in Scotland. Gusts are predicted to hit 40 miles per hour. To say the least, they are not the ideal conditions for those entering the year’s final major, a crucial checkpoint of the season.

At week’s end, the automatic qualifying posts on both the American and European Solheim Cup teams will be finalized this week being a last chance for hopefuls to lock up their spots on the team. Meanwhile, despite there being more than three months until the CME Group Tour Championship concludes the season, only four full-field events remain after this week’s tournament. Players outside the top 100 in the CME points list, the line for guaranteed quality status for next season, get one last chance for boosted major CME points to bolster their odds of keeping their card.

With all this as the backdrop, here are the top 25 players we think have the best chance of joining Lorena Ochoa and Stacy Lewis as Women’s Open champions at the Old Course, in line to take home the $1.35 million first-place check—almost double the $723,095 of what Ochoa and Lewis earned combined.

25. Linn Grant

Valerio Pennicino

Rolex Rankings: 26 AIG starts: 3 Best AIG finish: T-11, 2023

The two-time DP World Tour’s Scandinavian Mixed champion has been up and down lately. Grant missed the cut at last week’s ISPS Handa Scottish Open after finishing T-3 in her title defense at the Dana Open in July. She has been more consistent in recent majors, earning back-to-back top-25s in the last two.

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Rolex Rankings: 46 Starts: 2 Best finish: T-36, 2023

The 22-year-old from Japan leads the tour’s rookie of the year points race after a runner-up in the CPKC Women’s Open, part of a run of three top-10s in her last six starts. Some of that momentum faltered by missing the cut in the weak-field Portland Classic before a T-57 in Scotland.

23. Yuka Saso

Sarah Stier

Rolex Rankings: 11 Starts: 3 Best finish: T-39, 2021

Saso won the U.S. Women’s Open for a second time in June and has a runner-up finish in 2023 at the KPMG Women’s PGA and a T-3 in 2023 at the Amundi Evian. The only major she hasn’t contended in has been the Women’s British, where she has missed the cut in her last two starts after a T-38 in her 2021 debut. After failing to make the weekend at the Evian last month and finishing 54th at the Olympics two weeks ago, her game isn’t trending in the direction you’d like ahead of a major.

22. Hannah Green

Rolex Rankings: 5 Starts: 6 Best finish: T-16, 201

Green has had a stellar two-win 2024 season, but this is the time of year—and the place on the map, where the Australian has traditionally struggled. In 11 career starts in the U.K., Green has yet to crack the top 10, finishing no better than T-16 in either the Scottish or British Opens.

21. Andrea Lee

Rolex Rankings: 44 Starts: 4 Best finish: T-7, 2020

Lee’s best performances at majors have come in the British, with a pair of top-10s in four appearances. Her steady-handed game fits well with tricky conditions the field is expected to face at the Old Course, as the California native has been in the top 15 in driving accuracy on tour in the last three seasons.

20. Rose Zhang

Elsa

Rolex Rankings: 9 Starts: 3 Best finish: T-28, 2022

Zhang made all four cuts in the four majors she played in as a pro during her rookie season in 2023 (and had three top-10 finishes). This year, however, she has missed the weekend twice with her best result a T-35 in the KPMG Women’s PGA. She’s too talented not to think she has a chance any week she plays, but exactly which version of Zhang will show up at St. Andrews is unclear.

19. Brooke M. Henderson

Rolex Rankings: 23 Starts: 9 Best finish: T-7, 2022

Henderson has regained her footing after a mid-season swoon. After not finishing in the top 25 over a five-event stretch, the 13-time winner has a pair of top-10s in her last four LPGA starts, including a T-8 on home soil at the CPKC Women’s Open.

18. Ruoning Yin

Andy Lyons

Rolex Rankings: 6 Starts: 1 Best finish: T-61, 2023

The 2023 KPMG Women’s PGA champion has only played in the Olympics since her Dow Championship victory a month ago, giving her time to allow for an injured wrist to heal. She returned in form at Le Golf National, earning a T-10 in her first Games.

17. Miyu Yamashita

Rolex Rankings: 20 Starts: 2 Best finish: T-13, 2022

Yamashita makes her fifth LPGA start of 2024, as the Japanese talent has primarily played in her homeland this season. Her runner-up in the KPMG Women’s PGA moved the 11-time JLPGA winner up the Rolex Rankings enough to qualifier her for the Olympics, where she impressed with a T-4 performance.

16. Allisen Corpuz

Ezra Shaw

Rolex Rankings: 27 Starts: 2 Best finish: T-6, 2023

Following a slow start to 2024, Corpuz has rattled off six straight top-30 finishes, beginning with a T-5 in the Meijer and earning a T-15 in Scotland this past weekend. Corpuz already has won a major on a famed course, claiming the 2023 U.S. Women’s Open at Pebble Beach. Why not make it two?

15. Hyo Joo Kim

Rolex Rankings: 15 Starts: 7 Best finish: T-4, 2023

Kim, a six-time LPGA winner who claimed her lone major 10 years ago at the Amundi Evian, has had 15 top-20 finishes in 18 major starts since returning to the LPGA from the COVID pandemic. That includes three out of four in 2024.

14. Megan Khang

Rolex Rankings: 21 Starts: 8 Best finish: T-11, 2016

Khang has had two top-three finishes in her last five starts, with a T-2 in the Meijer LPGA Classic and a T-3 in the Scottish Open. Sandwiched between the two, however, is a mishmash of results, as she has back-to-back missed cuts in the last two majors, the KPMG Women’s PGA and the Amundi Evian, alongside a T-14 in her title defense in Canada.

13. Jeeno Thitikul

Rolex Rankings: 17 Starts: 6 Best finish: T-7, 2022

The Thai native changed her first name from Atthaya to her nickname Jeeno following her victory in the Dow team event in July. In two starts since going by Jeeno, she hasn’t quite lived up to Atthaya’s results, as Thitikul missed the cut in Evian and was in medal contention at the Games going into the final round before a closing 76 had her finish T-18. The 2023 Vare Trophy winner had four straight top-10s before floundering in the last two majors, a T-52 in the KPMG Women’s PGA and a MC at the Amundi Evian.

12. Amy Yang

David Cannon

Rolex Rankings: 4 Starts: 16 Best finish: Fourth, 2011

Yang has been up and down since winning her first major title in 75 career starts in the KPMG Women’s PGA in June. The 35-year-old missed four cuts over seven starts dating back to early May, and following her victory at Sahalee, she missed the cut in the Dow and finished T-63 in the Evian before a fourth-place in the Olympics. Incredibly, for the No. 3 player in the world, the major victory is her only top-10 on tour this season.

11. Esther Henseleit

Rolex Rankings: 29 Starts: 5 Best finish: T-54, 2022

The German comes to the Old Course off back-to-back runner-up finishes, claiming the silver medal in the Olympics and finishing second to Lauren Coughlin at Dundonald Links last week. These recent finishes have all but locked up a spot on her first European Solheim Cup.

10. Charley Hull

Sarah Stier

Rolex Rankings: 10 Starts: 12 Best finish: Second, 2023

The Brit was runner-up a year ago at Walton Heath, the second of two second-place finishes in majors in 2023. She has played well in majors during her career, although she’s coming off a missed cut at the Amundi Evian and a T-27 in the Olympics. A T-5 at the Scottish Open suggests being back in the U.K. could be to her liking.

9. Nelly Korda

Patrick Smith

Rolex Rankings: 1 Starts: 7 Best finish: T-9, 2019

Korda couldn’t be beat—literally—early in 2024, winning six times including the Chevron Championship. But her play since has been inconsistent, with missed cuts at the U.S. Women’s Open and KPMG Women’s PGA. Big numbers seem to be a bug-a-boo of late; during the Olympics at Le Golf National, she had a quadruple bogey in the second round and a triple in the third, tanking her chances of defending her gold medal. It’s hard not to think she’ll snap back to form here soon, the question is will it be this week?

8. Hae Ran Ryu

Steph Chambers

Rolex Rankings: 19 Starts: 1 Best finish: T-21, 2023

Last year’s rookie of the year has the longest-active top-five streak on tour, finishing fifth in the Evian, runner-up in the Dana Open, and T-3 in Canada. While without a win, she has had eight top-10s on the year, including a T-9 in the KPMG Women’s PGA. She also held the 54-hole lead in the Chevron before faltering with a closing 74 for a fifth-place finish.

7. Ally Ewing

Vaughn Ridley

Rolex Rankings: 16 Starts: 7 Best finish: T-6, 2023

Ewing had her first missed cut of the 2024 season at the Scottish Open, ending a streak of eight consecutive top-25s, including a blistering four straight top-fives finishes. The American heads to the Old Course with a chance to redeem the five-shot 36-hole lead that she let slip away during last year’s British Women’s Open.

6. Jin Young Ko

Steve Dykes

Rolex Rankings: 3 Starts: 5 Best finish: Second, 2015

The South Korean has rounded into her best form of 2024 with three top-10s over her last four starts, punctuated by a T-6 in the Scottish. Ko hasn’t played the Women’s British much in recent years, making only two appearances since a third-place effort in 2019.

5. Minjee Lee

Valerio Pennicino

Rolex Rankings: 13 Starts: 10 Best finish: Third, 2020

Lee heads to the Old Course with links form following a T-12 in the Women’s Scottish. The Australian is arguably the best player on the LPGA in the British Women’s Open over the past four seasons, earning three top-fives in her last four starts, led by her third place at Royal Troon in 2020. The two-time major champion can quickly make amends for her U.S. Women’s Open Sunday heartbreak with another strong finish in the British.

4. Ayaka Furue

Matthew Lewis

Rolex Rankings: 7 Starts: 2 Best finish: T-20, 2021

The newly minted major champion has not finished outside the top 25 in a stroke-play event since Chevron, a seven-start streak that includes a T-6 in the U.S. Women’s Open, a T-19 in the KPMG Women’s PGA, and her Amundi Evian title. Furue’s consistency has her impressively leading Korda in scoring average this season by roughly .1, and staying steady will be essential amidst the demanding conditions at the Old Course.

3. Lydia Ko

Andrew Redington

Rolex Rankings: 12 Starts: 12 Best finish: T-3, 2015

Can Ko earn her third LPGA major after qualifying for the LPGA Hall of Fame? It’s been eight years since Ko won the 2016 ANA Inspiration, but she is trending towards major contention again. The Kiwi earned a ninth-place result at Dundonald Links last week, her third straight top-10 including a T-8 in Canada and completing her medal trifecta with gold in Paris.

2. Lilia Vu

Richard Heathcote/R&A

Rolex Rankings: 2 Starts: 2 Best finish: Win, 2023

The defending Women’s Open champion earned her fourth top-25 in five starts since returning from injury with a closing 69 to sneak into T-25 in the Scottish. The run includes three top-15s and a victory at the Meijer LPGA Classic. The T-25 sets a similar lead into the AIG from last season as Vu finished T-35 before winning at Walton Heath.

1. Lauren Coughlin

Paul Devlin

Rolex Rankings: 14 Starts: 2 Best finish: MC, 2022/23

A caddie texted me Saturday ahead of the Scottish’s conclusion, posing, “Is Coughlin the best player in the [women’s] world right now?” With her dominant Sunday, they are likely right. The American has won two of her last three starts, posted 18 straight rounds under par, and heads to St. Andrews off seven straight one-putts to earn her second career title. Despite not making a weekend in her two previous AIG appearances, Coughlin clearly is a new player this year and can take this season to another echelon if she were to pose on the Swilcan Bridge with another trophy.

This article was originally published on golfdigest.com