The world number one wants to find her way back to the winning track, and two young Swedish women hope to secure their first Olympic Games spot.
Here are the conditions ahead of the PGA Championship, the third major of the year for the ladies.
Favourite:
World number one Nelly Korda won six out of seven tournaments in the spring, including the year's first major, the Chevron Championship. However, she has missed the cut in her last two tournaments.
It's golf. I'm going to experience these situations so many times where I feel like I'm playing well, and I'm going to experience a little slump where golf is the hardest thing in life.
Challengers:
World number two Lilia Vu has been out due to injury for over two months, but returned with a win last week. The American, who took two major titles last year, won the LPGA tour event in Detroit after a playoff. Chinese world number three Yin Ruoning is the reigning champion of the PGA Championship but has not won a tournament since last year's victory.
Winning drought:
European wins in the three ladies' majors played in the USA have been extremely rare in recent years. Anna Nordqvist won this major in 2009 (when it was called the LPGA Championship), but since then, Pernilla Lindberg's surprise win in the ANA Inspiration in 2018 is the only European major triumph on American soil.
Course:
The Sahalee Country Club just outside Seattle, Washington in the northwestern corner of the USA is hosting this year's championship. The tournament was played on the tough course in 2016, when Canadian Brooke Henderson won with a score of –6, and only seven players managed to go under par.
The Swedes:
There are seven Swedish players in total, and several of them are in good form. Last week, Linnea Ström won her first LPGA tour title, the same weekend Linn Grant won the mixed European tour event at Vasatorp.
Grant likes the challenge the course offers:
I really like that it's very narrow from the tee. That's where I know I'm strong, both because I hit it long and because I usually hit better drives the narrower it gets, she says.
Olympic battle:
The world ranking after the PGA Championship will determine which two Swedish women will play in the Olympics in Paris. Maja Stark (17th) and Linn Grant (27th) currently hold the spots, but Madelene Sagström (38th) and Anna Nordqvist (63rd) still have a theoretical chance of making it to the Olympics. Sagström needs to finish at least third to snatch one of the spots, while Nordqvist will likely need a win.
The tournament starts on Thursday with the following Swedish tee times (Swedish time). 16.27: Maja Stark, 17.00: Anna Nordqvist, 17.17: Frida Kinhult, 17.50: Pernilla Lindberg, 21.44: Madelene Sagström, 22.06: Linnea Ström, 22.17: Linn Grant.
