MISSISSAUGA, Ont. – Former world No. 1 Lydia Ko has seen almost all there is to see on the LPGA Tour. The New Zealander won the gold medal at the Olympics last year in Paris, stamping her ticket to the LPGA Hall of Fame.
The calendar turned to 2025, and Ko continued her winning ways, capturing the trophy at the HSBC Women’s World Championship.
Including Ko, however, there have been 21 tournaments so far this season and a different winner at each one – although a set of twins, Chisato and Akie Iwai, both have won once.
Ko said as much as she would love to win more to close out 2025, the competitive parity on tour is unlike any other time in its history. And with the CPKC Women’s Open set to play not that dissimilar from any of the major championships on the schedule, Ko knows everyone will be raising their games to try to win this week at the Mississaugua Golf and Country Club.
“You see (from) all the players are from different countries, different areas, and I think it just shows a level of golf, the level of women’s golf these days,” Ko said. “I think there is a reason why all the players are grinding out there to try and get better. Doesn’t matter if you’re the No. 1 ranked player or you’re 100th on the (Race to CME Globe standings) there is always that motivation to keep getting better, to be the one that’s hoisting the trophy at the end of the week.”
Ko is a three-time winner of this event and is gunning for some history – as no one has ever been a four-time champion. There is also already some New Zealand momentum here, as her countryman, Ryan Fox, won the RBC Canadian Open in June.
“I wish I had won it first and then there would’ve been a little less pressure for the second – there is more pressure for the second person,” Ko said with a laugh. “If I can add to that excitement for the Kiwis, that would be I think an extra bonus.”
Ko has two top-10 finishes at this event in her last three years and has had seven top-10s in 11 starts in Canada.
While the tournament is no longer officially a major on the LPGA Tour schedule, it certainly feels like it for a variety of reasons, including both the field strength and the course. Nineteen tournament winners this season are in the field along with 85 of the top 100 in the Rolex Rankings – including world No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul and No. 2 Nelly Korda, along with Ko at No. 3 and Minjee Lee at No. 4.
Imagine if the RBC Canadian Open announced that all of Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, and Justin Thomas were teeing it up?
“I think everyone kind of wants to always play this tournament,” Korda said. “The schedule really flows nicely. That has a part in like why the field is so strong this year, too. And we get to play some amazing golf courses. Like I said, the fans are unbelievable at this event every year. We get treated really nicely.
“Those are the little things that always make us come back.”
The tournament features plenty of special extras for not just the fans, but the players and caddies as well. Returning for 2025 is the Golf Town Players Tour Truck adjacent to the driving range. This is the only event on the LPGA Tour schedule where there is a fully functioning truck available for the players’ usage, meaning the best in the world don’t need to scramble for grip changes, shaft tweaks, or replacement driver heads. Not only is gear at their fingertips but also access to Foresight launch monitors – which are valued at upwards of $30,000 and can help the best on the LPGA get dialed in for the week ahead.
The Players Tour Truck made its debut on the LPGA Tour last year in Calgary and any player is welcome – no matter her equipment company affiliation.
“At Golf Town, from day one, we have been committed to promoting equality in our sport of golf,” said Frederick Lecoq, chief marketing officer at Golf Town, last year. “By introducing our Players Tour Truck at the CPKC Women’s Open, we are taking a significant step in providing female athletes with the expertise and resources to help them perform their best on Canada’s greatest stage.”
Aside from the impressive buildout, player offerings, and competition, the venue also plays a big role in the week – and the CPKC Women’s Open has been travelling to some of the country’s best over the last decade.
Mississaugua Golf and Country Club just happens to be a timeless Canadian venue – more than a century old and touched by iconic golf-course designers Donald Ross and Stanley Thompson. It’s hosted the Canadian Open on the men’s side six times’ , with Sam Snead and Walter Hagen as past champions. All six of those names are carved into special signage near the first tee at Mississaugua, with a space now for the winner of this week’s tournament too.
The CPKC Women’s Open is one of only three tournaments on the LPGA Tour schedule that travels to different courses every year – the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and U.S. Women’s Open, both majors, being the others.
When the first ball is in the air Thursday, Mississaugua will become just the eighth course in the country to host all of the CPKC Women’s Open, RBC Canadian Open, and the Canadian Men’s and Women’s amateur championships. Shaughnessy Golf and Country Club in Vancouver was the last to add its name to this list when it hosted the women in 2023.
Lauren Coughlin is the defending champion, having won at Calgary’s Earl Grey Golf Club by two shots for her maiden LPGA Tour title.
Next year’s CPKC Women’s Open returns to Royal Mayfair in Edmonton where Ko, who was just 16, won the event – by five strokes – for the second time.
Thitikul – who is teeing it up for the first time since being named No. 1 in the world after taking over from Korda, who spent almost the whole of 2024 in the top spot after winning seven times – knows that despite the fact she is the tour’s top-ranked player, anyone has a great chance to win this week.
“I think the level of the competition, it’s higher and higher. It’s not easy […] winning on the LPGA,” Thitikul said. “You have to be the real deal.”
The tournament already is.
