CINCINNATI — Golf doesn’t often give us a perfect mix. But this week at TPC River’s Bend, the LPGA serves up a cocktail of everything that makes the sport addictive: a defending champion fighting to rediscover magic, a world No. 1 in full stride, a former winner measuring herself against ghosts of majors, a fan favorite taped together with grit, a star sponsor’s darling finding gratitude, and—just for spice—a teenager walking onto the first tee for the very first time with eyes wide and heart pounding.
That’s the Queen City Championship: a mirror of golf’s past, present, and future.
Lydia Ko: Searching for the Spark
Lydia Ko may already be a Hall of Famer, but she still talks like a player hungry for more. A year ago she stormed to victory here with a record-setting Sunday, the kind of round that rewrites memoriesko. “I proved to myself it wasn’t just a lucky stretch,” she said. Since then, the rhythm has been uneven — brilliant in Canada, ordinary elsewhere. So she did what great players do: change without changing. Same putter, new paint job. Brown to black. “It’s not a magic wand,” she joked. But Ko knows golf doesn’t need wands. It needs timing.
Minjee Lee: Precision, Patience, Perspective
Minjee Lee won this title at Kenwood, and her swing still looks like poetrylee. Her long game has always been the envy of peers; the short game, she admits, is where she bleeds. Yet 2025 has been steady, built on trust with the putter. “It’s just everything coming together piece by piece,” she said. Her eyes are already drifting toward Asia and the CME finale. But she knows the danger in looking too far ahead. Golf is cruel when you forget the shot in front of you. And River’s Bend, with its subtle ridges and sneaky rough, is not a place for daydreamers.
Charley Hull: Pain, Bravado, and Bare Nerves
Charley Hull limped into the press tent and left us with a line Hemingway would’ve killed for: “Pain is only a bloody weakness of the mind.”hull She’s taped together — torn ankle ligament, bad back, cysts on her spine. Still, she keeps playing, keeps contending. Hull fainted at Evian, missed weeks, and returned swinging with reckless intent. She lost here in a playoff two years ago. And she is exactly the kind of player who could win on fumes. If golf is theatre, Hull is its most compelling drama — limping down the fairway, still dangerous.
Maria Fassi: Gratitude as Armor
Maria Fassi is playing this week on a sponsor’s exemption, and she cried when the call camefassi. Not because she doubted the invite, but because she doubted herself. This has been a brutal year, and she admits she stopped liking the game. “I’m enjoying a bogey as much as I’m enjoying a birdie,” she said with a smile. That’s growth. Her length off the tee still thrills crowds, but it’s her honesty that wins them. Off the course, her foundation — Fassi’s Friends — keeps her purpose bigger than birdies. For a woman once defined by power, gratitude is now her sharpest weapon.
Jeeno Thitikul: A Reign Without Rhetoric
Jeeno Thitikul, world No. 1, speaks like someone who knows dominance is temporaryjenno. “Golf is golf,” she shrugged. “When it’s your year, it’s your year.” Her stats glow, her finishes rarely dip, and she keeps stacking results. Yet she remembers vividly watching Ko torch River’s Bend last year. She sounded more fan than rival: “It was, wow, incredible.” That humility is her shield. But don’t be fooled — she sees reachable par-5s and soft greens, and she’s already calculating. For Thitikul, greatness is arithmetic.
Vidhi Lakhawala: A Debut, A Dream
And then there’s Vidhi Lakhawala, 16 years old, standing where she once stood as a fanvidhi. She watched LPGA players at the ShopRite Classic and whispered to herself: one day. Now it’s here. “It’s always been a dream,” she said, still buzzing from her first autograph request. She hits fairways with machine-like accuracy, knows her yardages cold, and admits the course feels long. But this week isn’t about distance. It’s about discovery. Her friends and family will line the ropes. Her idols — Nelly, Lydia — will be on nearby tees. For one week, she’s in their world.
The Columnist’s Take
This tournament doesn’t need hype. It already hums with storylines. Ko is chasing herself. Lee is measuring patience. Hull is defying her body. Fassi is grateful for second chances. Thitikul is methodical in her reign. And Vidhi? She’s just beginning to write.
The Queen City doesn’t often get to be the center of women’s golf. This week, it is. And for those of us lucky enough to watch, it’s a reminder of why this game lingers: because somewhere between agony and joy, between old champions and new dreamers, golf shows us who we are.
