For the first time in its five-year history, the Kroger Queen City Championship presented by P&G shifts to Maketewah Country Club in Cincinnati this week, and it brings one of the deepest fields the event has ever assembled. Defending champion Charley Hull arrives to put her name on the trophy a second time. World No. 1 Nelly Korda arrives off her third win of the 2026 season. And 144 players will chase a $2 million purse over four rounds from May 14–17.
It is, by any reasonable measure, the most competitive women’s field outside of a major this spring. The story is not just who wins — it is what a tournament-tested classic course built in 1928 will do to the back-spin, the wedge play, and the putting confidence of a generation of LPGA stars who have never seen a Maketewah green.
What’s Happening at Maketewah
The 2026 Kroger Queen City Championship runs May 14–17 at Maketewah Country Club, a private parkland course on Cincinnati’s north side. The tournament, anchored by Kroger and Procter & Gamble, moved venues for 2026 after spending its first four editions at Kenwood Country Club. The LPGA confirmed Maketewah as the new host in February, and the buildup has done exactly what tour officials hoped: pulled a deeper, more international field than the event has ever had.
According to the LPGA, the field includes seven of the world’s top 10 and 16 of the top 20 on the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings. That density of star power is rare for a $2 million regular-season stop, and it reflects two things: the rising prestige of the Queen City Championship in just five years, and the unusual scheduling pocket that places this event the same week as the men’s PGA Championship at Aronimink.
For most casual viewers, the Queen City sits in the shadow of the men’s major across the country. For the world’s best women, it is the perfect tune-up between the Mizuho Americas Open at Mountain Ridge — which Jeeno Thitikul won on May 10 — and the looming summer majors. (For a deeper look at the Mizuho field, see our Mizuho Americas Open 2026 preview.)
Why Charley Hull’s Title Defense Matters
Hull went into the 2025 Queen City Championship as a popular pick but not a favorite. She left with her third career LPGA Tour win, beating the field by one stroke at 20-under par. It was her first win on tour since the 2022 Ascendant LPGA, and it changed the trajectory of her season.
What makes the 2026 defense unusual is that Hull is essentially starting over. The course is new. The greens speeds are new. The wind patterns through Maketewah’s tree-lined corridors will play nothing like Kenwood’s wider parkland routing. Most defending champions get the comfort of a course they’ve already conquered. Hull does not. She arrives with the title — and with the same set of unanswered course questions as everyone else in the field.
That said, Hull’s style of golf may travel better than most. She is one of the LPGA’s longest drivers, an aggressive wedge player, and a streaky putter who, when she gets a read on a set of greens, can convert from anywhere inside 25 feet. Cincinnati’s rolling poa-fescue surfaces favor exactly that profile.
Maketewah Country Club: A New Stage for the LPGA
Maketewah was founded in 1928 and has been a fixture of Cincinnati amateur golf for nearly a century. The course is a classic Donald Ross-influenced design with small, defended greens, tilting fairways, and elevation change that surprises first-time visitors who assume Cincinnati golf is flat. It has hosted the Ohio Open, the Cincinnati City Amateur, and a number of state-level women’s and junior events.
What it has never hosted is an LPGA Tour event. That fact alone tilts the strategy. There are no scouting reports built up from prior editions, no Tour-veteran caddie advice on the par 5s, and no archive of pin sheets to study. The first players in the practice rounds — many of whom flew in directly from Mountain Ridge — were essentially building greenbooks from scratch.
Three details to watch over the four days:
- Green firmness. Maketewah’s greens have a reputation among local pros for being among the firmest in southern Ohio when the weather cooperates. Expect attacks from the fairway, not from the rough, and watch how aggressively players go at back-flag locations on Sunday.
- Driver decisions. The course is not long by modern Tour standards, but a handful of doglegs reward a shaped driver into the corner. Korda, Lottie Woad, and Lauren Coughlin all flight the driver well enough to use that edge.
- Par 5 conversion. Title runs at the Queen City have historically come from players who eagle or birdie most of the par 5s. With the par 5s at Maketewah unfamiliar to everyone, conversion percentage early in the week may foreshadow who is reading the course best.
The Names to Watch
Nelly Korda headlines the field. She has won three times in 2026 already, including a five-shot win at the Chevron Championship for her third major. She is the only player in the field with multiple wins this season at this point and arrives in form. The course profile — short, firm, putt-driven — suits her precision over Hull’s power if conditions stay dry.
Lottie Woad is the rising name to know. The young Englishwoman picked up her first LPGA win earlier in the season and committed to Cincinnati late. She has the iron play to take advantage of a course that asks for shape rather than length.
Lauren Coughlin brings a steady ball flight and a hot start to 2026. Jeeno Thitikul, fresh off her Mizuho Americas Open win, will be trying to back up a victory in consecutive starts — historically one of the hardest tasks on Tour.
Charley Hull, defending. Nelly Korda, dominant. Lottie Woad and Jeeno Thitikul, ascending. Sixteen of the top 20 in the world, jammed into one bracket the same week the men’s game is across the country. The case for watching this LPGA event over the PGA Championship is, this week, a real one.
What This Means for Recreational Golfers
If you watch one Tour event a year for the lessons rather than the leaderboard, this is the one. Maketewah is the kind of older parkland design most American golfers actually play on weekends — small greens, asymmetrical hazards, tree-lined corridors, no forced 280-yard carries. That makes it a near-perfect classroom for the home golfer because the world’s best players will be visibly using shot-shaping, miss-management, and putting decisions that translate directly to your local course.
Three things to watch for and steal:
- Tee selection. Notice that the best players in the world are not bombing driver on every par 4. Pay attention to how often the leaders hit 3-wood, hybrid, or a shaped fairway driver on tight tee shots. Most amateurs lose far more strokes off the tee than they realize.
- Wedge distance control. Maketewah’s small greens will force one-bounce-and-stop wedges, not full-spin throw-darts. That changes how you should practice your 60- to 110-yard game at home.
- Lag putting. When greens are firm and small, leaving yourself a tap-in second putt matters more than holing the first one. Watch the leaders’ lag putt distances — it is the simplest skill to copy.
For a deeper dive into how a women’s tour fairway-first profile differs from the men’s power approach, see our coverage of the growing footprint of women in the modern game, and check our 2026 NCAA Women’s Golf Regionals preview for the next wave of stars who will be filling these fields in two or three seasons.
Key Takeaways
- The 2026 Kroger Queen City Championship presented by P&G runs May 14–17 at Maketewah Country Club in Cincinnati — the event’s first year at this venue.
- The field is the strongest in the event’s five-year history, with 7 of the top 10 and 16 of the top 20 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings.
- Defending champion Charley Hull won at 20-under in 2025, but starts the 2026 defense with no prior course history at Maketewah.
- Nelly Korda arrives with three wins in 2026 and the world No. 1 ranking; Jeeno Thitikul is coming off the Mizuho Americas Open win.
- Purse is $2 million, with the winner taking $300,000.
- The course is short, firm, and putt-driven — a classic 1928 parkland design rather than a modern bomber’s track.
The 2026 Queen City Championship is the kind of event Google Discover surfaces because it has everything modern golf storytelling needs: a recognizable star defending, a new course unfamiliar to even the world No. 1, and an LPGA broadcast window that the Tour is investing heavily in this year. Even if the men’s PGA Championship steals the Sunday headlines, what happens in Cincinnati on Sunday afternoon will tell us more about the shape of the rest of the LPGA season than any other tournament between now and the U.S. Women’s Open.
