Leona Maguire and Stephanie Meadow are the two Irish golfers in the field for the opening major of the year on the LPGA Tour.
The Chevron Championship is the first of five majors on the women's schedule, taking place at The Woodlands in Texas, starting on Thursday.
Maguire comes into the event buoyed by her excellent performance at the recent T-Mobile Match Play event, where she was beaten in the final by Nelly Korda.
Maguire said after the tournament that there were plenty of positives to take from the gruelling week in Las Vegas.
Having slipped to 30th in the world rankings, Maguire’s latest appearance has seen her move back towards the top 20 and enters this week in 23rd place on the Rolex list.
This week’s event takes place at The Club at Carlton Woods, the par-72 track playing 6,824 yards, while there is an increase in the purse, with $7.9m to be won, including $10,000 for those who do not make the cut - a 50% increase on last year.
Maguire is out early for her opening round and will tee it up at 2.15pm (Irish time) playing alongside Grace Kim from Australia and Sweden’s Anna Nordqvist.
Fellow Olympian Meadow is also among the early starters, and in fact the Jordanstown woman is first out on the track at 7.15am local time (1.15pm Irish time), teeing it up with American Kristen Gillman and Germany’s Isi Gabsa.
Meadow has fallen out of the world top 100, however, she has shown some recent form this year with a top ten in March at the Blue Bay LPGA followed up by a tie for 25th at the aforementioned Match Play.
Meadow's best performance at a major came in her very first attempt, finishing third at the US Women's Open back in 2014. She shared third place at last year's Women's PGA Championship, while T19 was her best finish at the Chevron in 2021.
Maguire's best major outing to date was a tie for fourth place at the Women's Open in 2022, while she was T18 at the Chevron in 2020.
The Course at Carlton Woods was designed by Jack Nicklaus and opened in 2001. It took over as the event host last year, replacing the Dinah Shore Course at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California where it was hosted from 1983 to 2022.
World number one Korda insists she is taking nothing for granted as she bids to secure a remarkable fifth straight win and second major title.
Korda took a seven-week break after winning her first title of the year, the LPGA Drive On Championship, in January, and returned to win three events in the space of three weeks, including beating Maguire in the final of the T-Mobile Match Play.
The 25-year-old is the first woman to win on four consecutive starts since Lorena Ochoa in 2008 and is also the first to enter a major on such a streak since Annika Sorenstam.
Sorenstam's run came between the end of the 2004 season and the start of 2005 and the Swedish star went on to win the Kraft Nabisco by eight shots.
"In 2021 I went on a run, and then in 2022 and 2023 golf really humbled me," admitted Korda, who won four times in 2021, including her sole major title to date in the Women's PGA Championship.
"There are ups and downs. Every athlete goes through the rollercoaster, and that is what makes the sport so great. You mature and grow so much and learn more about yourself.
"You never take these weeks for granted. You always try to appreciate and become very grateful for them.
"It makes just all the hard work so worth it. But I think I've learned so much about myself even through the losses."
Korda has had one week since her last victory to recharge the batteries ahead of the first women's major of the season at Carlton Woods in Texas, where she finished a shot outside the play-off won by Lilia Vu last year.
"Last week I was so tired," Korda added. "I don't think I've ever been that tired. I would wake up and I was ready to go back to bed but I couldn't. It's almost to the point where you just can't sleep, you're just overly tired.
"I made sure to prioritise any rest. My parents are on top of me to not overdo it.
"I always want to practice more, do more to be better. So made sure to prioritize my rest and making sure to go to sleep early and sleeping a lot, too. That's the number one thing for recovery. Overall this week I feel really good."
Korda and Vu have been drawn together for the first two rounds alongside Australia's Minjee Lee, while English amateur Lottie Woad, winner of the Augusta National Women's Amateur earlier this month, is in a group with Madelene Sagstrom and Gabriela Ruffels.
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