We’re three majors down in the men’s game and there are three to go in the women’s which means, given the latter has five rather than four of them, we’re over halfway through 2025’s championships that define a career. It begs the question: how did it happen so quickly?

The KPMG Women’s PGA Championship takes us north of Dallas to Fields Ranch East at PGA Frisco which is yet another unwieldy mouthful of a title so from now on we’ll stick to Fields Ranch. It’s a venue that will be new to many and yet it has quite a hold on the PGA of America at the moment. It hosted the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship in 2023 and will be the venue for the PGA Championship in two years time.

The three tournaments return again in 2029, 2031 and 2034, dates that seem too ludicrous to have been scheduled already. Yet another case of time slipping through our fingers at a frightening pace.

So what is it about Fields Ranch? Good question. At first glance (via photos) it is somewhat reminiscent of Erin Hills and Chambers Bay. That’s not necessarily a good thing, of course. The backdrop here has water towers and what appear to be factory units on the horizon. The grass has the look of the unkempt sort that finds itself trapped between motorways and railway lines. I’m not selling it, am I?

Its interest to the PGA of America is simple and straightforward: it’s their headquarters. Gil Hanse designed the course and he’s also responsible for Castle Stuart and the 2016 Olympic Course in Rio. The former is tremendous fun to play and features some unusual angles that he has endeavoured to repeat in Frisco. The latter has a plot of land every bit as visually uninspiring as this one.

What of the challenge? When it he highlighted width from the tee but big trouble with a miss, difficult greenside bunkers, and putting surfaces surrounds that require careful consideration. He summarised: “It will likely produce a number of low scores in its major championships as the space off the tee allows players to easily find fairways. From the fairway, if your approach play is dialled, you’ll have scoring opportunities. But if you get a little loose either off the tee or on approach, things can get quite difficult.”

At the Senior event, Padraig Harrington said: “It’s quite a bit of a mental challenge.” But he wasn’t thinking of Oakmont-style mind games. Instead: “There’s a lot of temptation out there, tempting lines to take off tee shots. It will come down to picking your moments, taking your chances.” The 1-2-3 was Steve Stricker-Harrington-Stewart Cink which suggests that smart plotters prevailed over the chancers.

Two of that top three have won the Open, of course, and Darren Clarke was fifth. Davis Love II even said: “There’s a lot of British Open kind of thinking out there. Linksy course on a big horse farm.”

With that in mind first selection is a repeat of the US Open preview in the shape of the New Zealand star LYDIA KO.

Her putter was red hot that week while her tee-to-green game was a little off but in her previous start it was the other way around. She’s shrewd enough to make good decisions from the tee and into the greens, and she has a fine short game to cope with those tricky surrounds.

She was the silver medallist in the Rio Olympics and noted that week that the course was gusty which suited her since she grew up playing the windy Gulf Harbour. Texan winds blow across Fields Ranch so that’s a tick and she has links savvy, too. She’s the reigning AIG Women’s Open champion after victory on the Old Course last summer and also has a third at Turnberry and seventh at Muirfield.