RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. -- The LPGA's first major championship of the season, the ANA Inspiration, tees off Thursday morning at Mission Hills Country Club.
This year's 72-hole championship features a field of 117 players, including seven top-ranked amateur invitees. Professionals will compete for a $2.8 million purse and a winner's check of $420,000.
The 2018 champion will also be awarded the Dinah Shore Trophy, as well as the ceremonial champion's robe after she takes the traditional splash into Poppie's Pond beside the 18th green.
Who will take plunge this year? Here are five players to watch:
Brittany Lincicome: This Floridian has a chance to become only the fourth player in history to win the championship three times. LPGA Hall of Famers Amy Alcott, Betsy King and Annika Sorenstam have accomplished that feat. Lincicome won here in 2009 and 2015, and is off to a solid start in 2018, with three top-10 finishes in five starts, including a win to defend her title at the season-opening Pure Silk Bahamas LPGA Classic in January. An eight-time LPGA winner, Lincicome is a bomber and can use her length to an advantage at Mission Hills.
Lexi Thompson: Runner-up at the 2017 ANA Inspiration and winner of the 2014 championship, Thompson is eager to tee it up on the course she calls her "favorite place." She has two top-six finishes this season in four starts, including a tie for second at the Honda LPGA Thailand in February. The long-hitting Floridian credits supportive fans who cheered her on after she received a four-stroke penalty during the final round of last year's ANA championship. A win this week would be her thank you to those fans.
Laura Davies: Great Britain's Davies, 54, has always played with a go-for-broke style. That began in 1987, when the then-unknown Briton won the U.S. Women's Open to introduce herself to the rest of the world. Since joining the LPGA in 1988, she has won 20 LPGA titles, 84 tournaments around the world and gained membership into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2015. Davies needs only two points to earn her way into the LPGA's Hall of Fame, which could be achieved this week by winning a major. A Dame in the Order of the British Empire, Davies has 22 career top-10 finishes in majors and showed she still has game with a tie for second two weeks ago.
Inbee Park: There's a reason she's called Queen Bee of the LPGA Tour. By age 27, she became the youngest player to qualify for the LPGA Hall of Fame in 2016. Now 29, the South Korean owns 19 LPGA tournament wins, including seven major championships. She won this event in 2013, and has never missed a 36-hole cut at Mission Hills. The 2016 Olympic gold medalist in golf won the LPGA's Bank of Hope Founders Cup two weeks ago and likes the way she's putting heading into this week's first major. Not the longest hitter on tour, Park's sting comes from her putter, and when it's working, nobody is better.
Lizette Salas: This Southern California native will be the local favorite as friends and family head over from Azusa to cheer her on. Salas tied for second last week at the Kia Classic and proved she's inching closer to her second career win in her seventh LPGA season. She relies on driving accuracy and an effective short game, which has allowed her to post 23 career top-10 finishes. If Salas were to win this week, it would mark the first time a Mexican-American LPGA Tour member not named Nancy Lopez has won a major championship. Lopez did that at the 1989 Mazda LPGA Championship. No doubt, the many kids in her hometown Los Angeles suburb junior golf program will be cheering her on.