After a grand but slightly controversial opening in the USA, the LPGA is now heading to Thailand. The 2026 Honda LPGA Thailand, running from February 19 to February 22, 2026, arrives with a stacked 72-player field. It features elite names, like Lydia Ko, the World No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul, Sei Young Kim, Akie Iwai, Hye Jin Choi, and others. However, some of the tour’s biggest names are nowhere to be found at the $1.8 million Honda LPGA Thailand.

Nelly Korda

Nelly Korda opened the 2026 LPGA season by winning the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions at Lake Nona. It was a controversial victory because the event was cut to three rounds due to extreme weather. Lydia Ko, who was at the very top in the first two rounds, was not pleased. However, Commissioner Craig Kessler defended the decision, saying it was important for everyone’s safety.

At the end of Round 3, the former World No. 1 shot 13-under par 203 to win the event. After a winless 2025, she claimed the very first event of the new season. So one would assume that she might want to continue that momentum and play as much as possible. But that’s not what Korda thinks.

The 2026 Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions winner is sitting out of the 2026 Honda LPGA Thailand. There’s no confirmation about why she is not participating. But it’s likely because she doesn’t want her body to take a toll.

“I’ve seen my body deteriorate over that,” Korda said at the 2025 PNC Championship when she and her father, Petr Korda, were addressing the subject of an ideal schedule. “And I kind of get into the zone of possibly getting injured.”

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Korda is also skipping the 2026 HSBC Women’s World Championship and the 2026 Blue Bay LPGA.

She will now be seen at the 2026 Fortinet Founders Cup, March 19-22, 2026, in Menlo Park, California.

This represents a pattern of her skipping Asian events. The last time Nelly Korda played in Asia was in 2023.

She played in four events that year. But since then, she was injured in 2024 and 2025 during fall events in Asia and is now skipping them early in the LPGA Tour season. Regardless of the reason, her absence will certainly leave a void in the field. She is one of the most renowned stars on the tour with 16 wins, including 2 majors.

Charley Hull

Hull remains one of the LPGA’s most watchable players. She has an aggressive playing style and a candid nature, which is ideal for fan and media engagement.

Charley Hull is a 3x LPGA winner, with her latest win coming at the 2025 Kroger Queen City Championship. Although it might seem less for such a big name, these numbers don’t show her consistency.

She has consistently made the cut in around 80% of the events she has played, except in 2022, when she made the cut in only 12 of 18.

Like Nelly Korda, Charley Hull is also a recent winner. Though not on the LPGA Tour, she won the PIF Saudi Ladies International 2026. The Ladies European Tour season-opener is the only event that offers equal pay for both men’s and women’s events.

Minjee Lee

Minjee Lee is coming off a dominant 2025 campaign, where she made the cut in 21 of the 22 starts she had. The only victory was at the 2025 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. This gave her a third career major and re‑cemented her as one of the most complete ball‑strikers in the women’s game.

Besides her major win, she finished runner-up at the 2025 Blue Bay LPGA and the 2025 CPKC Women’s Open.

While she had a great run throughout the 2025 season, she has yet to start her 2026 campaign.

She, along with fellow Australians Grace Kim and Hannah Green, didn’t participate in the season-opener Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions. And now she is absent from the 2026 Honda LPGA Thailand, too.

Minjee Lee, too, has not confirmed why she is not participating. However, an early-year LPGA coverage states that she is on a major mission.

The Australian golfer will be defending her KPMG Women’s PGA Championship title in late June. Putting that into perspective, her decision to skip the 2026 Honda LPGA Thailand feels like a conscious trade‑off. Instead of early‑season travel, she is focusing on staying fresh for the majors and higher‑purse weeks.

But even without Nelly Korda, Charley Hull, and Minjee Lee, the 2026 Honda LPGA Thailand still promises high-quality competition.