Needing one win to secure the final point to earn Hall of Fame status, Lydia Ko is tied for the lead at the Blue Bay LPGA at Jian Lake Blue Bay Golf Course in China. Ko shot 6-under 66 on Saturday to move into a tie with Bailey Tardy (66) and Sarah Schmelzel (69) with 18 holes to go.
Ko, a 20-time winner on the LPGA, is one point away from meeting the minimum threshold to be inducted into the LPGA Hall of Fame. The 26-year-old could earn her 21st win on Sunday, making herself the youngest player to ever be inducted into the LPGA Hall of Fame.
“Still a lot of golf to be played, and it seems like someone shoots a really low score at least one of the rounds,” Ko said. “We all know the pin positions dictate the scores, so I just got to stay patient and keep giving myself good looks and see where that puts me.”
Ko’s round featured five birdies, an eagle and a lone bogey. For Tardy, who played alongside Ko in the third round, she had a clean scorecard with four birdies and an eagle.
Meanwhile, after a player tied the course record in each of the first two rounds, Canadian Savannah Grewal set a new one on Saturday, shooting 8-under 64.
“Feels kind of surreal. Still soaking it all in,” she said. “Just wanted to come out and play my best. I was joking with my brother yesterday that I shot 2 over that today is moving day. I got it.”
However, the focus on Sunday will be Ko, who nearly earned that last point earlier this season. After winning the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions to open the year, she lost in a playoff against Nelly Korda at the LPGA Drive On Championship the next week.
Ko is playing a heavier schedule than recent years, one that rivals her rookie season.
ORLANDO, Fla. – The LPGA season-opener is a bona fide home game for a number of LPGA stars, including Lydia Ko, who drove her own golf cart in the pro-am Wednesday at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions.
The former No. 1 understandably chose her honeymoon over this event last season, but is back at Lake Nona Golf & Country Club, where she’s been practicing the past two months. Ko and her husband also spend time in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she plays out of The Olympic Club and Lake Merced.
The 35-player field at this year’s TOC includes 12 first-time participants, including World No. 1 Lilia Vu. Last week, Ko played a practice round with fellow Nona members Leona Maguire and Nasa Hataoka, who are also in the field. Players who have won in the past two seasons on the LPGA are eligible.
While the pros compete for a $1.5 million purse on Jan. 18-21, celebrity contestants will play for $500,000 in a Modified Stableford format. Another famed Lake Nona resident, LPGA Hall of Famer Annika Sorenstam, will compete in the celebrity division along with NBC’s Dylan Dreyer, U.S. Soccer Hall of Famer Landon Donovan, eight-time NBA All-Star Vince Carter, country music star Chris Lane and World Series Champion John Smoltz, a two-time champion at the TOC.
Sorenstam, a 10-time major winner who lives off the 16th tee at Nona, retired from the LPGA in 2008 but made a return to the competitive scene after turning 50.
“I’ve been so close,” said Sorenstam of winning the celebrity division on home turf. “(Husband) Mike (McGee) has all the stats of all the events I played in. I’ve been knocking on the door, but haven’t really been able to put four great rounds together. That’s what I would love to do.”
While Sorenstam’s legacy in the game is firmly cemented, Ko still has a chance to earn her way into arguably the toughest Hall of Fame in all of sports. Now two points shy of the 27 required to qualify for the LPGA Hall, Ko would get there with two regular-season wins or one major championship victory. This year she’s playing a heavier schedule than recent years, one that rivals her rookie season, in an effort to leave nothing on the table.
“I said if I win twice early in the year, like I might not play the 25 and might be a little bit less,” she said. “I want to give myself as many opportunities as I can, and I think being in the Hall of Fame was not really a big goal of mine, but 2022, it was like a gift of a year that like in one year I got five points.
“I was like, ‘Wow, how did that happen?’ Now I’m at the front door. Whether it happens or not, that’s secondary. I don’t want the regret of thinking I left something behind.”
Lydia Ko of New Zealand and Jason Day of Australia celebrate with the trophy after winning the 2023 Grant Thornton Invitational at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Florida. (Photo: Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images)
The 26-year-old said at the start of her LPGA career that she wouldn’t play on the tour past the age of 30. The two-time Olympic medalist (silver in Rio and bronze in Tokyo) said the fairy-tale ending would be to win gold in Paris to collect them all. It’s unlikely, she said, that she’ll still be competing when the Summer Games come to Los Angeles in 2028.
“I joke sometimes that I’m not an athlete but an Olympian,” Ko said laughing. “I’m super excited for Paris.”
After a 2022 season that saw her win four times and earn the LPGA Rolex Player of the Year award, Ko struggled mightily with her ball-striking in 2023. In many ways, it felt like a lost season until she came to the final event – the Grant Thornton Invitational, a resurrected mixed-team tournament between the LPGA and PGA Tour that hadn’t happened since 1999.
Ko hit the ball so poorly during the Tuesday practice round with partner Jason Day in Naples, Florida, last December that she felt embarrassed. By Friday, however, something clicked, and she and Day ended the year with an unofficial victory and broad smiles.
The chase continues.
“I want to put my 100 percent in it, whether it’s my practice or scheduling. If it happens, that’s great,” she said of her big-picture goals. “If it doesn’t happen, just not meant to be.
“I think that has just been the mindset I’ve tried to take on from this year onwards.”
Here’s a list of active stars and where they stand on the march toward 27.
Lydia Ko needs only two more points to qualify for the LPGA Hall of Fame. At 25 years old, she’s tracking to become the youngest player to achieve that milestone.
Seven-time major winner Inbee Park holds the current record. She was 27 when she fulfilled the requirements. Karrie Webb was the youngest to reach the 27-point mark at age 25, but because of the 10-year service requirement the LPGA had in place until last year, Webb became officially eligible at age 30. Se Ri Pak was 26 when she reached 27 points but was 29 when she was inducted.
To be eligible for the LPGA Hall of Fame, players must have won or been awarded at least one of the following: LPGA major, Vare Trophy for lowest scoring average or Rolex Player of the Year.
They must also amass 27 points with:
one point for each LPGA official tournament win
two points for each LPGA major tournament win
one point for each Vare Trophy or Rolex Player of the Year honor earned.
An Olympic gold medal is also worth one point as of last year
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Here’s a list of active stars and where they stand on the march toward 27:
Majors for Lydia Ko and Lexi Thompson, buy-in from PGA Tour stars and more.
As we look ahead to 2023, there’s plenty to wish for inside the ropes on the LPGA. With major championship venues like Pebble Beach and Baltusrol on the horizon, and the first-ever Solheim Cup set in Spain, the stages are ripe for epic drama.
Watching Lexi Thompson, Nelly Korda and Annika Sorenstam compete alongside the men at the last two silly season events of 2022 got the excitement levels revved up for a mix-team format. Sorenstam’s continued presence in the game also serves as a reminder that the LPGA is in need of its next dominant superstar.
And with that, here’s what we’re wishing for in 2023:
Should LPGA titles be stripped away decades later? Jane Blalock and Sandra Palmer would like their records restored.
Jane Blalock either won 29, 26 or 27 times on the LPGA, depending on which media guide you pick up from the late 90s. How can a player who last won in 1985 have such a discrepancy in her record?
Well, like many things about this game, it’s complicated. But the bottom line is this: After being credited for having 29 wins for more than a decade, the phone rang in the late 90s and Blalock, 76, was told that her two victories in the Lady Angelo’s 4-Ball in 1972 and 1973 were being taken away. She’d now have 27 titles. Blalock’s partner for both events, Sandra Palmer, 79, received the same call. Her victory total dropped from 21 to 19.
They were told that a committee had met and decided that team events should not count as official victories, and that was that.
It seems exceedingly harsh to take titles away from players decades down the road. Add them, sure, but strip them away?
Jane Blalock in action during tournament play circa 1982. Blalock was on the LPGA Tour from 1969-87. (Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images)
When the LPGA introduced a two-person team event in 2019, the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational, Blalock took note of the fact that it was considered an official win. While the results don’t count toward the Rolex Rankings, Solheim Cup points, or Player of the Year, the winners do receive the standard two-year winner’s exemption on the priority list, CME points, official money and a point toward the LPGA Hall of Fame.
“If Cydney Clanton is going to get her tournament win,” said Blalock of one of the inaugural winners, “then why not for me and Sandra?”
While there was some initial back and forth with the LPGA in 2019, Blalock said she hasn’t heard anything about it since.
(Her victory total dipped down to 26 when it looks like her 1974 Southgate Ladies Open victory was erroneously left off the list and then added back, giving her 27 titles.)
Meg Mallon served on the committee that made that decision back in the late 90s, when changes were being considered for the tour’s Hall of Fame criteria. Some of the greatest to ever play the game weren’t going to get in under the current system, that required 30 LPGA victories with two major championships, or 35 with one major, or 40 with no majors.
That’s when it was changed to the current 27-point system, in which one point is given for each regular LPGA victory, two for a major win and one point each for the LPGA Rolex Player of the Year and Vare Trophy awards. In addition to having 27 points, players must also either win an LPGA major or Player of the Year honors.
During the course of this years-long process, there was an effort made to clean up records. Through that process, Mallon said, it was discovered that credit was given to team events that many felt shouldn’t go into an individual system like the Hall of Fame.
“It took us a long time,” said Mallon. “This committee was (together) seven years. We knew we were going to be criticized.”
There were other team events in the 1970s that were never counted as official events, but Blalock maintains that she was always under the impression that Angelo’s was official. After all, her record immediately changed to reflect those victories and stayed that way for 25 years.
Judy Dickinson, who headed the committee ahead of the LPGA’s 50th anniversary, said they surveyed players from that era to see if they felt the events were official and found that many felt they’d been erroneously marked as official. The events were changed to unofficial, she said, in an effort to be consistent.
Palmer and Blalock disagree.
“I’d like to have credit for that,” said Palmer, who noted that the stars of the time teed it up those weeks on the Cape. Kathy Whitworth, JoAnne Carner, Betsy Rawls, Marlene Hagge and Judy Rankin were among those in the field in 1972.
Sandra Palmer plays a tee shot on the 10th hole during the second round of the U.S. Senior Women’s Open at Chicago Golf Club on July 13, 2018 in Wheaton, Illinois. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
Neither Palmer nor Blalock are in the LPGA Hall of Fame and awarding them each two more points for their 4-Ball wins won’t change that. Palmer would still be three points short, and while Blalock has the points, she’s missing the POY or major title.
Both, however, can still be considered for the World Golf Hall of Fame. Blalock said that’s one big reason why she reached out to the LPGA in 2019, not for herself as much as for Palmer, whose 19 LPGA victories (possibly 21), including two majors and a POY award, make a strong case. There are men in the WGHOF with similar records.
Should this week’s Dow event count as an official victory? It’s Clanton’s only LPGA title. For some, it could be a life-changing week. For others, like last year’s winner Ariya Jutanugarn, another step toward the Hall.
Count former No. 1 Stacy Lewis among those who believes this week should be official.
“Yeah, it’s a team format, but you’re still playing against the best players in the world,” said Lewis. “For Dow, I think for our sponsors, it should be an official format. I don’t think you get world rankings points. There is no way to count stats or anything like that with the format.
“But I think you can still call it an official win. I have no problem with that. I think the tournament deserves that. I think Dow’s investment into this tournament and women’s golf deserves it. And players do, too. You’re playing four rounds. You still got to hit the putts, the shots. You just got a little bit of help.”
In the midst of a stressful summer, Lewis continued, events like this are needed.
Teammates Cydney Clanton of the United States (R) and Jasmine Suwannapura of Thailand pose for a simulated selfie with the championship necklace’s after winning the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational at Midland Country Club on July 19, 2019 in Midland, Michigan. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
This week’s field is missing several big names, like World No. 1 Jin Young Ko and No. 2 Minjee Lee. But the Korda sisters are in Midland, Michigan, along with Lexi Thompson, Jennifer Kupcho and Leona Maguire. Giving this event official status matters when it comes to strength of field. The same reason it matters for the PGA Tour’s Zurich Classic, which also counts as an official victory.
When Elaine Scott, former LPGA communications director, worked on Louise Sugg’s biography, “And That’s That!”, it was discovered the LPGA founder’s victory total was a bit off.
Six weeks shy of Suggs’ 90th birthday, the tour added three more wins to her name. Two of those titles came in 1961 during Suggs’ last full year on tour – Sea Island Open and the Naples Pro-Am – plus the Pro-Lady Victory National Championship, which she won as an amateur with Ben Hogan in 1946.
The additions moved Suggs ahead of Berg (60) to rank fourth all-time on the LPGA list, behind Kathy Whitworth (88), Mickey Wright (82) and Annika Sorenstam (72).
(The old JCPenney Classic, a mixed event between the LPGA and PGA Tours, was not considered official.)
Scott said players kept records in their car trunks in those early years and drove down the highway with scoreboards attached to their roofs.
Left to right; Patty Berg, Betty Jameson, Jean Hopkins, and Louise Suggs, before the start of the Western Women’s Golf tournament, June 1946. (Copyright Unknown/USGA Museum)
The LPGA’s record keeping is notoriously poor. Wikipedia is used far more often than resources offered by the tour.
During a time when the core of this game is being scrutinized like never before, the finer points about what should count toward the Hall of Fame serves as a reminder of why the roots of the game are so important.
Should event titles be stripped from a player decades later? Should team events be given the same weight as individual ones? These are worthy debates.
Just as it’s important for records to be as fair and complete as possible, so that decorated LPGA players can rightly take their place among all golfers.
“For Sandra, it could make a very big difference to the Hall of Fame,” said Blalock. “It’s just a number, but to me, it’s more meaningful to Sandra. I also like the sound of 29 much better than 27.
Shirley Spork was inducted into the LPGA Hall of Fame two weeks ago.
Shirley Spork, one of the 13 founders of the LPGA and who found out just two weeks ago that she was finally going into the LPGA Hall of Fame, died Tuesday at the age of 94. In addition to helping found the LPGA in 1950, Spork was the main driver behind the creation of the LPGA Teaching & Club Pro Division.
Spork was informed of her achievement at the LPGA’s first major of 2022, the Chevron Championship. She gained her long overdue induction into the Hall alongside Lorena Ochoa, after the committee removed the 10-year playing minimum, which allowed Ochoa to get in.
The two celebrated their good news together the day before the 51st and final edition of the major was played at Mission Hills Country in Rancho Mirage, California.
Shirley, 94, wanted to know if Lorena was going to play today! Also asked to see pics of her kids. So great for them to share this moment. Lorena thanked Shirley, who said “We had to mark the course and rule on ourselves and play for $3,000.” pic.twitter.com/hlVON4tyfU
Spork and Ochoa practically bookend this tour, and no Hall of Fame would be complete without them.
RANCHO MIRAGE, California – Lorena Ochoa was out walking behind her house in Valle de Bravo, Mexico, with her dog when Nancy Lopez called. Ochoa thought the call, organized by her brother, was going to be about her foundation or playing in an exhibition. After a brief catch-up, an emotional Lopez told Ochoa that she was going into the LPGA Hall of Fame.
A stunned Ochoa, 40, didn’t know what do to. Her husband was at work in Mexico City, and it was time to pick up the kids from school. She tried to explain to her three children, ages six, eight, and 10, what had happened.
“They didn’t care. They didn’t understand,” said Ochoa, tilting her head back with that infectious laugh.
“Mom, can you please put music on?” came the request from the backseat.
Perhaps another time.
It’s a sweet story, especially given that school pick-up lines are among the million little reasons Ochoa chose to leave the LPGA after amassing 27 titles, including two majors, in seven seasons.
Ochoa, who arrived at Mission Hills on Wednesday to meet with the media, said she thanks God to this day that she was strong enough to make the choice to walk away, regardless of the rule. She likened the news that she’s in to a present.
“Some of the media as well, or my sponsors or fans, golf fans in Mexico, they always ask me about this all the time,” said Ochoa, “so finally I can say, that’s it. I’m in. I think I completed my career with this great honor, so in a way I feel relief and relaxed and happy, and just this is going to be great.”
Of course, Ochoa’s wait for the Hall pales in comparison to the woman who came over on Wednesday afternoon and asked to look at a picture of her kids. LPGA founder Shirley Spork, still spry at 94, is one of eight LPGA founders who are finally being inducted as honorary members of the tour’s Hall of Fame.
Of the 13 founders, only five were already included. Spork, a local desert resident, is one of two founders still living along with Marlene Hagge, who was already in the LPGA Hall.
Shirley, 94, wanted to know if Lorena was going to play today! Also asked to see pics of her kids. So great for them to share this moment. Lorena thanked Shirley, who said “We had to mark the course and rule on ourselves and play for $3,000.” pic.twitter.com/hlVON4tyfU
Spork heard the news earlier this week from LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan and said she was surprised.
“It’s a great honor,” said Spork. “I feel I’m very deserving of it, having developed the (LPGA) teaching division from 0 to 1,700 people.”
Spork, who still gets out and plays nine holes, asked Ochoa if she planned to tee it up today at Mission Hills. Ochoa, who recently played in a mixed event in Portugal in which she tied for 10th alongside Miguel Angel Jimenez and Thomas Levet, said she needed to get home.
Ochoa said she was “responsible” going into the event and did adequate preparation. Even with little media onsite and few fans, Ochoa admitted to being quite nervous.
“I started thinking, I cannot imagine being in an LPGA tournament,” said Ochoa, “like a big one or a real LPGA tournament crowded with the media and me trying to play good. Too much.”
Fellow Mexican Gaby Lopez annually asks Ochoa to partner with her in the LPGA team event, the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational. This year, Ochoa said she will have to tell her once again that she isn’t going to play.
But that’s not a no forever.
“I don’t want to say no because maybe two, three years I will come and play with Gaby and have a good time,” said Ochoa. “I do see maybe playing in the senior, you know, in the Senior Tour, just coming back and playing couple tournaments just to enjoy.
“My kids are going to be older and maybe they understand a little bit more than today, so we’ll see.”
Stacy Lewis was one of several players who came over to greet Ochoa near the putting green as she met with the press. Lizette Salas declared that she was speechless.
“She did so much for this game when she played,” said Lewis. “When she retired we had three events in Mexico; we still have players from Mexico on this tour.”
Lorena Ochoa of Mexico and caddie Greg Johnston walk across a bridge on the second hole during the third round of the Tres Marias Championship at the Tres Marias Country Club on May 1, 2010, in Morelia, Mexico. (Photo by Darren Carroll/Getty Images)
While Ochoa isn’t out at LPGA events much, she’s still having a great impact on the next generation in her country through the IGPM, Impulsando al Golf Professional Mexicano. Currently there are 14 Mexican women in the program. Ochoa is part of three to four fundraisers a year that help pay for caddies, coaching, equipment, medical costs – whatever is needed.
“We’re very close to them,” said Ochoa, “because all of them are so particular, so they have different necessities. Once a year we get together for four or five days. I invite them to my home and spend time with them to see how are they feeling, how are they with their families, if they are happy, what are their goals for the year, how are they going to start the year or the changes that they’re making, if it’s working or not.
“And they call me, and we keep in touch and they ask me. I try to help them a little bit to make, I guess, less mistakes and be a little bit easier, and in a way to feel that they belong to something. They were part of the family, and all the Mexicans get together and support each other.”
It is the ultimate founder-like mentality. Ochoa became the first Mexican player to reach No. 1 in the world and lit a fire in minds of boys and girls across her country to take up a new sport. She now works to help the next generation continue what she started.
Spork and Ochoa practically bookend this tour, and no Hall of Fame that bears its name would be complete without them.
The LPGA’s Hall of Fame is the toughest to get into in all of sports. To date, there are 25 entrants.
Lorena Ochoa is on her way to the desert again and what a celebration it will be at the Chevron Championship as she’s finally getting into the LPGA Hall of Fame. Golfweek has learned that the LPGA will soon announce that the 10-year requirement that kept Ochoa out of the Hall has been removed by the tour’s Hall of Fame committee.
Players must amass 27 points and play 10 years to gain entry into the LPGA’s Hall of Fame. Ochoa amassed 37 points in seven years before retiring in 2010.
In addition, all 13 LPGA founders will now be in the LPGA’s hall, including local resident Shirley Spork. Currently, only five of the 13 founders are in the LPGA Hall of Fame.
The tour will also now award one point for an Olympic gold medal, Golfweek has learned.
The LPGA’s Hall of Fame is the toughest to get into in all of sports. To date, there are 25 entrants.
Honorary starter Lorena Ochoa participates in the first tee ceremony to begin the final round of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur golf tournament at Augusta National GC. Mandatory Credit: Rob Schumacher-USA TODAY Sports
“There is a league, and there is another league … it’s like the cool ladies club there.”
BELLEAIR, Florida – Every time Jin Young Ko wins a tournament, she does the math to see how many points she needs to qualify for the LPGA Hall of Fame. It has been a goal, she said, since she took up the game as a 10-year-old in South Korea.
“Right now, I have 15 points,” Ko explained midway through the Pelican Women’s Championship, “so 12 points left. It’s going to be tough, but I just play four years, so that means it’s a big accomplishment, and I think I can do that.”
The LPGA’s Hall of Fame is the toughest to get into in all of sports. To date, there are 25 entrants. Players must amass 27 points and play 10 years to gain entry.
In addition to the $1.5 million that’s on the line at next week’s season-ending CME Group Tour Championship, there are three Hall of Fame points at stake. Tournament victories are worth one point, except for majors, which are worth two. Player of the Year and Vare Trophy winners get one point, too. (The Vare Trophy is awarded to the player with the season’s low scoring average.)
With one left in the season, Korda now holds a 10-point lead over Ko in the POY race after her victory at the Pelican Women’s Championship.
Both Ko and Korda have four wins apiece on the LPGA this season, though the young American won both a major and Olympic gold (which does not factor into the points system). Though many might consider Korda’s season to be the most impressive due to the weight of her titles, the LPGA’s cut-and-dry points system leaves no room for subjectivity. And Ko can still win it outright.
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Introduced in 1966, Judy Rankin has said players originally decided to use a points system to keep the award from becoming a popularity contest. Stacy Lewis, a two-time POY, likes it that way. So too, does Inbee Park.
Mel Reid, however, is among those who wouldn’t mind seeing the tour move to a voting system like the PGA Tour, saying that if she had to vote now, she’d pick Korda.
“That’s no disrespect to Jin Young Ko,” said Reid. “She’s a phenomenal player. But I think the pressures that Nelly has being American, you know, I would personally vote for Nelly. I think she’s handled it tremendously.”
The Korda sisters have big goals, of course, but when asked earlier in the week where the Hall of Fame stood, Jessica said it’s nothing that has really been on her radar, noting how difficult it is to amass 27 points. The elder Korda went on to say that the fact that Lorena Ochoa isn’t in the LPGA Hall of Fame is “laughable.” Ochoa, who is in the World Golf Hall of Fame, earned 37 points but retired before meeting the 10-year requirement.
“I think what we focus on is major championships,” said Nelly. “What I always focus on is CME and end-of-the-year Money List. That’s like where my main focus always is every year.”
An American player hasn’t qualified for the Hall of Fame since Juli Inkster in 1999.
Last year’s Player of the Year, Sei Young Kim said the Hall of Fame has been a big-picture goal since junior golf.
“That’s biggest motivation to me,” she said.
With the top three players – Ko, Korda and Park – all ineligible for the Vare Trophy because they won’t meet the minimum number of required rounds (70), Lydia Ko sits atop the standings at 69.391.
The Kiwi, however, almost missed out on the opportunity to win the Vare Trophy because as of late last week, she wasn’t in the field for the Pelican. Without it, she would’ve been one round shy of 70.
“I didn’t realize there was like a minimum round count,” said Ko. “I thought I played enough that I would count, and I thought the other three would, too.”
Ko, who has never won the Vare Trophy, currently has 19 Hall of Fame points. The Vare would get her to 20. Ko said winning the career Grand Slam is her biggest goal, and if she can get there, the Hall of Fame will likely sort itself out.
The 24-year-old said right from the start of her LPGA career that she’d like to retire by age 30.
Still plenty of time to get to 27 points.
“There is a league,” said Ko, “and there is another league … it’s like the cool ladies club there.”
