This list is updated through the 2024 JM Eagle LA Championship at Wilshire Country Club
The LPGA has three members of the $20 million club, five who have won at least $17 million in on-course earnings, 24 with $10 million or more and 81 who have earned at least $5 million.
Annika Sorenstam leads the way. Sorenstam, Karrie Webb and Cristie Kerr are the three golfers who have surpassed $20 million.
Nellly Korda, with her win the 2024 Chevron Championship, her second major, surpassed $11 million. Jin Young Ko has become the 20th to reach the $12 million mark.
Let’s take a closer look here at the top 20 of all-time.
This list is updated through the 2024 JM Eagle LA Championship at Wilshire Country Club.
Ko/Korda showdowns are massive for a tour in need of star power.
Nelly Korda celebrated her second playoff victory of the year with an In-N-Out burger and “animal style” fries as she drove east from Palos Verdes Estates, California, to the suburbs of Phoenix. The World No. 1 split the six-hour drive with fellow tour player Olivia Cowan after draining a 15-foot birdie putt on the first extra hole against Ryann O’Toole at the Fir Hills Seri Pak Championship four days ago.
At this week’s inaugural Ford Championship at Seville Golf and Country Club in Gilbert, Arizona, Korda faces a stacked field as she tries to become the first player since Ariya Jutanugarn to win three consecutive starts on the LPGA. Jutanugarn’s hot streak eight years ago included a Ricoh Women’s British Open title.
“First win as an auntie,” beamed Korda, whose older sister Jessica is on maternity leave. “My parents say I try to kill them every single time. I don’t purposely try to, but, yeah.”
Nine out of the top 10 players in the world are in the Ford field and all five winners from 2024. It’s the first time Korda has been in the same tournament as Lydia Ko since the two pals squared off against each other in January in Korda’s hometown of Bradenton, Florida, at the LPGA Drive On Championship in January. Korda beat Ko on the first hole of a playoff, denying her entry into the LPGA Hall of Fame. The celebratory champagne and flowers were left sitting by the 18th green.
Lydia Ko smiles on the 18th green after winning the 2024 Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions at Lake Nona Golf & Country Club. (Photo: Julio Aguilar/Getty Images)
Ko needs only one more point to reach the 27 required to enter the LPGA shrine. She went into the final round of the Blue Bay LPGA last month tied for the lead in China, but ultimately took a share of fourth as American Bailey Tardy bulldozed the field with a final-round 65 to win by four and claim her first LPGA title.
“I don’t think I fall asleep or wake up in a day thinking about the Hall of Fame,” said Ko. “I think people around me think about it more than I do. To be honest, last year I thought a lot about it, just because you’re so close.”
Ko went on to say that being in the LPGA Hall of Fame was never a big goal because she didn’t think she was capable of it. Humble words from a player who rewrote LPGA record books before she could legally drive a car.
Korda said she’s been good friends with “Lyds” for years thanks to the friendship that already existed between Ko and her older sister Jessica. Even though Ko’s time on tour predates Nelly, she still had a front-row seat to Ko’s brilliance as she followed Jessica’s career. Korda, 25, is only one year younger than Ko, who first won on the LPGA at age 15.
“I think she’s super resilient,” said Nelly. “I know in golf and sports, there are so many ups and downs, and she’s always bounced back.”
This season, Ko leads the tour in both bogey avoidance and scrambling, two statistical categories that she ranked outside of the top 50 one year ago, her worst season on tour.
The week before Korda won in front of a hometown crowd, Ko won quite literally where she lives and practices at Lake Nona Country Club at the season-opening Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions in Orlando. It was her 20th career LPGA title.
Ko/Korda showdowns are massive for a tour in need of star power.
Four of Korda’s 10 career titles have come in playoffs, and she’s now beaten Ko in two of them. The victory moved Korda ahead of Laura Davies on the all-time career money list to No. 28 with $9,523,989. Ko ranks fifth on that list at $17,438,722. This week’s purse of $2.25 million pays out $337,500 to the winner.
As Ko looks to become only the 35th player to enter the LPGA Hall of Fame and only the 25th to earn 27 HOF points, Korda, who took off seven weeks in between her two wins this year, said she never even thinks about making it in the HOF. She currently has 12 points.
“If I get there, then great,” said Korda, “but that’s not something that I put on my goal sheet.
“As I said, I think small goals then eventually lead to your bigger goals.”
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.
The Rolex Rankings debuted less than 20 years ago on Feb. 21, 2006. For context, the men’s Official World Golf Ranking has been around since 1986.
In that time, 18 different women from nine different countries have risen to the top, giving fans from all over the world reason to celebrate.
The rankings are used to fill fields at the majors, determine teams like the Solheim Cup and International Crown and decide which top players qualify for the Olympics.
Both amateurs and professionals are eligible and the rankings are updated every Monday.
Here are 10 interesting things to note about the Rolex Rankings, which are now 18 years old:
True dominance on the LPGA might be a thing of the past. There was a time when Mickey Wright won a staggering 10 times or more over the course of four consecutive seasons.
It’s been a decade since a player has won more than five times in a single season. Yani Tseng was the last player to win seven times in 2011.
Compare that to Annika Sorenstam’s double-digit years or when Lorena Ochoa won six, eight and seven times from 2006 to 2008.
Is anyone capable of matching those efforts in the modern game?
As the tour gets deeper by the decade, here’s a closer look at most wins by year on the LPGA:
It was an electric finish, even if it did overlap the NFL playoffs.
BRADENTON, Fla. — It’s hard to imagine the LPGA getting off to a better start than its opening fortnight in Florida. Lydia Ko, of course, won the season-opening Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions at her home course, Lake Nona Golf & Country Club, putting to bed the worst year of her career in 2023.
One week later, Nelly Korda won 15 minutes from her parents’ home in Bradenton, Florida, in front of a hometown crowd at the LPGA Drive On Championship. Korda staged a brilliant late-round comeback to beat Ko in a two-hole playoff, denying the Kiwi the 27th and final point needed to qualify for the LPGA Hall of Fame.
It was an electric finish, even if it did overlap the NFL playoffs.
Sunday was a loud reminder to enjoy Ko while we can. There likely won’t be another like her.
BRADENTON, Fla. – Lydia Ko’s approach shot on the first playoff hole nestled next to a bouquet of flowers and a row champagne bottles. Ko got relief from the grandstand (and the roses), but it was a cruel foreshadowing of what was to come.
A three-putt on the second playoff hole gave the LPGA Drive On Championship title to hometown favorite Nelly Korda, her first LPGA title since November 2022. A victory for the 26-year-old Ko would’ve made her the 35th member of the LPGA Hall of Fame and the 25th player in LPGA history to have earned 27 HOF points. Nine women were inducted as honorary members (eight LPGA founders and beloved entertainer Dinah Shore).
Alas, the champagne and roses will have to wait, which might not be such a bad thing for the LPGA. Sunday at the Drive On was edge-of-your-seat gripping. It even held the attention of Golf Twitter during the NFL Playoffs.
With the LPGA going on a three-week hiatus before heading to Asia, it’s probably best for the tour if Ko drags this out a little bit.
No one in the golf world is quite ready to say goodbye.
What if Ko were to get her 27th point in Paris with gold at the Olympics, concluding a medal sweep? What if she were to collect a third major title to get in? Imagine her marching into the Hall of Fame at the Old Course and then walking off into the sunset.
A storybook finish seems appropriate for a woman who won twice on the LPGA as an amateur. Ko’s greatest asset is her mind, and for her to nearly win the first two events of 2024 after experiencing her worst season on tour is a testament to that mental fortitude.
How hard is it to get into the LPGA Hall of Fame? Consider that Bradenton Country Club member Hollis Stacy, a four-time major winner who won 18 times on the LPGA, isn’t in it. Stacy was standing by the 18th green reveling in every second of the Ko vs. Korda showdown.
Last December, after Ko hit a stellar 3-wood at the Grant Thornton Invitational on the 17th to get her and partner Jason Day into the winner’s circle, Stacy texted Ko and told her to keep a video of that swing on her phone.
“That’s probably the best swing I’ve seen you make under pressure,” Stacy told her.
On Sunday at the Drive On, Ko hit a 3-hybrid on the par-5 17th that, while thin, might have trumped it, settling up a tap-in eagle that propelled her to the top of the board.
While Korda takes off seven weeks before her next stop (she’s heading to Prague on Monday to visit her grandparents) Ko will have a solid month off. She’s not playing in Thailand because, up until last week’s win at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, she wasn’t in the field. She won’t defend on the LET in Saudi Arabia either. Her next event will be the HSBC Women’s Champions in Singapore.
Ko believes that being one point away from the Hall is actually less stressful than being two points away. Two feels far away, while one feels more doable.
“I think I was a lot calmer last week than I thought I was going to be,” she said. “I was a lot calmer, I think, today than I thought I was going to be.”
Ko said hello to Stacy while in the midst of the action on the 18th green, and the LPGA legend marveled at how relaxed the Kiwi looked.
When it was over, Ko graciously thanked all the volunteers, hugged the friends who’d stuck around and made sure to congratulate Nelly’s parents, telling them to give eldest daughter Jessica Korda her best as she nears her due date.
More than a decade ago, Ko made it clear from the start of her professional career that she wouldn’t play past the age of 30. The Paris Olympics are important to her, but if she gets into the Hall of Fame this season, it’s hard to imagine her sticking around much longer.
Today was a loud reminder to enjoy Ko while we can. There likely won’t be another like her.
Four-time major winner Hollis Stacy, 69, is a member of Bradenton Country Club and still follows the LPGA closely.
BRADENTON, Fla. — As Lydia Ko makes her way around Bradenton Country Club in hot pursuit of the final point needed to qualify for the LPGA Hall of Fame at the Drive On Championship, a tour legend stands among the crowd.
Four-time major winner Hollis Stacy, 69, is a member of Bradenton Country Club and still follows the LPGA closely. Stacy, a World Golf Hall of Fame member who won 18 times on the LPGA, has been a member of this 100-year-old Donald Ross gem for a dozen years.
Golfweek caught up with Stacy on Saturday at the Drive On to talk about the club and the two women at the top of the board: Ko and local resident Nelly Korda. Here are excerpts from that conversation:
Nelly Korda has gotten plenty of love this week, and for good reason.
Nelly Korda has gotten plenty of love this week, and for good reason.
The 25-year-old leads by two shots after two rounds of the 2024 Drive On Championship at Bradenton Country Club in Bradenton, Florida. Korda, who was born in and resides in Bradenton, has enjoyed feeling love from the fans as she has built her fourth 36-hole lead in her LPGA career.
“It’s been great to see the support,” Korda said. “I haven’t played a tournament in Bradenton in a really, really long time. Seeing the support Brooke gets when she’s near home in Canada, it felt really nice.”
“It’s been cool to see the big crowds come out and support and the hometown feel.”
The eight-time LPGA winner was tied with Lydia Ko after the opening round, but she separated with three birdies in her final four holes to move two in front of So Mi Lee in solo second. Her 4-under 67 on Friday moved her to 10 under for the tournament.
“Overall I’ve hit it pretty well the past two days, drove it well, given myself some opportunities,” Korda said. “At the end of the day, made some putts. Definitely capitalized on the par-5s on the back nine. Just in general, I went for all of them today, the three.”
The first full-field LPGA event of the year is here as a loaded cast of stars are in Bradenton, Florida, for the LPGA Drive On Championship at Bradenton Country Club.
World No. 1 Lilia Vu is joined by Nelly Korda, Linn Grant, Allisen Corpuz, Leona Maguire, Tournament of Champions winner Lydia Ko, Lexi Thompson and Brooke Henderson.
