There are 20 different golfers who hoisted a trophy on the LPGA in 2024.
Nelly Korda is having a season for the ages.
With seven wins – and a chance for an eighth in the season finale – Korda is the first LPGA golfer to have seven wins in a season since Yani Tseng in 2011. She’s the first American to win seven events since Beth Daniel in 1990. Korda’s previous best single-season win total was four victories in 2021. She has 15 career wins.
There are three other golfers with three wins. There are five golfers in all with more than one win in 2024. In all, 20 different golfers won an LPGA tournament this year.
No one is playing as well as Ruoning Yin during the LPGA’s Asian Swing.
No one is playing as well as Ruoning Yin during the LPGA’s Asian Swing.
The 22-year-old from China won the 2024 Maybank Championship on Sunday, her second win in three starts. Two weeks ago, she claimed the title at her hometown event in Shanghai. This week, she earned her fifth LPGA victory at Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club.
“I would say at Buick second round when I fix my driver, I know I’m able to win,” said Yin. “I will have a chance to win every week, I would say.”
Yin, who went bogey-free her last three rounds, shot 7-under 65 on Sunday, one stroke better than Jeeno Thitikul to beat her by a shot. Yin had seven birdies in the final round, but her birdie on the par-5 18th secured the win, finishing at 23 under for the week.
“I really, really appreciated Haeran (Ryu) and Jeeno,” said Yin. “They bring the best out of me.”
Yin teamed up with her good friend Thitikul to win the Dow Championship earlier this season.
“She play incredible golf here four rounds, so that’s – the trophy belong someone who did less mistake,” said Thitikul.
With her win, Yin earns $450,000, and she has earned $2,397,966 this season and $5,462,783 in her career.
“I would say this season so far I learn a lot,” said Yin, a two-time winner in 2023, including a major. “I would say my mental is next level I would say, because early this year I was really stressed because I had really good year last year, and early this year I think I put too many pressure on myself thinking about if I can win again or not.
“And after Mizuho, I think I got hurt Mizuho week, and after that I realized that I really love golf. I really like to play on this tour, play with all my friends, and I just really wanted to enjoy my life, enjoy play on the course.”
Yin’s next start will be The Annika in Belleair, Florida.
“Just all the crowds, all the fans, all my family, words can’t express my feelings right now.”
Ruoning Yin said she gets goosebumps just thinking about the crowd support this week at the 2024 Buick LPGA Shanghai. Perhaps she gave the crowd some goosebumps herself with an incredible closing performance.
Yin, the 22-year-old from Shanghai, China, captured her hometown event at Qizhong Garden Golf Club on Sunday, shooting rounds of 63-64 on the weekend to win by six shots at 25 under. It’s the fourth LPGA victory for Yin, who earned $315,000 with the win.
“Pretty amazing and just, like I said, able to win at home in front of all the family and friends, it’s just amazing,” Yin said. “It’s phenomenal to be able to do that. It’s a pleasant week.”
After the opening round, Yin was eight shots behind leader Sei Young Kim. Slowly but surely, Yin began to chip into the lead.
After the second round, she trailed by four. Heading into the final round, she was one shot behind. Then on Sunday, she dominated to earn her second win of 2024.
“I think I’m just really happy that I put on a show and that everybody enjoys it,” Yin said.
After the opening round, Yin said she had a conversation with her coach, who was in Los Angeles, to fix some issues she was having off the tee. She knew she needed to find the fairway to have success, and after the opening round, she did just that, allowing her stellar iron game to take over.
Kim and Mao Saigo tied for second at 19 under. Yealimi Noh was fourth at 18 under.
Near the end of her press conference, Yin was asked how this compared to winning a major, which she did last year at the KPMG Women’s PGA.
“I love to win major(s), and I just love to win at home as well,” she said. “Just all the crowds, all the fans, all my family, words can’t express my feelings right now.”
The LPGA’s Asia Swing began this week in China at the 2024 Buick LPGA Shanghai, and through 54 holes Mao Saigo holds a one-shot lead over Ruoning Yin heading into Sunday’s final round.
After opening with a 4-under 68 on Thursday, Saigo has posted consecutive rounds of 65 to vault to the top of the leaderboard.
She made the turn with a 2-under 34 on Saturday before doing some serious damage on the back nine. From Nos. 12-17, Saigo made three birdies (Nos. 12, 13 and 15) and an eagle (par-5 17th).
Yin, on the other hand, started slowly with a 2-under 70 on Thursday. However, she’s since shot rounds of 66-63 to earn solo second with 18 holes to play. Her 9-under effort on Saturday included seven birdies and an eagle.
Sei Young Kim is solo third at 15 under, three back. Yealimi Noh is alone in fourth at 13 under, five back, while a large group that includes Minjee Lee is tied for fifth at 11 under, seven back.
The partnership came together during a Callaway sponsorship shoot last November.
Atthaya Thitikul and Ruoning Yin, a couple of 21-year-old hotshots who have risen to No. 1 in the past, teamed up for the first time at the 2024 Dow Championship and walked away winners.
The partnership came together during a Callaway sponsorship shoot last November. Thitikul, who had never played in the event before, asked Yin to team up with her.
“She doesn’t have any option,”said Thitikul, who buried the winning birdie putt on the par-3 18th. “I’m just forcing her to play with me.”
Yin, who goes by “Ronni,” and Thitikul, who goes by “Jeeno,” chose the team name “Jin and Ronic” after one of their coaches’ favorite drinks.
It was LPGA victory No. 3 for both players, who closed with a 62 in the best-ball format at Midland Country Club to finish at 22 under for the tournament, edging Ally Ewing and Jennifer Kupcho by a shot. Solheim Cup captain Stacy Lewis certainly kept a close eye on the American duo as a potential pairing for this year’s Solheim.
“Alternate shot, I think we’re by far a really, really, really good alternate shot team,” said Ewing.
Atthaya Thitikul of Thailand plays her shot from the 18th tee during the final round of the 2024 Dow Championship at Midland Country Club. (Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
Danish players Nicole Broch Estrup and Nanna Koerstz Estrup took a share of third with South Koreans Haeji Kang and In Kyung Kim at 19 under.
Charley Hull, another first-time Dow participant, teamed up with lifelong friend Georgia Hall to take a share of third with Auston Kim and Grace Kim (no relation).
Brooke Henderson and Lexi Thompson highlighted a logjam of players in a share of eighth that included Nasa Hataoka and Jin Young Ko as well as the all-star mom pairing of Brittany Lincicome and Brittany Lang, two longtime Solheim Cup partners and major winners.
Lincicome and Lang, who are both 38, joked that they were going to change their team name from the “Killer Bees” to “AARP” or “Life Alert” because they now feel so old.
“Tour old,” Lang clarified.
John Shippen Women’s Invitational winner Georgia Oboh and her partner Lakareber Abe, who were both playing on a sponsor exemption, also tied for eighth. Neither player has LPGA status.
Yin, No. 4 in the world, and Thitikul, No. 12, have both battled injuries of late. Thitikul’s thumb injury kept her away from her golf clubs for three months. She returned to the tour at the Chevron Championship in April and said she’s now pain-free.
“The reason that I played five weeks in a row, I just want to get back to, like, feeling competition feelings, the imaginations,” she said. “It’s been a long time that I missed like three months that I don’t touch any clubs, not hitting balls at all. I just want to stick back to how can I see the ball, how the ball is going to react over my shots.”
Yin, meanwhile, injured her wrist in May at the Mizuho Americas Open and still feels a great deal of pain. She will skip the next major, the Amundi Evian Championship, and return to competition at the Paris Olympics.
“I really, really, really wanted to play Evian, but for my body, I think it’s a good decision that I have a break,” said Yin, who said on a scale of 1 to 100, she’s 60 percent toward being healthy.
For Thitikul, this marked her first victory on tour since she won twice in 2022. She admits to putting too much pressure on herself last year to win again.
“Still want to win,” she said, “but it’s less than last year because what I focus is I try to improve myself every day and just trying to be Jeeno out there, like 100 percent Jeeno out there.”
She was no doubt her authentic self in Midland, where players get the chance to smile more and relax with a partner by their side. Yin told her mom on Saturday that this was the fastest week she’s ever had on tour.
“Time flies when you’re …” Yin began.
“When you’re happy,” Thitikul interjected.
“Yeah, when you’re having fun,” Yin continued. “When you’re around good people. Yeah, it’s a good week.”
The inaugural Blue Bay event on Hainan Island was held in the fall of 2014.
The Blue Bay LPGA returns this week for the first time since 2018, and much has changed. World No. 1 Lilia Vu, for example, was still in college.
Shanshan Feng, China’s trailblazing LPGA player and 2017 Blue Bay champion, has since retired from golf. Ruoning Yin, the fresh-faced major champion poised to challenge Feng’s records, was years away from even turning professional.
Mexico’s Gaby Lopez, the defending champion, has won twice since 2018 and recently married her longtime sweetheart, Santiago Carranza.
“I’ve always wanted to play in front of a home crowd,” said Yin, a two-time winner on tour and short-term No. 1. “Last week in Singapore, after the last hole, I heard people in the crowd cheering for me in Chinese. It was heart-warming to see.”
Gaby Lopez of Mexico celebrates after winning the Blue Bay LPGA on November 10, 2018, in Hainan Island, China. (Photo by Zhe Ji/Getty Images)
The inaugural Blue Bay event on Hainan Island was held in the fall of 2014. It was halted after five stagings due, in part, to the global pandemic. Three past champions are in the field this week, including Minjee Lee, Sei Young Kim and Lopez.
“I think that every single time you’re in a place where you’ve played good and you have performed well,” said Lopez, “there is this kind of sort of calmness that comes with good memories.”
There are 25 China Golf Association members in the field of 108. Unlike the previous two Asian events, this one features a 36-hole cut to top 65 and ties and a purse of $2.2 million.
Vu, who withdrew during Sunday’s final round in Singapore with an illness, sounds like she’s on the mend, though she didn’t offer many details during a pre-tournament press conference.
“Last week my body wasn’t feeling great overall physically,” said Vu, “and it was just Sunday that I couldn’t handle. So I took the whole day off yesterday, and hopefully I can regroup and have a good week this week.”
“(Lexi) has been a huge supporter of our events and always comes and clears her schedule without hesitation.”
Morgan Pressel’s competitive career on the LPGA might be over, but her impact in the game and beyond continues to flourish. The 35-year-old major champion turned lead analyst for Golf Channel’s LPGA coverage raised $900,000 this week at her annual Morgan & Friends charity event.
The event, held annually at St. Andrews Country Club in Boca Raton and Banyan Golf Club in nearby West Palm Beach, Florida, has raised a total of $12.5 million over the years in the fight against breast cancer. Pressel’s mother Kathy died of breast cancer in 2003, and her memory is at the heart of the mission.
Golfweek caught up with the former phenom to talk about her foundation, the friends who step up every year to help and the 2024 LPGA season, which gets started next week with the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions:
Here’s a look at which top players are in the field for this year’s TOC and which ones are sitting out.
The LPGA season kicks off next week with the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, and World No. 1 Lilia Vu headlines the field. It marks the first time that Vu has been eligible for the field given that she won her first career title last February at the Honda LPGA Thailand and went on to win three more times, including two majors.
The season-opener takes place Jan. 18-21 at Lake Nona Golf and Country Club in Orlando, Florida. LPGA winners from the past two seasons are invited to compete for a $1.5 million purse while a field of celebrities vie for $500,000.
Once again, Lake Nona resident Annika Sorenstam will compete in the celebrity field 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.
While Vu and No. 2 Ruoning Yin begin their 2024 seasons next week, six players inside the top 10 of the Rolex Rankings are skipping the first event. For many international players, the lure of a longer offseason outweighs the perks of the TOC.
While there are two events in Florida to start the season in 2024, with the LPGA Drive On event in Bradenton the following week, the tour then has three weeks off before beginning the spring Asian swing in Thailand.
Here’s a look at which top players are in the field for this year’s TOC and which ones are sitting out:
Last January, few would’ve put anyone on this short list in the LPGA Player of the Year conversation.
At the start of the 2023 season, it’s safe to say that few would’ve put anyone on this short list in the LPGA Player of the Year conversation.
The start of the year seemed primed for another Lydia Ko show, especially after she opened 2023 with a victory on the LET in Saudi Arabia. Nelly Korda won late in 2022 after an injury-plagued year. Would she continue what she started in 2021?
Instead, both Ko and Korda were among the winless on the LPGA this season, while three new heavy hitters emerged.
In the end, the winner was clear. Without further ado, here’s Golfweek’s Female Player of the Year …
