Lydia Ko’s achievements continue to stack up after her third win from four events in a golden run of form.The Kiwi golfer’s hot streak began with her gold at the Paris Olympics in August and two consecutive victories have followed on the LPGA Tour.The first, a drought-breaking major win at the Women’s British Open, came only two weeks after clinching the Olympic title for the first time.
The second was the Kroger Queen City Championship in Ohio on Monday (NZ time). The 27-year-old still has another three months of LPGA Tour events to finish what has already been a stellar season.
Here is a by-the-numbers breakdown of Ko’s phenomenal form.
30
Ko’s 22nd LPGA Tour victory was her 30th professional triumph. Her first on the tour came in 2012 when, aged 15, she won the Canadian Women’s Open. Ko pocketed US$300,000 (NZ$480,000) for winning in Ohio to take her career earnings to a whopping US$19,512,009 (NZ$31,404,802).
She remains fourth on the all-time earnings list in LPGA history, behind Swede Annika Sorenstam (US$22,583,693), Australian Karrie Webb (US$20,293,617) and American Cristie Kerr (US$20,179,848). Ko is less than US$700,000 away from passing Kerr to crack the top three and less than US$800,000 from overtaking Webb to move into second, figures she might reach within the next 12 months.
2,600,000
Ko’s earnings (in US dollars) this season from 15 LPGA Tour tournaments in which she has finished in the top 10 on seven occasions, including her three tour wins. She began the year by winning the tour’s opening event in January, the Tournament of Champions in Florida, reversing her form slump from last season.
Her victory in Ohio also meant Ko had recorded three LPGA Tour wins in the same season for the fifth time. Ko’s best season for tour wins was five in 2015 when, aged 18, she became the world No 1 for the first time in the year she also won her first major, the Evian Championship in France.
The Olympic tournament is not part of the tour’s schedule, so Ko has totalled four significant wins in a special year in which she was also been added to the LPGA’s Hall of Fame.
8
Ko went more than eight years without a major win until last month’s success at the home golf, St Andrews. She won the coveted British Open title for her third major victory. Her second was in 2016 at the ANA Inspiration in California.
The triumph in Scotland came only two weeks after her gold medal in Paris, which completed the full set of Olympic medals after silver at the 2016 Rio Games and bronze at the 2021 Tokyo Games. The weekend after Paris, she was also ninth in the Scottish Open for another solid top-10 finish.
3
Ko has won three of the five majors in women’s golf. The other two to elude her are the US Women’s Open and PGA Championship. Her best results in those came in 2016 when she finished tied third in the former and outright second in the latter.
3rd
Ko, a former world No 1, shot up the world rankings in August, rising from 22nd to third, and is only behind the American pair of Nelly Korda and Lilia Vu in first and second respectively.
She was last on top of the rankings in July 2023. In her career, she has spent 125 weeks at No 1.
30
Ko has long said she would not play beyond 30 but, inspired by the form of her life, she has hinted at targeting a grand slam of majors that might prolong her glittering career. “I pretty much told myself, hey, I don’t know if this is going to happen, but the things that I didn’t believe in happened these past couple months,” Ko said at her victory press conference on Monday (NZ time).
“I had a fairytale of those past couple months and now I feel like if I set my mind to it, maybe I can do it. “So it’s always been the goal of mine to do the career grand slam. I thought that would be so out there. I feel like I’ve already been part of this fairytale, so why not?”
