20-time LPGA Tour winner turns into thirty fifth member, becoming a member of an illustrious record of honorees

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla., Aug. 10, 2024 – Together with her gold medal on the 2024 Olympic Video games in Paris, Lydia Ko has reached the 27 factors essential for induction into the LPGA Corridor of Fame. The 27-year-old New Zealand native achieved this milestone by way of a stellar profession that features LPGA Corridor of Fame factors earned for 20 LPGA Tour victories, highlighted by two main championship titles, two Rolex LPGA Participant of the Yr awards, twice incomes the Glenna Collett Vare Trophy for the season’s lowest scoring common and now the Olympic gold medal. Ko turns into the thirty fifth particular person enshrined within the LPGA Corridor of Fame, becoming a member of the ranks of essentially the most achieved and influential athletes within the historical past of ladies’s golf.

Ko is now a three-time Olympic medalist, taking silver on the 2016 Summer season Video games in Brazil and bronze on the 2020 Summer season Video games in Japan. On the LPGA Tour, Ko has amassed 20 LPGA Tour victories since 2012, together with main titles on the 2015 Amundi Evian Championship and the 2016 Chevron Championship. She earned 18 of her titles since her rookie season in 2014, having received the 2012 and 2013 CPKC Ladies’s Open as an novice previous to changing into an LPGA Tour Member. Ko was the 2015 and 2022 Rolex LPGA Participant of the Yr and received the Glenna Collett Vare Trophy, awarded to the participant with the season’s lowest scoring common, in 2021 and 2022.

Ko has seven wins on the Women European Tour, 5 wins on the WPGA Tour of Australasia and one win on the Korean LPGA Tour. She additionally partnered with Jason Day to win the inaugural Grant Thornton Invitational, a mixed-team unofficial occasion that includes PGA Tour and LPGA Tour stars, in December 2023.

Ko has set quite a few Youngest Ever marks in her profession. On Aug. 19, 2012, she turned the youngest winner in LPGA Tour historical past when she received the CPKC Ladies’s Open at 15 years, 4 months and a pair of days. She turned the youngest participant, male or feminine, to succeed in World No. 1 when she ascended to the highest of the Rolex Ladies’s World Golf Rankings on Feb. 2, 2015, at 17 years, 9 months and 9 days. Later that yr, Ko turned the youngest feminine main winner when she captured the 2015 Amundi Evian Championship at 18 years, 4 months and 20 days. She then turned the youngest feminine ever to win two main championships at 18 years, 11 months and 9 days following her win on the 2016 Chevron Championship.

Now at 27 years, 3 months and 17 days, Ko turns into the youngest participant to be inducted into the LPGA Corridor of Fame beneath its present standards. Previous to March 2022, induction standards included the requirement {that a} participant be energetic on Tour for 10 years. Karrie Webb reached the 27-point threshold at age 25 along with her victory on the 2000 U.S. Ladies’s Open however didn’t attain the 10-year requirement till age 30 in 2005.

“Lydia’s qualification into the LPGA Corridor of Fame is not only a milestone in her extraordinary profession; it is a testomony to her generational expertise, having constructed an unmatched resume of success at such a younger age,” mentioned LPGA Commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan. “Past her unprecedented achievements on the golf course, Lydia has impressed so many by way of her perseverance, kindness, generosity, and dedication to leaving the sport higher than she discovered it. She is a job mannequin to us all and notably to younger women, to whom she has proven what a real champion is, in sport and in life. Cementing her place within the Corridor of Fame by successful the gold medal right here in Paris is iconic, and it’s one thing we are going to all keep in mind for a very long time. We’re immensely happy with Lydia’s achievements and the influence she’s made on the world of golf and in world sports activities.”

The newest inductees of the LPGA Corridor of Fame have been Lorena Ochoa and eight of the LPGA Tour’s authentic Founding Members. Ochoa had earned sufficient factors to qualify when she retired in 2010 after eight seasons however didn’t obtain enshrinement till the 10-year requirement was lifted in 2022. These 9 girls have been honored in March 2022 for his or her years with the LPGA Tour. Previous to that, Inbee Park was the final participant enshrined within the LPGA Corridor of Fame when she earned the honour in 2016. 

To qualify for the LPGA Corridor of Fame, members of the LPGA Tour should meet a minimal level threshold of 27 factors, earned by the next standards:

1. Will need to have received/been awarded not less than one of many following titles/honors
   1. An LPGA Tour main championship
   2. Glenna Collett Vare Trophy 
   3. Rolex Participant of the Yr 
2. Will need to have gathered a complete of 27 factors
   1. One level for every LPGA Tour official match win
   2. Two factors for every LPGA Tour main match win
   3. One level for every Glenna Collett Vare Trophy honor earned
   4. One level for every Rolex Participant of the Yr honor earned
   5. One level for an Olympic gold medal