Following a year in which 12 players were first-time winners on the LPGA, the stars showed up in 2024. It was a season that, for many reasons, will long be talked about.
Six players won multiple titles in 2024. There was a breakout star and a number of veterans who made return trips to the winner’s circle. On a tour in which a number of big names said they’re either retiring or slowing down, the average age of the winners this season was 25.441.
Without further ado, here’s the short list for Golfweek’s Female Player of the Year …
No one in the history of the LPGA has made as much as Thitikul did in 2024. A $4 million payday at the CME Group Tour Championship put Thitikul atop the money list with $6,059,309. After sitting out the first quarter of the season with a thumb injury, the Thai player (who changed her name midseason) went on to win twice in 2024 in 17 starts.
She led the tour in greens in regulation, putts per green in regulation and scoring (69.33), though she didn’t meet the minimum number of required rounds to win the Vare Trophy.
Ko described her 2024 season as a fairy-tale. It began with a victory at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions and, after a brief lull, hit turbo gear with an emotional triumph at the Paris Olympics, which vaulted Ko into the LPGA Hall of Fame.
But the 27-year-old didn’t stop there, winning her third career major just two weeks later at the AIG Women’s British Open at St. Andrews. She’d win one more time at the Kroger Queen City Championship to give her 22 career titles, making her the winningest active player on tour.
It was a season for the history books. Both long-awaited and unpredictable, Korda’s seven titles put her in rare air, joining Kathy Whitworth (1973), Nancy Lopez (1978, 1979) and Beth Daniel (1990) as the only Americans to do it since 1970. She collected her second career major at the Chevron Championship, winning five in a row in the first half of the season.
There were snags along the way, including that 10 on a par 3 at the U.S. Women’s Open, a dog bite in Seattle, final-round heartbreaks in Paris and St. Andrews and a neck injury that forced a two-month break late in the season.
Korda persevered through it all, however, giving her tight-knit team praise every step of the way. She earned LPGA Player of the Year honors as well as the Rolex Annika Major Award.
“Feel like I definitely matured a lot,” said Korda after victory No. 7. “I realized what really matters truly in life, you know, through the tough times.”
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: 2024 Golfweek Awards: Female Player of the Year
