After a record-setting number of first-time winners over the past two seasons on the LPGA, 2024 has been a year for the stars.
Last season, there were 12 Rolex first-time winners, up from a record-tying 11 in 2022 (first set in 1995). This season, only three players have broken through for the first time, and none of them are rookies: Lauren Coughlin, Linnea Strom and Bailey Tardy.
Meanwhile, two of the LPGA’s biggest names – Nelly Korda and Lydia Ko – have owned the year. World No. 1 Korda dominated the first half of the season with six victories in her first eight starts. Ko, meanwhile, hadn’t finished outside the top 10 in her last six starts worldwide, including three victories heading into this week’s BMW Ladies Championship in her native South Korea, where she tied for 12th.
Here’s the list of five players who have won multiple titles this season, including three World No. 1s:
Ruoning Yin – 2
Yin picked up her second title of the year last week in her native China at the Buick LPGA Shanghai. Over the summer, the former No. 1 paired up with good friend Jeeno Thitikul to win the Dow Championship.
Lauren Coughlin – 2
Coughlin, the breakout star of 2024, earned her first LPGA title at age 31 at the CPKC Women’s Open in her 101st LPGA start. She followed it soon after with a victory in Scotland in trying conditions. The Virginia grad went 3-0-1 in her Solheim Cup debut.
Hannah Green – 3
Green became only the third player from her native Australia to win three times in a season, joining Karrie Webb and Jan Stephenson. The wire-to-wire victory at the BMW Ladies Championship gave Green six career victories.
Lydia Ko – 3
Ko has three LPGA victories in a single year for the fifth time in her career. The Kiwi nabbed her third career major at the AIG Women’s British Open, shortly after winning gold at the Paris Olympics. While the Olympic victory does to count as an LPGA official victory, it did give her the final point needed to qualify for the LPGA Hall of Fame.
Nelly Korda – 6
Korda became the first player since Inbee Park in 2013to record six wins in a single season and she managed the feat by May. Only seven players have won six or more events in a single season since 1980. Korda became the first American to do it since Beth Daniel won seven times in 1990.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Nelly Korda, Lydia Ko headline short list of players with multiple LPGA titles in starry 2024 season
