The LPGA played its last official tournament last weekend. The 2023 season has now come to a close, and what a season it was! There were records set in many different categories.
Here is my recap of what I thought was one of the most competitive and entertaining seasons ever.
I will start off with the winners of the major awards:
LPGA Player of the Year – Lilia Vu
It was an outstanding year for Lilia as she won four times, and two of them were major championships. This award also includes a Hall of Fame point. She earned seven Hall of Fame points this year (27 points are needed to be inducted).
The Vare Trophy – Atthaya Thitikul
She won this award with an outstanding scoring average of 69.533. This award also includes a Hall of Fame point. This was her only H.O.F point this season, as she did not win an event.
Rookie of the Year – Hae Ran Ryu
It was well deserved as she not only won a tournament, but had five other top ten finishes.
Those are the three big LPGA awards. Now let’s take a look at some other highlights from the year:
Lilia Vu topped the money list earning $3,502,303. She was one of a record breaking twenty-nine players to win over one million dollars!
Angel Yin won the Aon Risk/Reward contest, and the one million dollar first prize.
Atthaya Thitikul led the LPGA tour with thirteen top ten finishes. Nobody else had more than nine. This was the second consecutive year that she led the tour in this category. She finished in the top ten in 62% of her starts. Nelly Korda was second with 50%.
Atthaya Thitikul finished fifth in the Race to the CME Globe. The highest finish of any player that did not win a tournament.
Chanettee Wannasaen finished fifty-first in the Race to the CME Globe. The lowest finish of any player that did win a tournament (individual stroke play only).
There were a record breaking thirteen first time winners this season!
There were twelve tournaments that needed a playoff to decide the winner.
There were two non-LPGA members to win this year (Rose Zhang and Mone Inami).
Minjee Lee was the only full time player to not miss a cut this entire year.
Alison Lee finished in second place in each of her last three LPGA starts.
There were winners from eleven different countries this year:
The United States – 10 wins
The Republic of Korea – 5
France – 4
Australia – 4
Thailand – 2
China – 2
Canada – 1
South Africa – 1
Ireland – 1
Sweden – 1
Japan – 1
Players from the United States won three of the five Major Championships. China and France won one each.
It was a terrific year for the LPGA tour in 2023, and 2024 promises to bring even more excitement.
The LPGA announced its 2024 schedule last week and highlights include:
Thirty five tournaments (33 are official).
A new record of One hundred and eighteen million dollars in prizes!
Three new tournaments. One each in Florida, Arizona, and Massachusetts (Ireland and Texas are no longer on the schedule).
There will be 16 tournaments with purses of at least $3 million, including 10 non-major and non-Tour Championship events (an increase from four in 2023 and only one in 2021).
Click here to see the 2024 LPGA Schedule on LPGA.com.
Feature Photo: Lilia Vu at the 2023 LPGA Portland Classic – All photos taken by Ben Harpring.
