The LPGA keeps getting stronger each year as proven by the fact that they had winners from 16 different countries in the last few seasons. This makes it so very difficult to narrow this down to just 40 players.

Here are my top 40 picks for the 2025 season in reverse order: (last year’s actual Player of the Year finish is in parenthesis).

40- Sarah Schmelzel (37) – Sarah had her finest year in 2024. She got off to a hot start with four consecutive top ten finishes very early in the year, but cooled off some after that. She did finish with seven top tens, and contributed two points to team USA in their Solheim Cup victory.

39- Alexa Pano (65) – Alexa recorded her first LPGA victory in 2023. Last year she took a small step backwards. A future star, she must do better than her 123^rd place finish last year in fairways hit. She is only 20 years old, making her one of the youngest players on tour (if not the youngest). She has all the tools to be a top player soon. I look for her to rebound this season.

38- Jennifer Kupcho (40) – Jennifer won three times during the 2022 season, but has not brought home a trophy since. She made 24 of 27 cuts last season, so she is always around for the weekend. Her seven top tens last year show she still has the ability to contend on a regular basis.

37- Leona Maguire (67) – The season that Leona had in 2024 is inexplicable! The previous three years she was 20^th, 8^th, and 12^th in the Player of the Year race. In 24 starts last year she had just one top ten. In her last 15 starts she couldn’t produce a top 25. She is just too good a player for her to do that again.

36- Charley Hull (46) – If you had to guess how many career wins she has, would anyone say just two? As hard as it is to believe, that is the correct answer. She takes a lot of time off and teed it up just 17 times last year. Her five top tens is fine for so few starts. I think she will move up some this year, but I can’t put her higher if she plays just half of the LPGA schedule.

35- Andrea Lee (31) – Andrea teed it up 23 times last year with five top ten finishes. She is very short off the tee (158^th on tour) so the rest of her game has to be sharp for her to contend. I expect similar results this year.

34- Allisen Corpuz (59) – Allisen was the winner of the U.S. Open in 2023 played at Pebble Beach. She hasn’t been able to follow that up as that is her only victory. She fell back last year with only three top ten finishes in 26 starts. She can go either way this year, but I have a feeling she will rise back into the top 40.

33- Celine Boutier (37) – Celine finished 2^nd in the Player of the Year race in 2023 when she won four times. A drop off in 2024 was expected, but she fell further down than could have been predicted. She failed to win at all last year, and had just 5 top tens in 25 starts. I don’t expect her to have another career year, but she is too good a player not to be holding another trophy soon.

32- Gabriela Ruffles (31) – She finished 3^rd in the Rookie of the Year race last season. In 26 starts she made 21 cuts and had 4 top tens. A very solid player who I think will finish in this area for years to come.

31-Sei Young Kim (22) – Sei Young is a twelve time winner on the LPGA Tour. She teed it up 24 times last year and had 5 top ten finishes. Her last victory was five years ago, so I can’t place her higher than this until she shows that she can win again.

30- Narin An (25) – Narin teed it up 27 times last year and recorded 5 top ten finishes. She is a very solid player but lacks length off the tee, finishing 144^th on tour. She has started 77 LPGA tournaments in her career without a single win. When she shows that she can bring home a trophy, I will place her higher.

29- Angel Yin (23) – Angel played hurt a good part of last season, but still managed 7 top tens in just 20 starts. If healthy this year she can finish much higher than this.

28- Jasmine Suwannapura (22) – Jasmine did get her 3^rd win on the LPGA Tour last season, but the rest of her year wasn’t much to write home about. She teed it up 30 times (more than any player on tour) but only had 4 top tens. She finished 130^th in driving distance and 113^th in putting. Not a formula for success on the LPGA Tour. Her 71.79 scoring average has to improve.

27- Chanettee Wannasaen (17) – Chanettee won for the second year in a row last season so you are probably wondering why I don’t have her higher up on this list. My reason is that she disappears for most of the season. She started 29 times last year (tied for 2^nd place) but only managed 4 top tens. 

26- Ina Noon (N/A) My first of three rookies on this list. Ina might be the best kept secret in women’s golf. So secret that her biography page is blank on the LPGA website. What is well documented is that she was caught cheating on the KLPGA (her caddie threatened that he would go public if she didn’t turn herself in). She was then suspended for three years! I bet no player is going to cheat over there again. What is clear though is that this player can play golf. She had an amazing 11 top fives and 14 top tens on the KLPGA last year, and is ranked 29th in the Rolex World Rankings.

25- Maja Stark (14) – Maja had a decent year last year with four top tens in 22 starts, but has not won since the 2022 season. If she lifts another trophy I will rank her higher.

24- Megan Khang (27) – Megan teed it up 23 times last year and had five top ten finishes. She seems to play her best in big events. She won all three of her matches in the 2024 Solheim Cup.

23- Amy Yang (11) – The highlight of her 2024 season was winning the KMPG Women’s PGA Championship. It was her first Major Championship win. Other than that she didn’t do much. She had just one other top ten and missed the cut in one third of her starts. She will be turning 36 this season and you have to figure her best years are behind her.

22- Patty Tavatanankit (12) – After a down 2023 season, Patty bounced back nicely last season. She picked up her first LPGA victory in three years and had four other top ten finishes. There are times when she looks like one of the top players in the game, but we don’t see that often enough.

21- Mao Saigo (16) – Mao tied for 2^nd place with 29 starts last year. She had seven top tens and won the Rookie of the year award. Look for her to have a similar season in 2025.

20- Jin Hee Im  (31) – I expect a big 2025 for this player. She finished second in the Rookie of the Year Race last year. In 24 starts last season she only missed three cuts, and had six top ten finishes. She had several chances to win on Sunday, but couldn’t close the deal. She will be holding a trophy very soon.

19- Nataliya Guseva (25) – Maybe the biggest surprise on the LPGA Tour last season. After a very underwhelming start, she was a top player the second half of the season. In her last 10 starts she had five top ten finishes. In her last two starts she finished 2^nd at the Lotte Championship and 7^th at the CME Group Tour Championship. She is a bomber, averaging 275 yards off the tee and finished 9^th on tour in putting. If she keeps those drives on the fairway….watch out!

18- Yuka Saso (10) – She finished in the top ten for Player of the Year last season only because of her one victory. In 22 starts she managed just 2 other top ten finishes. She finished 98^th in driving accuracy and 85th in hitting greens in regulation. Yuka also missed one third of her cuts. Way too many negatives there for me to think that she will repeat last year’s finish.

17- Brooke Henderson (17) – Brooke is a 13 time winner on the LPGA Tour. Last season was the first season in her career that she failed to win, excluding the shortened Covid season. She did manage to garner ten top tens last year and in 25 starts missed just 2 cuts. Don’t bet against her getting win number 14.

16- Rio Takeda (N/A) My second rookie on this list. Just 21 years old, Rio won as a non-LPGA member last year. A nine time winner on the KLPGA Tour, she is already ranked number 16 in the Rolex World Rankings.

15- A Lim Kim (27) – I have had the advantage of already seeing the LPGA play their first two events this year. Kim won one of them. She did win late last year to turn around what would have been a poor season. She plays a lot (maybe too much?) as she teed it up 28 times last year but had only 3 other top tens, while missing eight cuts. She is certainly capable of winning again this year and finishing in the top ten for Player of the Year.

14- Lilia Vu (9) – When healthy Lilia is one of the top players on tour. Last year she played in just 19 tournaments, but still managed a victory and four top tens.  She already missed the first two tournaments this year, and will start her season this week in Thailand. She missed just 2 cuts last year and has made her last 13 straight.

13- Lauren Coughlin (7) – A marginal player for several years on the LPGA Tour, Lauren turned her career around last season. Not only did she capture her first two LPGA victories, but had eight top tens. She also went 3-0-1 in the USA’s Solheim Cup victory. Logic says she had a career year that she won’t replicate in 2025. I see newly found confidence and another strong year.

12- Hye-Jin Choi (20) – Call me crazy for putting her this high on the list as she has not won any of her 77 LPGA starts. She seems to always be in contention which is proven by her 20 career top tens, eight of which she earned last year. If she fails to win again this year I promise to drop her way down, but I have a feeling that first win is coming real soon.

11- Yealimi Noh (48) – As I said earlier, the first two LPGA tournaments have already been played. Yealimi has won one of those tournaments. My pencil has a very good eraser, and I was able to change my initial prediction. She seemed to find it late last season, not missing the top 30 in her last eight events, with two top five and three top ten finishes over that period. If she can keep it on the fairway (118^th last year) she will be a top player.

10- Miya Yamashita (N/A) – My third and final rookie on this list. She has won 13 times on the JLPGA tour and is still just 23 years old. She was the medalist at the final round of the LPGA Qualifying Series to earn her LPGA card. She also finished in 4^th place at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

 9- Rose Zhang (15) – Rose has won in each of her two seasons on the LPGA Tour. She is still attending classes at Stanford University which limits her LPGA starts. Juggling education and professional golf is not an easy thing (just ask Michelle Wie). Rose was the Solheim Cup MVP for the USA team where she went an amazing 4-0-0. We have not yet seen her at her best. The best is yet to come.

 8- Hannah Green* (5) – Hannah had the best year of her career last year when she won three times and had six top ten finishes. She is too good a player to fall back too many spots this year. (*Feature Photo)

 7- Jin Young Ko (12) – Last year Jin Young failed to win a tournament for the first time in eight years. A 15 time winner on the LPGA Tour (2 Major Championships) she only missed 2 cuts in 18 starts last year. She now has 20 Hall of Fame points (27 is needed for induction), but those last seven are always the hardest to get (see Christie Kerr, Yani Tseng, Laura Davies). If she stays healthy, don’t bet against her getting there.

 6- Ruoning Yin (6) – The numbers were all there last year. Twenty starts, only two missed cuts, three wins, seven top tens. A career year? I don’t think so. Look for her to do it again.

 5- Lydia Ko (2) – In just about any other year, Lydia would have been number one in 2024. She started 21 times, made 19 cuts, won three times and had eight top tens. Oh, she also won the Gold Medal at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris and gained induction into the LPGA Hall of Fame. A small letdown is probable in 2025, but just a small one.

 4- Haeran Ryu (5) – Haeran hit the winner’s circle last year for the second time in her career. In 26 starts she missed just three cuts and had a league tying 13 top ten finishes. Playing with the lead late in tournaments has been her one problem. I look for her to turn some of those top tens into victories this year.

 3- Ayaka Furue (3) – Led the LPGA last year in cuts made percentage, as she only missed one cut in 24 starts. She had one victory and 12 top ten finishes. She is so consistent that you can’t drop her down on this list.

 2- Jeeno Thitikul (8) – A top ten machine that the LPGA has not seen in quite some time. She led the LPGA in top tens in both 2022 and 2023. In 2024 an injury kept her out a good part of the season. She played in just 17 tournaments and still tied for the top ten lead with 13. Can she make it four years in a row? Don’t bet against it.

 1- Nelly Korda (1) – How can you not place her on top again this year? In just 17 starts she won 7 times last year and had 11 top ten finishes. She also picked up 9 Hall of Fame points, giving her 19 for her career. Don’t bet against her getting there real soon.

Players most likely to make me look foolish for leaving them off this list: The Jutanugarn sisters and the Iwai twins (both rookies).

Feature Photo: Hannah Green at the 2024 JM Eagle LA Championship – All photos in this article by Ben Harpring.