Ryu clinches honor heading into the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla., Nov. 13, 2023 – The LPGA Tour announced today that Hae Ran Ryu has earned the 2023 Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year award. Ryu clinched the honor after finishing in a tie for 12th at last week’s The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican. Entering the CME Group Tour Championship, she has earned 893 total points and holds an impassable 274-point lead over Grace Kim in the standings.
Ryu is the sixth player from the Republic of Korea since 2015 to earn the honor, and first since Jeongeun Lee6 in 2019. She is the 14th Korean to earn the award since Se Ri Pak in 1998.
“I’m honored to earn the Rookie of the Year award and add my name to the prestigious list of winners before me. This year has been a memorable one, and I’m proud of what I’ve been able to accomplish on the LPGA Tour,” said Ryu. “I’m forever grateful to my team and fans for their support over my first season, and I can’t wait to close out the year at the CME Group Tour Championship.”
The 22-year-old first earned LPGA Tour Membership after finishing with medalist honors at the 2022 LPGA Q-Series. She became a Rolex First-Time Winner at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship presented by P&G with a three-stroke victory over Linnea Strom, and was the fifth Tour rookie to find the winner’s circle this season. Ryu has earned an additional five top-10 finishes so far this season, including a solo third at the Mizuho Americas Open and solo fourth at the Cognizant Founders Cup. She also recorded a career-best major championship result at the U.S. Women’s Open, where she finished eighth.
Ryu heads into the final week of the 2023 season ranked second in greens in regulation (75.72%), third in birdies (314), tied for seventh in eagles (9), tied for 10th in rounds under par (43), and sitting 12th in the Race to CME Globe. She has earned over $1.5 million this season and sits 15th on the year’s Official Money List.
Prior to joining the LPGA Tour, she competed in six Tour events and earned top-15 finishes at the 2020 U.S. Women’s Open (T13) and the 2021 BMW Ladies Championship (T7). She has won five times on the KLPGA, where she also won Rookie of the Year honors in 2020. As an amateur, Ryu won the 2018 Korean Women’s Amateur, and appeared in the 2016 and 2017 World Junior Girls Championship, 2018 Asian Games and 2018 Patsy Hankins Trophy.
Ryu will receive the Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year award at the 2023 Rolex LPGA Awards ceremony, to be held Thursday, Nov. 16 at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort in Naples, Fla., during the week of the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship.
Since its inception in 1962, 12 Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year winners have become members of either the LPGA Hall of Fame or World Golf Hall of Fame: Susie Maxwell Berning (1964), Joanne Carner (1970), Jan Stephenson (1974), Amy Alcott (1975), Nancy Lopez (1978), Beth Daniel (1979), Patty Sheehan (1981), Juli Inkster (1984), Annika Sorenstam (1994), Karrie Webb (1996), Se Ri Pak (1998) and Lorena Ochoa (2003).
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