NAPLES, Fla. — The 2023 season has been a banner year for the LPGA Tour. The organization has made stops at some of golf’s most historic venues, played for some of the biggest prize funds in the history of the women’s game and seen incredible successes from players all across the globe.
Two players have won four times, one of whom captured two of the five major championships, and there have been 12 Rolex First-Time Winners this season, a new record on the LPGA Tour. Add in the return of the Hanwha LIFEPLUS International Crown at TPC Harding Park and a Solheim Cup in Andalucia, Spain, and you have a season that’s been chock full of drama, excitement and unforgettable moments that will go down in history books and be remembered for years to come.
Let’s take a look back at the 2023 LPGA Tour season.
Brooke Henderson rang in the new year with a win at the season-opening Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, one that saw her beat Maja Stark and Charley Hull by four shots en route to capturing her 13th career LPGA Tour victory. The next event saw Lilia Vu become the first Rolex First-Time Winner of the 2023 season at the Honda LPGA Thailand after carding an 8-under 64 on Sunday at Siam Country Club’s Pattaya Old Course to win by one shot over rookie Natthakritta Vongtaveelap.
Former Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings No. 1 Jin Young Ko then finally broke through after a challenging 2022 season, successfully defending her title at the HSBC Women’s World Championship to take home her 15th victory since becoming an LPGA Tour member in 2018. Just a few weeks later, Celine Boutier captured her first win since the 2021 ShopRite LPGA Classic presented by Acer, defeating Georgia Hall in a playoff at the LPGA Drive On Championship at Superstition Mountain to become the winningest French player in LPGA Tour history.
Ruoning Yin also made history the very next week, joining Shanshan Feng as the only other player from the People’s Republic of China to win on Tour when she earned her first career victory at the DIO Implant LA Open. Epson Tour graduate Grace Kim took home her first Tour title at the LOTTE Championship presented by Hoakalei not long after, and Vu picked up her second win of the season just a week later at The Chevron Championship after she outlasted Angel Yin in a playoff at the Club at Carlton Woods.
Another playoff was needed to decide the winner of the JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro, and Hannah Green ultimately emerged victorious at Wilshire Country Club, taking home her first win since the 2019 Portland Classic. The Hanwha LIFEPLUS International Crown made its long-awaited return to the LPGA Tour schedule in May, being contested for the first time since 2018 at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco, Calif. Thailand ultimately won the team competition, defeating the Australian Team to capture their first Hanwha LIFEPLUS International Crown since the event’s inception in 2014.
After representing the Republic of Korea at TPC Harding Park, Ko then won for the second time this season at the Cognizant Founders Cup, defeating Minjee Lee in a playoff at Upper Montclair Country Club to take home her third Founders Cup title in the last four years. While she didn’t play for her home country at TPC Harding Park, Thailand’s Pajaree Anannarukarn picked up her second career win at the Bank of Hope LPGA Match-Play presented by MGM Rewards after defeating Ayaka Furue in the final match just a couple of weeks after her fellow countrywomen won the International Crown.
As the calendar turned to June, Stanford University standout and 2020 U.S. Women’s Amateur champion Rose Zhang burst onto the scene at the Mizuho Americas Open at Liberty National Golf Club, becoming the first player since 1951 to win on the LPGA Tour in their professional debut. The tournament was hosted by Zhang’s fellow Stanford Cardinal Michelle Wie West and featured 24 players from the American Junior Golf Association teeing it up alongside the pros in an event for the first time in LPGA Tour history.
The season rolled on as 2022 AIG Women’s Open winner Ashleigh Buhai captured her second LPGA Tour title at the ShopRite LPGA Classic presented by Acer, and Leona Maguire finally broke through again the next week at the Meijer LPGA Classic for Simply Give, winning by three shots over Ariya Jutanugarn.
The second and third majors of the season, the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and the U.S. Women’s Open at Baltusrol Golf Club’s Lower Course and Pebble Beach Golf Links, respectively, came in rapid succession, both producing drama that will grace highlight reels for years to come. After a whirlwind final round that saw the lead change hands multiple times, Ruoning Yin eventually emerged as the KPMG Women’s PGA champion, winning by one shot over Yuka Saso to become the first player from the People’s Republic of China to win a major on the LPGA Tour since Shanshan Feng won the 2012 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, then known as the Wegmans LPGA Championship.
The U.S. Women’s Open felt like it was going to come down to the wire as Charley Hull made a late charge on Sunday at Pebble Beach in a bid for her first major title. But the ever-calm, cool and collected Allisen Corpuz stayed the course and stove off Hull to earn her first career LPGA Tour victory and win her first major championship in historic fashion at one of golf’s greatest and most recognizable venues.
She nearly won again the next week at the Dana Open, coming up just short of Sweden’s Linn Grant who became a Rolex First-Time Winner at Highland Meadows Golf Club after a jaw-dropping 21-under performance that saw her card two rounds of 64 or better. Playing partners Cheyenne Knight and Elizabeth Szokol took home the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational title the next week before the Tour jetted off to Europe for the remainder of the summer.
The LPGA Euro Swing started strong as Celine Boutier became the first French player to win The Amundi Evian Championship, trouncing the rest of the field by a whopping six shots at Evian Resort Golf Club. She won again the next week at the FREED GROUP Women’s Scottish Open, the first player to win in back-to-back starts since Jin Young Ko last did so in 2021.
Vu captured her second major title of the 2023 season at the AIG Women’s Open at Walton Heath Golf Club, winning by six shots over Charley Hull to pick up her third victory of the year and ascend to No. 1 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings for the first time in her career. Epson Tour winner Alexa Pano became a Rolex First-Time Winner at the ISPS Handa World Invitational to cap off the European swing as the Tour returned to North America for the CPKC Women’s Open.
After competing for eight years on the LPGA Tour without winning, Megan Khang finally broke through in Canada, defeating Jin Young Ko in a playoff at Shaughnessy Golf and Country Club to take home her first career title at the CPKC Women’s Open. The Portland Classic saw 2023 LPGA Tour rookie Chanettee Wannasaen become a Rolex First-Time Winner, and Minjee Lee captured her ninth career LPGA Tour victory at the Kroger Queen City Championship presented by P&G, outlasting Hull in a playoff at Kenwood Country Club.
The Tour took a break in September for the 18th playing of the Solheim Cup at Finca Cortesin in Andalucia, Spain. Over three thrilling days of play, the biennial team competition ended in a 14-14 tie for the very first time, and Europe retained the Cup for the third straight year, another historic accomplishment for the Blue and Yellow.
Regular-season play resumed at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship presented by P&G and saw Hae Ran Ryu – who was ultimately named the Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year – win for the first time at Pinnacle Country Club, tying the record for most Rolex First-Time Winners in a single season. Her fellow Republic of Korea native Hyo Joo Kim won the next week at The Ascendant LPGA benefiting Volunteers of America before the Tour headed back to Asia for the fall Asian swing.
Angel Yin evened the score with Vu at the Buick LPGA Shanghai, beating the two-time major winner in a playoff in the People’s Republic of China after falling to her in a playoff at The Chevron Championship in April. The next week saw Minjee Lee win again at the BMW Ladies Championship, capturing her 10th Tour title in a playoff over Alison Lee, and another playoff – this time a nine-hole one – was needed to decide the winner of the Maybank Championship. Boutier triumphed again in Malaysia, finally emerging from one of the longest playoffs in LPGA Tour history victorious over Atthaya Thitikul to earn her fourth win of the 2023 season.
Non-member and Olympic silver medalist Mone Inami won the TOTO Japan Classic in her home country to close out the Asian swing and send the Tour back to the United States for the final two events of the season, The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican and the CME Group Tour Championship. Once again, Vu found herself in the winner’s circle at The ANNIKA, coming from three shots behind at Pelican Golf Club to win for a fourth time this season and reascend to No. 1 in the Rolex Rankings as well as take the lead in the Rolex Player of the Year race with one event to play.
Vu's victory set the stage for what’s sure to be an exciting conclusion to the 2023 season at the CME Group Tour Championship. With the top 60 players in the Race to the CME Globe taking on Tiburón Golf Club and duking it out for a $7 million purse and $2 million winner’s check, there’s sure to be plenty of drama in store this week in Naples, Fla. It will be a fitting conclusion for what’s been a scintillating season for the world’s top talent as the LPGA Tour has crowned champions, raised the bar and reached new heights in what’s been a banner year.
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