LPGA Star Jin Young Ko Breaks Rolex Rankings Record
By Ryan Redding
LPGA Star Jin Young Ko Breaks Rolex Women’s Ranking Record.
Imagine for a minute that you are the best in the entire world at what you do. Whether that’s throwing darts, being CEO of a Fortune 500 company, or hitting a little white ball around a field sometimes. Now imagine that you have been the best in the world for a record amount of time. Seems unfathomable, doesn’t it?
But that is exactly what South Korean, LPGA star Jin Young Ko has accomplished by the ripe old age of just 28 years old.
After a T-20 showing at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, the two-time major champion retains her first-place ranking. She breaks Lorena Ochoa’s mark of 158 weeks (not consecutive) as No. 1 in the official Rolex Women’s World Golf Ranking.
Consistency leads to Rolex Women’s Ranking record for Jin Young Ko
Ko’s career on the LPGA Tour began in 2018. She won her first event on Tour, the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open and collected 12 more Top 10s on the season, earning her LPGA Rookie of the Year honors.
The dreaded sophomore slump stood no chance, as Ko continued to blaze her own path and won both of her majors – the ANA Inspiration and The Evian Championship – in 2019, helping garner her the LPGA Player of the Year award. In 2021, Ko claimed her second LPGA Player of the Year award which included five wins and the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship.
2023 marks Ko’s sixth season on the LPGA and she shows no signs of slowing down. She’s already won the HSBC Women’s World Championship and the Cognizant Founders Cup, her third win in four years at the event.
As the 78th U.S. Women’s Open at historic Pebble Beach approaches, Jin Young Ko is in form and eager to capture her third major championship. This will be her seventh appearance at the USWO, having made the cut in her other six starts. She’s never finished outside the Top 25 in a U.S. Women’s Open, while her last three starts continue to see her trend upward with a T-2 in 2020 and a fourth-place finish in 2022.
On the tight fairways and small greens of Pebble Beach, accuracy is paramount to be in contention on Sunday. Jin Young Ko ranks 3rd on the LPGA Tour in Greens in Regulation (75%) and 5th in Scoring Average at 69.34, proving her game is in form to compete and possibly snag her third major at one of the most famous golf courses in the world.
Next. The Women’s PGA Championship Goes Fully International. dark
The U.S. Women’s Open takes place July 6-9, 2023, at Pebble Beach Golf Links on California’s Monterey Peninsula.