Just over a month ago, Yealimi Noh finally claimed her first victory on the LPGA Tour, winning the Founders Cup by four shots over Jin Young Ko.
The 23-year-old has continued her strong season since and currently sits in second place in the Race to CME Globe standings, trailing only A Lim Kim. There's obviously a long way to go, but if Noh is able to stay inside the top 10 throughout the year, it would be a career first.
The closest the San Francisco native has come to finishing in the top 10 was in her rookie campaign in 2020, when she burst onto the scene as a teenager to notch a pair of top-10s and four top-25s, ultimately finishing 14th.
Since then, though, Noh has finished 34th, 79th, 119th, and 37th.
But she's certainly put herself in a much better position thus far in 2025. Following her win at the Founders, she tied for 11th at the Honda LPGA Thailand. And a week later, she tied for seventh at the HSBC Women's World Championship in Singapore.
Currently 102 points back of Kim, Noh has positioned herself ahead of the top two players in the world, Nelly Korda (10th) and Lydia Ko (fifth), and is now the 27th-ranked player in the Rolex Women's World Golf Rankings.
In already having the best year of her young career, it will be more important for her to keep pace as the LPGA Tour returns to the United States, which means a little stiffer overall competition moving forward.
Yealimi Noh ranks first in several LPGA Tour statistical categories
We always knew Yealimi Noh had that special something! Congratulations to our 2018 Junior PGA Champion on her first career LPGA Tour victory! 👏 pic.twitter.com/bpWfkDGxWX
— PGA of America (@PGA) February 9, 2025
It's undoubtedly a crowded and star-studded group at the top of the Race to CME Globe standings, and it'll be critical for Noh to continue her early-season push if she wants to stay where she is. But her play certainly suggests that she's ready to do just that.
She currently ranks first on the LPGA Tour in birdie-to-bogey ratio and bogey avoidance, which speaks to strong putting. And her ability to make key par saves has consistently kept her near the top of the leaderboard.
She also ranks first in greens in regulation from the rough, holding a 77.55% mark in that regard. If she continues such strong play and maintains the ability to salvage pars, she should be among the leaders throughout the season.
After her win at the Founders Cup, Noh spoke about how important such a victory could be to her confidence moving forward.
“I've been in contention a couple of times," she said, "and I told myself I could do it, but this is the first time it got done. This is a really big confidence booster for me and the rest of the year.”
If Noh continues to show off the all-around game she has in her three starts thus far, finishing in the top 10 of the season-long race toward the Tour Championship isn't hard to envision.
Perhaps she just needed to get that first victory out of the way. Noh is expected to return to action at next week's Ford Championship.