LPGA's 2025 Player of the Year race is stacked with names who have never won it
After a year in which Nelly Korda blew away the competition for LPGA Player of the Year honors, the pendulum has swung into a wide-open race.
With no repeat winners midway through the 2025 season, Japan's Mao Saigo leads the tour with 88 points, five in front of Australia's Minjee Lee. Jeeno Thitikul, who leads the tour in top-10 finishes with seven, sits alone in third with 80 points.
Saigo won the Chevron Championship in a five-way playoff and has four additional top-10 finishes. Lee won her third different career major title at the KPMG Women's PGA and has three additional top 10s.
World No. 1 Korda won seven times last season but is winless thus far in 2025. She's currently 42 points behind Saigo in 12th place. No one ahead of Korda has previously won the award.
Ayako Okamoto (1987) is the only Japanese player to win the LPGA's POY since its inception in 1966. Last year, Saigo became the second Japanese player to win Rookie of the Year honors. Japan's Rio Takeda currently leads the ROY race and is fourth on the POY list, 20 points behind her compatriot.
Players must finish in the top 10 to earn POY points and points are doubled at majors. A victory at a regular LPGA event is worth 30 points and a runner-up is worth 12.
Rolex Player of the Year candidates for 2026
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San Francisco Chronicle
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Yahoo
an hour ago
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Fox Sports
an hour ago
- Fox Sports
Lottie Woad, a former Florida State star, wins the Women's Scottish Open in her pro debut
Associated Press IRVINE, Scotland (AP) — Lottie Woad tapped in one final birdie, plucked the ball out of the cup and gave a simple wave to the crowd as if she had done this before. The English star made it look easy Sunday when she won the Women's Scottish Open in her professional debut. Woad never flinched when Hyo Joo Kim made a charge on a windy day at Dundonald Links, closing with a 4-under 68 for a three-shot victory. Woad is the second player in three years to win on the LPGA Tour in her pro debut, following Rose Zhang in the Mizuho Americas Open at Liberty National in 2023. Woad finished at 21-year 267 and earned $300,000. 'I think it's quite hard to do that, but very special to win in my first event,' Woad said. 'Everyone was chasing me today, and managed to maintain the lead and played really nicely down the stretch and hit a lot of good shots.' Kim had opened with four birdies in seven holes, and when the South Korean added birdies on the 11th and 12th, she shared the lead with Woad. Woad was unflappable, making birdie on the 13th and 14th holes to regain control and dropping only one shot late in her round. She finished with a three-quarter wedge over a winding burn to 2 feet for birdie and a reserved celebration. Her victory is certain to get everyone's attention in women's golf. Woad was the No. 1 amateur in the women's ranking when she won the Women's Irish Open on the Ladies European Tour three weeks ago. Then, she finished one shot out of a playoff in the Evian Championship in France, an LPGA major. That gave her enough points for an LPGA card, so the 21-year-old decided to forgo her final year at Florida State and turn pro. Now she has an LPGA title — the Women's Scottish Open is co-sanctioned with the LET — as she heads south for Royal Porthcawl in Wales for the final major of the year in the Women's British Open. Nelly Korda, who played the opening three rounds with Woad, ran off four straight birdies on the front nine until missing some putts that stalled her momentum. She shot 71 and finished eight shots behind, leaving the American winless this year after a seven-win season in 2024. Julia Lopez Ramirez closed with a 65 and tied for third with Sei Young Kim (73), earning the Spaniard one of three spots available in the Women's British Open next week. The other spots went to Paula Reto of South Africa and Mary Liu of China. Woad first made a name for herself when she won the Augusta National Women's Amateur last year with birdies on three of the last four holes. She said that was more pressure than she felt in her pro debut. 'I think Augusta, that was the biggest tournament I played in at the time and was kind of my big win,' Woad said. 'So definitely felt the pressure of it more there, and I felt like all those experiences helped me with this.' The only difference this week was getting paid for it. Along with winning the Women's Irish Open, Woad tied for 31st in the U.S. Women's Open this year and tied for 10th in the Women's British Open at St. Andrews last summer. She heads to Wales hopeful of keeping the momentum. 'It's been pretty good, yeah. I don't really know how to describe it,' Woad said. 'Just been shooting low scores, which is always nice.' The LPGA Tour now has had a different winner in all 19 tournaments this year, the longest stretch of no multiple winners in its 75-year history. ___ AP golf:
