Golfer Lydia Ko’s 2021 purple patch has her landing in greener fairways when it comes to money, even for a former world No 1 and two-time major winner.
Ko, the world No 5, has been in a rich vein of form in recent months, pushing her bank balance skyward and, at just 24, cementing her future legacy as one of the all-time greats.
With earnings of NZ$2.061 million on the LPGA Tour so far in 2021, Ko has now banked NZ$17.401m in her illustrious career, shifting her into the top-10 money earners of all time.
The multimillion-dollar statistic that puts Lydia Ko among the top three players of all time:
But scratch a little deeper and it becomes clear that Ko is on the path to a multimillion-dollar milestone that will ensure she goes down as one of the greatest female players to swing a driver in anger.
Ko's career earnings have come in just 198 LPGA Tour tournaments, giving her an average of US$61,879 (NZ$87,729) per tournament.
That puts her in third place on the all-time list of LPGA Tour players, trailing only former Mexican world No 1 Lorena Ochoa, who won her US$14.863 million from just 175 tournaments for an average of US$84,933 (NZ$120,414), and the LPGA's greatest ever money winner, Annika Sörenstam.
Regarded as one of the best female golfers to ever play the game, Sörenstam won career prizemoney totalling a staggering US$22.577m in 304 LPGA tournaments with an average of US$74,266 (NZ$105, 291).
Ko’s latest big-money result in the Pelican Women’s Championship – a second-place finish following a four-person playoff – lifted her to No 10 in the LPGA all-time prizemoney winners, edging past current US player Paula Creamer.
With 10 top-10 finishes in 2021, Ko's season has taken flight in the final few tournaments of the year. Her five-shot victory in the Aramco Saudi Ladies International earlier this month was bookended by a third at the BMW Ladies Championship and her Pelican Women’s Championship result.
And she’s not done yet.
If the very much in-form Ko can win the season-ending LPGA Tour tournament – the 2021 CME Group Tour Championship – she would leap over retired Hall of Famer Se Ri Pak into ninth and be less than US$200,000 behind current US player Stacy Lewis.
The winner of the US$5m CME Group Tour Championship will receive US$1.5m (NZ$2.1m).
A victory in Florida would also deliver Ko her highest-earning season, with her current total only trailing her debut season in 2014 (US$2.08m) and her major winning years of 2015 (US$2.8m) and 2016 (US$2.4m).
Ko, who also won the bronze medal at this year's Tokyo Olympics, might have only won one tournament so far this year but her 2021 season has been one to remember regardless of her result in Naples, Florida, at the Tiburon Golf Club later this week.
Source: stuff.co.nz