Lydia Ko can make history, join elite club with win at KPMG Women's PGA
Lydia Ko can make history, join elite club with win at KPMG Women's PGA
FRISCO, Texas – Lydia Ko won earlier this year in Singapore, and she owns a home in Orlando, Florida. Texas heat won't bring her down this week, and she welcomes the wind. Though locals say the forecasted temperatures in the mid-90s is actually a break for these parts.
While the LPGA Hall of Famer hasn't had much success playing golf in Texas, she declared the PGA's Fields Ranch East Course to be her favorite course so far in the Lone Star State.
'I feel like the KPMG Women's PGA Championship is one that I feel like I could/should win with the type of golf courses we play,' said Ko. 'I saw Meg Mallon and Beth Daniel yesterday and said, hopefully, I can join you at the Champions Dinner someday and have a dinner menu curated by me.'
Ko, of course, needs the KPMG Women's PGA title to achieve the career grand slam. She has three different LPGA major titles (Amundi Evian, ANA Inspiration and AIG Women's British Open). The tour recognizes holding four of the five as having met the criteria. She'd be the eighth player in tour history to accomplish the feat.
'I was talking to my caddie about this, and I was like, I shouldn't have won the British Open,' said Ko. 'That's where I probably had not the best record going into St. Andrews last year, especially coming off the week at the Olympics a couple weeks prior.
'So if I made the impossible possible, I feel like as long as I'm playing good golf and I'm smart and I'm committed out there, hopefully I can give myself opportunities. Whether this is the one or maybe future sites, I'm not really sure, but I do really like it out here.'
Ko, 28, has three top 10s at the Women's PGA, including a playoff loss to Brooke Henderson in 2016 at Sahalee. She's one of 15 winners on tour this year in a season that has seen no repeats.
Early in her career, Ko made a habit of breaking records. This week, with the KPMG Women's PGA purse moving up to $12 million, matching the U.S. Women's Open prize fund, the winner's check would give Ko a new piece of history: career money record holder.
The winner of the 2025 KPMG Women's PGA will earn $1.8 million, which would bring Ko's career earnings to $22,631,239. That would clip Annika Sorenstam by $47,546.
'In ways, it's unfair because she's won 70-something times and I've only won – I'm proud of my 23, and I'm hoping to have a few more by the time I'm done,' said Ko. 'We are just playing in a very different era.'
The ever-thoughtful Ko went on to say that's why she feels it's her duty as a player to help grow the organization for future generations, as Sorenstam did for her.
To that end, Ko spent the day with incoming LPGA commissioner Craig Kessler in the Tuesday pro-am, meeting the PGA of America COO for the first time. Ko, a former LPGA board member, was impressed by Kessler's passion for the new job and his golf game, especially on the back nine.
'We don't want him to be too good, right?' she said with a laugh. 'He can't be playing too much golf. No, he's great. He just seems like he has a lot of good energy, and I think that's really important in any person.'
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