17 players to watch as the LPGA opens its 2025 season

The LPGA is ready to start the year-long celebration of its 75th season, and it begins Thursday with the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions at Lake Nona Golf & Country Club in Orlando.

What will World No. 1 Nelly Korda do for an encore after winning seven times in 2024? How can Lydia Ko top last season after winning the AIG Women’s Open—one of three victories—and the gold medal at the Paris Olympics? That secured her spot in the LPGA Hall of Fame, too. She’ll surely find a way.

No doubt there will be milestones and breakthroughs, successes and struggles, new names making a splash and veterans doing veteran things. We can’t wait to witness it all, especially from the players who make this list as ones we know we’re watching in 2025.

Nelly Korda

Age: 26 Rolex Ranking: 1 LPGA seasons: 9 LPGA wins: 15

Outlook: Korda won SEVEN times in 2024, including a record-tying five in a row. It all began when she won the LPGA Drive On Championship last February, the run also including the Chevron Championship, her second career major title. For all the early dominance, the year wasn't without a few stumbles, however, most notably missing cuts in back-to-back majors. Nobody’s perfect, and injuries also crept into the mix, but Korda came back strong by year's end to win Rolex Player of the Year among other hardware. Oh, and she got to play with Caitlin Clark in The Annika. Needless to say, she seems positioned well to deliver an solid encore in 2025.

Lydia Ko

Age: 27 Rolex Ranking: 2 LPGA seasons: 12 LPGA wins: 22

Outlook: It was another show-stopping year for Ko. She had three wins, including the AIG Women’s Open (her third career major), and she won gold at the Paris Olympics. That win gave her the 27th point needed to qualify for the LPGA Hall of Fame. She became the youngest player in history to qualify and was inducted in November. She kicks off the season by attempting to successfully defend her title at the Tournament of Champions.

Ruoning Yin

Age: 22 Rolex Ranking: 3 LPGA seasons: 4 LPGA wins: 5

Outlook: Yin won three times in her third season on tour last year. She finished the year strong by winning three of five starts with victories at the Dow Championship, Buick LPGA Shanghai (birdieing five of the final six holes for an eight-under 64 to become the first Chinese player to win there) and the Maybank Championship. She’s feeling 22!

Jeeno Thitikul

Age: 21 Rolex Ranking: 4 LPGA seasons: 4 LPGA wins: 4

Outlook: Money doesn’t buy happiness but it sure let’s you know when you’ve had a successful season. Thitikul was the tour’s top money winner. She had an impressive 12 top-10 finishes, including two wins. She won the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship and the $4 million check that comes with it. She also won a cool $1 million for capturing the Aon Risk Reward Challenge. Her 2024 earnings of $6,059,309 broke Lorena Ochoa’s single-season earnings record at $4 million-plus.

Lilia Vu

Age: 27 Rolex Ranking: 5 LPGA seasons: 7 LPGA wins: 5

Outlook: She didn’t win a major in 2024 after taking two the year before, but Vu played really well and was consistent, making 16 cuts in 18 starts. She won the Meijer LPGA Classic for her lone victory and had four top-10s. The most memorable part of her season was her approach shot to two feet on the 18th hole at the Solheim Cup. She drained the putt for a birdie that gave the U.S. its first win since 2017.

Hannah Green

Age: 28 Rolex Ranking: 6 LPGA seasons: 8 LPGA wins: 6

Outlook: The Australian was a three-time winner last year—the first time an Aussie has won at least three times since Karrie Webb did it in 2006. She won at the HSBC Women’s World Championship, the JM Eagle LA Championship (for the second straight year at Wilshire C.C.) and the BMW Ladies Championship. Only thing that’s not going her way is Wilshire is under renovation, so she’ll have to try for the three-peat at El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana, Calif.

Ayaka Furue

Age: 24 Rolex Ranking: 8 LPGA seasons: 4 LPGA wins: 2

Outlook: She had four top-10 finishes in her first five starts and won her first major at the Amundi Evian Championship. Furue did that with a walkoff putt for eagle on the 18th hole for a spectacular finish. Her putting is sensational, averaging 29.54 putts per round in 2024. She’ll continue to be a presence on leaderboards and have fans scrambling to watch her pre-round routine on putting greens.

Celine Boutier

Age: 31 Rolex Ranking: 9 LPGA seasons: 8 LPGA wins: 6

Outlook: Boutier won four times in 2023 and is hoping to recapture that groove after a winless 2024 that she deemed an “interesting year.” Still, Boutier had four top-10s and played well. She did win internationally with her sixth career Ladies European Tour title in Shenzhen, China in October for some momentum. In 2023, she became the first Frenchwoman to win the Evian Championship but she followed with a tie for 39th last year. Her mantra on Instagram, which we love, is “make par, not war.”

Charley Hull

Age: 28 Rolex Ranking: 10 LPGA seasons: 11 LPGA wins: 2

Outlook: Hull had five top-10s and her love of playing under pressure was once again backed by results. She defeated World No. 1 Nelly Korda in a singles match in the Solheim Cup. Hull is always making news, whether it’s on or off the course. She’s one to watch with her fine play in majors but she’s still looking to win her first. Hull has got that brash personality and insane workouts she posts to social media. She showed off a press-up and called it “crappy” but we certainly couldn’t do it. We have our popcorn ready.

Jin Young Ko

Age: 29 Rolex Ranking: 12 LPGA seasons: 8 LPGA wins: 15

Outlook: She battled a shoulder injury last year and snapped a seven-year win streak on tour, but still made 16 of 18 cuts. She’s looking to get back to her winning ways. She put herself in contention plenty in 2024 with seven top-10s and finished second twice, including at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. Ko hasn’t won a major since she won two in 2019—the Chevron Championship and Evian Championship. She’s joked that she’s getting old, but she’s not even 30 yet. Says here she has more titles to win.

Rose Zhang

Age: 21 Rolex Ranking: 14 LPGA seasons: 3 LPGA wins: 2

Outlook: Zhang will need to be a pro in time management again as she balances her communications studies at Stanford AND her other gig as one of professional golf’s biggest stars. Because of college school work, she won’t be playing at the Founders Cup to defend her lone title from a year ago, where she made four birdies over her last five holes to win. The former top amateur in the world remains a breath of fresh air.

Lauren Coughlin

Age: 32 Rolex Ranking: 15 LPGA seasons: 7 LPGA wins: 2

Outlook: The American has always been a grinder, and it paid off in 2024 when she won her first career LPGA title at the CPKC Women’s Open in July and just 21 days later captured the ISPS Handa Women’s Scottish Open and qualified for the Solheim Cup. What a month! Her husband John Pond, who had caddied for her on and off throughout her career, quit his day job as they’re going all in on her career. The partnership has proven to be successful. Let’s see if this duo can capitalize on her breakthrough season.

Yuka Saso

Age: 23 Rolex Ranking: 16 LPGA seasons: 5 LPGA wins: 2

Outlook: Saso’s two career wins are the best kind—two U.S. Women’s Open, including last year at Lancaster Country Club (Pa.). She also won in 2021 after beating Nasa Hataoka in a playoff at The Olympic Club. She’ll defend her major title at Erin Hills (Wis.) this year and always has to be one of the favorites. Saso models her game after Rory McIlroy, and even though he has more wins in majors (four) she’s got more U.S. Opens.

Minjee Lee

Age: 28 Rolex Ranking: 19 LPGA seasons: 11 LPGA wins: 10

Outlook: She’s a pro’s pro in her own right, but she and her brother Min Woo are doing cool things together. They made history as the first brother and sister to represent Australia in the Paris Olympics. She had four top-10 finishes last year. Lee’s visibility will grow substantially this year, thanks to she and her brother appearing in the third season of Netflix’s “Full Swing.” It marks the first time an LPGA player has been featured in the popular documentary, and we can’t wait to see more of her personality.

Leona Maguire

Age: 30 Rolex Ranking: 53 LPGA seasons: 6 LPGA wins: 2

Outlook: Maguire is a match-play boss and had arguably her best showing of the year at the T-Mobile Match Play in Las Vegas. She made it all the way to the finals before losing to Nelly Korda at Shadow Creek. The Irish golfer and former amateur phenom had a stretch last season where she missed three of four cuts, which was especially tough since two of those were majors—the Chevron and U.S. Women’s Open. Remember when she shot that final-round 61 at the Evian Championship in 2021? We’d love to see her get that kind of groove back.

Ingrid Lindblad

Age: 24 Rolex Ranking: 227 LPGA seasons: Rookie LPGA wins: 0

Outlook: There’s so much promise for the Swedish golfer who starred at Louisiana State and rose to be the No. 1 amateur in the world. Lindblad finished in the top three at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur three times and after turning pro in the summer, she won once on the Epson Tour. Lindblad finished sixth in the Epson’s Race for the Card in just nine starts to earn her LPGA card for the season.

Adela Cernousek

Age: 21 Rolex Ranking: 979 LPGA seasons: Rookie LPGA wins: 0

Outlook: Cernousek had quite a career at Texas A&M, becoming the first Aggie to win the NCAA Women's individual title last May. She planned on returning to school this year, but her fine play dictated otherwise. She turned pro early after qualifying for the final stage of the LPGA’s Q-Series and earning her tour card with a T-13.