LPGA major champion Amy Yang soars to No. 5 in rankings, books Olympic ticket

It is official: Amy Yang, the latest LPGA major champion from South Korea, is headed to Paris this summer for her second Olympic appearance.

Yang jumped 20 spots to reach her career-best No. 5 in the women’s golf rankings released Monday (U.S. local time), a day after she captured her maiden major title at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in Sammamish, Washington.

By cracking the top 15, Yang qualified for the 60-player field for the Paris Olympics, where the women’s four-round competition will go from Aug. 7 to 10. It will be Yang’s second trip to the Olympics, following the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. She finished tied for fourth place then, a stroke back of the bronze medalist from China, Feng Shanshan.

Following Yang’s win Sunday, the LPGA Tour said the 34-year-old South Korean was projected to break the top 15 in the rankings.

The top-15 players after the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship qualified for Paris, with a maximum of four players per country. The remaining spots went to players ranked outside the top 15, with a maximum of two per country that did not already have two players inside the top 15. The International Golf Federation also ensured that at least one golfer from the host country and each continent qualified.

Yang will be joined by a pair of fellow two-time Olympians in Ko Jin-young and Kim Hyo-joo.

Ko jumped four spots to No. 3 after tying for second place at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. The former No. 1 tied for ninth place at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago.

Kim qualified for Paris as world No. 13, down a spot from last week. She tied for 15th in Tokyo.

South Korea had sent the maximum four players to each of the past two Olympic Games, with Park In-bee capturing gold in 2016 as women’s golf made its return to the Olympics following a 116-year absence.

This time, South Korea and the United States will lead the way with three players apiece. The U.S. will be represented by the reigning gold medalist Nelly Korda, two-time major champion Lilia Vu and youngster Rose Zhang.

Australia will feature Minjee Lee, who was born in Perth to Korean parents, and New Zealand will have Lydia Ko, a Seoul-born Kiwi who won silver in 2016 and bronze in 2021.