New LPGA season to tee off in Orlando this week

January 28, 2025

The 2025 LPGA Tour season will tee off in Orlando this week, with five South Korean players in the field for the opener featuring winners in the past two years.

The Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions will open the new season at Lake Nona Golf & Country Club in Orlando on Thursday (local time). The US$2 million tournament will have 32 players in the field, including five South Korean players: Ryu Hae-ran, Ko Jin-young, Kim A-lim, Amy Yang and Kim Hyo-joo.

In 2024, Ryu, Yang and Kim A-lim each won a tournament. The three wins by South Korean players were the lowest total in an LPGA season since 2011.

Ryu is the top South Korean in the latest women’s world rankings at No. 7. She also won a tournament as a rookie in 2023.

Ko, former world No. 1 now down to No. 12, had two victories in 2023, while Yang and Kim Hyo-joo had a win apiece that year.

No South Korean player has won the season-opening event since Ji Eun-hee captured the inaugural edition in 2019.

The winner of the tournament will take home $300,000, along with 500 points in the Race to CME Globe points competition.

The LPGA initially scheduled 33 tournaments for the 2025 season, but it announced last week that the Fir Hills Seri Pak Championship, bearing the name of the South Korean legend, will not be held as scheduled in March because the event underwriter had not fulfilled its payment obligations for the 2024 and 2025 events.

The LPGA said it will work with both Fir Hills, a Silicon Valley-based investment company, and Pak to reschedule the event.

Pak said Sunday that recent wildfires in the Los Angeles area have made it difficult for the tournament to be held in the region as planned. Last year, Palos Verdes Golf Club, an LA suburb, hosted the inaugural Pak tournament.