Player Bio: Lydia Ko2022 U.S. Women's Open

Age: 25
Country: New Zealand
College: None
Worldwide professional victories: 23 (17 on LPGA Tour)
Road to Pine Needles: Top 30 points leader on LPGA Tour's 2021 Race to CME Globe; Winner of LPGA Tour-sanctioned event from 2021 U.S. Women's Open to start of 2022 championship; Top 10 points leader in LPGA Tour's 2022 Race to CME Globe as of April 6; Top 75 in Rolex Rankings as of April 6

Ko stormed onto the world stage as a teenager, becoming No. 1 in the Rolex Rankings at 17 years, 9 months and 9 days, the youngest to achieve that status. When she won the 2015 Evian Championship, she became the youngest woman to win a major championship. She captured her second major in 2016 at the ANA Inspiration (now Chevron Championship). Ko had been the No. 1 player in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking for 130 weeks when she turned pro in October 2013. By then, she had already captured the 2012 U.S. Women’s Amateur, been a semifinalist in the 2012 U.S. Girls’ Junior and low amateur in the U.S. Women’s Open (2012). Ko was the low individual scorer in the 2012 Women’s World Amateur Team Championship while representing New Zealand. Ko twice won the CN Canadian Women’s Open (2012 and 2013) as an amateur, and won the event for a third time in 2015. She ended a three-year victory drought in April 2021 when she claimed the LOTTE Championship in Hawaii. She won again in 2022 at the Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio. This will be her 12th start in the U.S. Women’s Open, with a best finish of T-3 in 2016 at CordeValle.

U.S. Women's Open Playing Record