2022 was a year that brought a wave of news: 11 players won for the first time. Among these is Atthaya Thitikul, a debutant on the LPGA who also reached the top of the Rolex Women’s World Golf Ranking at the end of October.
2022 Golfweek Awards, winner
The first part of 2022 was marked by Minjee Lee: after winning the Cognizant Founders Cup in May, her second major at the US Women’s Open, the conquest of the Rolex Annika Major Award seemed to have no rivals.
But, after the AIG Women’s British Open in August, Lee could no longer keep up the pace, no longer cracking the top 30 for the rest of the season. When assigning the 2022 Golfweek Awards, the award for the best golfer however went neither to the debutant Atthaya Thitikul, nor to Minjee Lee (who in any case deserved the Honorable Mention), but to a player who in the past year has been able to find herself: Lydia Ko.
Former women’s golf prodigy captured her third LPGA title for a record $2 million in cash at the CME Group Tour Championship in 2022, and won Rolex Player of the Year for the first time since 2015 and the Vare Trophy for the lowest average score (68.99) for the second consecutive year.
In the past, only Annika Sorenstam had average scores below 69. Lydia Ko’s 2022 was one of consistency, finishing in the top 10 in 14 of the 22 LPGA tournaments Ko entered. These results brought Lydia Ko back to No. 1 in the world for the first time since 2017.
On December 30, Ko ended the year on a high note, marrying her boyfriend Jun Chung (the son of the Hyundai vice president) in Seoul. A decidedly unforgettable year for the New Zealander. Lydia Ko is a New Zealand golfer of South Korean descent.
She became No. 1 in the world rankings on February 2, 2015 at the age of 17 years 9 months and 8 days, making her the youngest golfer, male or female, to reach the top ranking.[1][2] With her win of the Evian Championship on September 13, 2015 she also became the youngest female winner of a major competition, aged 18 years, 4 months and 20 days.
In her career she boasts 14 titles on the LPGA Tour, two majors, a silver medal in the individual at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games and a bronze, again in the individual, at the Tokyo 2020 Games.
