At the start of the 2023 season, it’s safe to say that few would’ve put anyone on this short list in the LPGA Player of the Year conversation.
The start of the year seemed primed for another Lydia Ko show, especially after she opened 2023 with a victory on the LET in Saudi Arabia. Nelly Korda won late in 2022 after an injury-plagued year. Would she continue what she started in 2021?
Instead, both Ko and Korda were among the winless on the LPGA this season, while three new heavy hitters emerged.
In the end, the winner was clear. Without further ado, here’s Golfweek’s Female Player of the Year …
Honorable mention: Celine Boutier
A two-time winner on the LPGA going into this season, Boutier took her game to another level in 2023. The 30-year-old Duke grad won her first title of the year at the LPGA Drive On in Arizona, defeating Solheim Cup partner Georgia Hall in a playoff.
She’d then go on to become the first Frenchwoman to win the Amundi Evian Championship, cruising to a six-shot victory. The next week, she won the Women’s Scottish Open by two shots. Boutier finished off her victory run with a playoff victory in Malaysia at the Maybank Championship, defeating Atthaya Thitikul on the ninth extra hole.
Honorable mention: Ruoning 'Ronni' Yin
After making only two cuts in her first nine starts as a rookie in 2022, Yin turned things around and won her first LPGA title in April last spring at the DIO Implant LA Open. She followed it up with a bang – becoming only the second Chinese player to win an LPGA major at the KPMG Women’s PGA at Baltusrol.
Yin would go on to spend four weeks atop the Rolex Rankings.
Female Player of the Year: Lilia Vu
Lilia Vu won her first LPGA title at the Honda LPGA Thailand in February and never looked back. A couple months later, she won her first major, the Chevron Championship in Houston, becoming the first to jump into the pond at the Club at Carlton Woods.
Vu won her second major in August at the AIG Women’s British Open at Walton Heath, and added a fourth title at The Annika in November. The 26-year-old became the first American to win two majors in a single season since Juli Inkster in 1999. She’s also the first American to win the LPGA Rolex Player of the Year award since Stacy Lewis in 2014.
“I think it’s been unreal for that to happen,” said Vu of winning the POY. “I think last year I was telling (my caddie) Cole on the last hole, I remember after the last round, last hole, I just broke down in tears. I was just really hard on myself. I was definitely hard on myself this year, too, but much nicer.”
