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Lydia Ko touched the pinnacle of her career in 2024, winning a number of events that season. Ko experienced a fairy tale week during which she won her first Major in eight years, the 2024 Women's British Open at St Andrews. But it appears that while that week was one of the greatest moments in LPGA history, it was not huge enough to ignite MinJee Lee's passion.
The tournament featured top players such as Nelly Korda, Lilia Vu, Jiyai Shin and Ruoning Yin among others. Ko not only won this tournament with a total score of 7 under par, but she also won Olympic gold a week prior to that and was also inducted into the LPGA Hall of Fame a week ahead of that.
On the June 28th episode of a podcast on the Fried Egg Golf YouTube Channel, the 2025 KPMG Women's PGA Championship winner explained the situation. Lee described how Ko had a fantastic fairy tale week, but her own season did not finish well. She explained [12:57 onwards]:
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"It just was the way I was for pretty much that whole year. So I think, you know, having, you know, not putted that well, that really, you know, kind of made it even worse. And, but like seeing Lydia do all the things that she's done, you know, Olympic gold, you know, British Open like was such a fairytale for her. And I think like that is totally separate to what, where I found my motivation."
Lee continued:
"So, you know, I'm absolutely so, so happy and she it's so well deserved for Lydia, but it, I mean, I think watching her do that, it didn't really spark anything in me. That's just the total truth. And in honesty, I didn't have a very good end of the seasons."
For winning the 2024 British Open, Lydia Ko bagged a total of $1.425 million, the tournament's richest to date.
How did Lydia Ko perform at the 2025 KPMG Women's PGA Championship?
The 2025 KPMG Women's PGA Championship was a challenging tournament for all golfers. The Fields Ranch East undoubtedly tested every golfer, and Lydia Ko was no exception. She finished the tournament with a total score of 5 over par, which helped her tie for 12th place. She had a strong final round in the event, which helped her move up 14 positions.
Lydia Ko finished with a round of 71, which is one under par. Aside from that, she had rounds of 75, 73 and 74, finishing with a total score of 293. Lydia Ko earned $170,561 of the tournament's total payout of $12 million. Currently, Ko is competing in the LPGA Dow Championship that is underway at Midland Country Club in Michigan.
