The Dana LPGA Open received more good news.
The No. 1 player in the world is coming to town this summer for the first time since 2016.
Jin Young Ko, who spent most of 2022 atop the Rolex Rankings and reached the top spot again in May, has committed to play at Highland Meadows on July 13-16. It will be her first-ever Dana Open appearance in six years on the LPGA Tour.
“Jin Young Ko is a phenomenal player,” tournament director Judd Silverman said. “It will be great for our fans to have the opportunity to watch Jin Young play. She is a true superstar.”
The South Korean turned pro at the age of 18 in 2013, and racked up 10 wins on the LPGA of Korea Tour from 2014-17. She was runner-up in the Women’s British Open in 2015.
Since joining the LPGA Tour in 2018, Ko has won 15 times — including two majors — and recorded a staggering 50 top-10 finishes. She has more than $11 million in career earnings on the LPGA Tour and has been named player of the year twice.
In eight tournaments this season, Ko has two wins, five top 10s, and more than $1 million in prize money.
“2019 was my career-high season,” she said after winning the Founders Cup in May, overcoming a four-shot deficit in the final round. “I want to [play] more like 2019.”
She won four times, including two majors, during 2019, one of the best single seasons in LPGA history. Ko was the player of the year, had the lowest scoring average, was the leading money winner, and had the best combined finishes in the majors.
Glimpses of Ko’s star power were on display early in her career, especially during a breakout performance at the Women’s British Open in 2015 when she finished second to Inbee Park. Ko shared the 54-hole lead and led by three shots with six holes to play before a disastrous finish that included a triple bogey and double bogey.
“I was a little overthinking, and then I was a little bit nervous,” Ko said.
It was her first major championship and the first time she played outside of Asia. While Ko succumbed to the pressure, it served notice to her contemporaries that she was next in line among the greats from South Korea.
Her dominance over months at a time has been striking. Ko’s Hall of Fame run began in 2018 when she won her first event as an LPGA Tour member, just the second person to accomplish that feat. Rose Zhang — also in the Dana Open field — became the third last week.
Along with her four victories in 2019, Ko finished second three times, third twice, and had 12 total top 10s in 22 tournaments. She played 81 rounds and shot in the 60s 47 times. Most ridiculous was her 114-hole streak without a bogey.
In a conversation with golf writer Alan Shipnuck, LPGA veteran Christina Kim described Ko as a “combination of Annika [Sorenstam] and Inbee,” one way of illustrating Ko’s ability to hit all the right shots and make every putt.
“She is the most consistent player I have ever seen,” Kim said. “She makes the extraordinary look really simple. You’ll be paired with her and think to yourself, ‘What’s the big deal, she’s only playing OK,’ except then you realize she’s, like, 7-under through 11 holes.”
Ko won five times in 2021 and had 13 top 10s in 19 starts, earning more than $3.5 million, which was then the second-most in LPGA Tour history. (Lydia Ko eclipsed that number with $4.3 million in 2023.)
Jin Young Ko’s 2021-22 season featured a torrid 10-tournament stretch: win, T60, win, T6, T2, win, win, T6, win. During those 37 rounds, she shot in the 60s an astounding 33 times. Her consecutive rounds under-par streak reached 34.
The LPGA has an illogical Hall of Fame formula that requires players to win a major, be named player of the year, or have the lowest scoring average for a season, and they must also amass 27 points, with points being awarded for various accomplishments.
The 27-year-old Ko already has 20 points.
“My big goal is getting into the Hall of Fame,” she said. “A long time ago, I planned on getting into the Hall of Fame, when I was 10 or 11 years old. I will do my best in the future and I will practice hard. We’ll see.”
A victory at the Dana Open would get her one step closer.
Tickets are available at danaopen.com. For pro-am groups, call the tournament office at (419) 531-3277.
First Published June 10, 2023, 8:08 p.m.
