Naples, Florida, United States: Five years after helping the Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation (APGC) to victory against the European Golf Association in the Solheim Cup-style Patsy Hankins Trophy, Ryu Hae-ran has won the LPGA Tour’s 2023 Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year award.
Tied for 18th in the inaugural Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific (WAAP) in 2018, Ryu has risen to international prominence this year with a succession of outstanding performances.
After finishing joint 12th at last week’s The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican, Ryu entered this week’s season-ending CME Group Tour Championship with 893 points, giving her an unassailable 274-point lead over Australian Grace Kim in the standings.
Ryu and Kim were team-mates in the power-packed APGC team at the 2018 Patsy Hankins Trophy that swept aside their opponents 23½-8½ at Doha Golf Club in Qatar.
Also in that APGC line-up were Thais Atthaya Thitikul and Patty Tavatanakit and Japan’s Yuka Saso.
Ryu is the 14th player from Korea to win the LPGA’s Rookie of the Year award and the first since Lee Jeong-eun in 2019. The first Korean winner was the legendary Pak Se-ri in 1998.
“I’m honoured to earn the Rookie of the Year award and add my name to the prestigious list of winners before me. This year has been a memorable one, and I’m proud of what I’ve been able to accomplish on the LPGA Tour,” said Ryu.
“I’m forever grateful to my team and fans for their support over my first season, and I can’t wait to close out the year at the CME Group Tour Championship.”
Ryu first earned LPGA Tour membership after finishing with medallist honours at the 2022 LPGA Q-Series. The 22-year-old became a Rolex First-Time Winner at this year’s Walmart NW Arkansas Championship presented by P&G and has earned an additional five top-10 finishes this season.
She also recorded a career-best Major championship result at the US Women’s Open, where she finished eighth.
Ryu headed into the final week of the 2023 season ranked second in greens in regulation (75.72%), third in birdies (314), tied for seventh in eagles (nine), tied for 10th in rounds under par (43), and is in 12th place in the Race to CME Globe rankings.
She has earned more than US$1.5 million this season and sits 15th on the Official Money List.
Ryu has won five times on the Korea LPGA Tour, where she also won Rookie of the Year honours in 2020.
As an amateur, she won the 2018 Korean Women’s Amateur. She also competed in the 2016 and 2017 World Junior Girls Championship and the 2018 Asian Games.
