Ko cracks $100k a tourney
Lydia Ko has cracked the top 20 money winners in LPGA history and is keeping pace with the legendary Annika Sorenstam’s earning power. The 21-year-old is 18th on the alltime list having nudged past the $12.5 million mark after her career-jolting win in San Francisco on Monday.
The first-hole playoff victory over Australian Minjee Lee at Lake Merced broke the former world No 1’s 43-tournament drought in a period hit by controversy over her constant change of support people and equipment. There were also claims her family was playing too big a part in career decisions.
The long-term financial significance is huge if Ko can leave an unexpected slump behind, and reestablish herself as a world star rather than a member of the leading pack.
Time magazine once named her among the 100 most influential people in the world, a status hard to maintain when your golf ranking is falling outside the top 20.
Some golf analysts believe Ko’s bad start in the final round of the Mediheal Championship was a turning point, sparking the young Aucklander into rediscovering what makes her tick on the course.
It raises the possibility that Ko, the world No 1 for two years, can claw her way back to the top, and her earnings would also take off once again. The win sees her jump from 18 to 12 in the rankings.
The fastest earner in LPGA history was Mexico’s Lorena Ochoa who won $21.1m in just 175 starts, before prematurely retiring in 2010 aged 28. This equates to about $120,000 per start.
The long-haul pacesetter is Sorenstam, who won a record $32m in 303 starts, or about $105,000 each time she lined up. Ko, who won $320,000 at Lake Merced, wins on average just over $100,000 per tournament.
Ko’s 15 tournament wins put her 36th in history, one behind Jan Stephenson, the Australian golfer of the 1970s and 80s noted for making the game more glamorous.
Ko’s net worth is estimated at well over $15m after tax, boosted by a five- year contract with PXG golf clubs worth a reported $14m. PXG will be delighted with her return to the winner’s circle, and beyond that there must be renewed potential for her earnings to soar into orbit again.
The Golf Digest reckoned Ko was the 44th highest earner among male and female golfers last year, with well over half her estimated $8.5m in earnings coming from offcourse deals.
But form rather than her bank balance led to Ko’s tears in San Francisco, after nearly two winless years on the LPGA tour.
The Golf Channel’s Morning Drive show dedicated a segment to her win, with a consensus among the experts on what had happened.
Former PGA tour member Charlie Rymer said: “Lydia Ko remembered she was Lydia Ko. I think it simply comes down to that.
“Walking off the sixth green [after her third bogey], she’s in bad shape. She turned it around by making a conscious decision that ‘I’m Lydia Ko — I know how to play golf’.
“Up until that point, she had been
Hso focused on the technique, everything that’s going on with her caddie, her clubs, equipment . . . you know all that doesn’t make a difference. She deflected attention by talking about her team and family. I didn’t see her team or family hitting the golf shots.
“You have to decide to play the game the way you know how. I loved seeing this — I think it is going to be a springboard for a restart to her career. She has learned you don’t have to reinvent the wheel if you are this good.”
Ko rediscovered her levity, said former LPGA player Paige Mackenzie.
“What always made Lydia Ko unique was this tremendous golf IQ,” she said. “She has amazing touch around the greens, she is a gifted golfer. She is not only technically sound but had this way and presence.
“We’ve seen dominance by other players but they did it with power, did it with intensity. She always did it with such levity.
“Over the past two years, it looked like she was bogged down. It looked almost like the shackles were off [during her latest win].”