Golf: Lydia Ko on verge of staggering prizemoney milestone after Saudi Ladies International win

Lydia Ko with the biggest winner's check after taking out the CME Group Tour Championship last year. Photo / Getty

Lydia Ko is back in the winner’s circle which means she’s back in the money.

The 25-year-old Kiwi is nearing the NZ$30m mark for her career after winning the Saudi Ladies International yesterday, which came with a US$750,000 (NZ$1.185m) payday.

Ko ended last year by winning the richest prize in women’s golf at US$2 million with a victory in the CME Group Tour Championship, which allowed her to win LPGA player of the year and move to number one in the world.

Yesterday’s win at the Royal Greens Golf & Country Club is the biggest prize outside of the five women’s majors and means Ko has claimed NZ$4.44m in her last two tournaments.

Ko has claimed US$16,695,357 in 205 events on the LPGA since turning pro in 2014 and she’ll look to increase that when she tees off in Thailand later this week to begin her 2023 LPGA season.

Add her earnings from victories in Saudi Arabia, Australia and the New Zealand Open on the Ladies European Tour and Ko has taken home more than US$17.8m ($NZ28.5m) over her career.

The 25-year-old earned US$4,364,403 last season, topping the LPGA money list, the most in her nine seasons since turning pro.

That pushed her to fifth on the LPGA’s prizemoney all-time list with another big season away from passing LPGA great Annika Sorenstam who tops the all-time list with US$22,583,693.

That doesn’t include endorsement deals which according to Forbes was US2.5m (NZ$4) in 2022.

Victory number 26

Before the start of the Saudi Ladies International last week Ko said she didn’t feel like the world number one as she prepared to begin her season after a 12-week break.

The Kiwi should be feeling top of the world today after starting 2023 with another victory.

Ko birdied the 17th hole to hit the outright lead and claim her second title in Saudi Arabia.

Ko shot a final round 68 to finish at 21-under to beat India’s Aditi Ashok by one shot. With two holes to play, Ko, Ashok and American Lilia Vu were all tied at 20-under atop the leaderboard before the world number one broke away at the penultimate hole.

The win is Ko’s 26th professional victory and seventh on the Ladies European Tour. She now heads to Thailand for her opening LPGA event of the season and her defence of the LPGA season-long CME Tour title.

Going back to her first win as an amateur at the NSW Open at age 14 in 2012, Ko has now at least won one event in nine of the last 12 years.

It’s been a remarkable few months for the 25-year-old who returned to world number one in November after winning the CME Tour Championship for a second time in her career. She then got married in South Korea before enjoying a decent break away from tournament golf, while still playing eight rounds during her honeymoon.

“A lot of great things happening, especially in the last few months again and again. You don’t know if this is real or not, but I’ve been trying to enjoy being out on the golf course,” she said after her win.

“I’m playing with the world’s best. The field this week was really good, so I knew it was going to be a challenge. And the first one of the year, it’s really hard because you don’t have anything to base yourself off. You don’t know if you’re going to play well or bad.

“But the start definitely helped, and I think I stayed really patient and I was not as nervous as I thought I would be, which is definitely good.”