Sometimes, despite a down season, there are some players who you will always trust to turn in a good season at any given time. Jin Young Ko is one of those players.
Ko is almost undeniably a top-five player of her era. She has 15 career wins, with two of those being major championships. She’s also won LPGA Player of the Year twice in 2019 and 2021. She is known for incredible consistency and iron play that is among the best on tour.
2024 was probably her quietest year on tour. Like the previous few seasons, Ko’s health was still not 100% and her season got off to a very slow start. All this being said, her end of year stats were still wildly impressive. Ko made the cut in 16/18 tournaments and finished in the top 10 seven times. Ko had two runner-up finishes, including one in a major championship at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. For being one of her weakest seasons, she was still elite.
Ko now sits at No. 11 in the Rolex Rankings, an unfathomably low ranking for a player that has finished the season ranked in the top six every year since 2019. Ko’s stats do point to strong play though. Ko was No. 11 in strokes gained total in 2024, and really had one weakness holding her down in the rankings, her driving. Ko lost strokes driving and ranked outside of the top 100 on the tour. Everywhere else she was strong, especially on approach where she ranked No. 5.
Ko’s 2024 proved something, even when she isn’t at her best, Jin Young will week-in and week-out put herself in position to compete on the LPGA Tour.
