By: Max Bechtoldt
For much of the year, it has seemed that South Korea will send Jin Young Ko, Hyo Joo Kim and maybe Jiyai Shin or Amy Yang to the Paris Olympics. But a new challenger has entered the mix with her strong play as of late.
2023 LPGA Rookie of the Year Haeran Ryu is playing fantastic golf over the last month. Ryu made it into the pre-match play playoff at the T-Mobile Match Play, essentially finishing in a T9. She followed that up at the Chevron Championship, where she was the 54-hole leader before a tough Sunday. Regardless Ryu still finished in fifth place.
Despite the tough +2 final round in Houston, she bounced back strong in Los Angeles, with a third-place finish, shooting -2 in the final round to move up the leaderboard.
Ryu is currently the fifth-highest ranked South Korean in the world, and sits at No. 27 in the Rolex Rankings. She will have to climb at least 12 spots in the coming weeks, which is daunting but possible with the opportunities ahead of her.
Look at just last week, where a win against a relatively weak field moved Hannah Green up 10 slots. Ryu is also playing some of the best golf in the world right now, probably behind only Nelly Korda and Maja Stark. She is No. 7 in the CME Standings and rising.
Amy Yang is ranked No. 17 in the world but is falling, still looking for her first top-20 finish on the season. No. 20 Jiyai Shin simply doesn’t play as much on the LPGA Tour. The opportunity is out there for Ryu.
At the least though, it will probably take a win or multiple more good results, but she is playing better than any other Korean right now, and would stand a decent shot at making the medal stand.
