By: Max Bechtoldt
One of the breakout superstars of the LPGA Tour season is back in contention this week in Malaysia, sitting in second place, one stroke back, after the opening round.
Ryu continued her incredible ball striking at the Maybank Championship in round one, hitting 16 greens in regulation. Ryu ranks second on the tour in greens in regulation percentage for the season. When Ryu combines her incredible skill from the fairways with solid putting, she is always firmly in contention. That showed here, as Ryu only needed 26 putts.
While Ryu was the 2023 Rookie of the Year, and won her first event last season, this year has been eye opening when looking at her potential moving forward.
Ryu is ranked No. 3 in the CME Standings this season, thanks to remarkably consistent play. In 22 starts, Ryu has made 19 cuts and finished in the top 10 a mind-shattering 11 times. Seven of those times were in the top five. If Ryu can finish this week strong, she will be finishing top five in events over 1/3 of the times she plays.
When looking at the analytics, it is pretty easy to see why. She ranks No. 5 for qualifying players this season in strokes gained total. While she lags behind a bit around the greens, her tee-to-green ranks only behind Minjee Lee in 2024 (Lee might be a surprise there, but she has been one of the worst putters on tour this season).
Ryu’s putting has regressed a bit this year, but the ball striking is way up. In 2023, Ryu gained 1.03 strokes tee-to-green. That ranked No. 15 on tour. This season, Ryu is gaining 1.81 strokes in those ball striking categories. On approach in 2023, she was gaining .87 strokes. In 2024, she is gaining 1.44.
The one issue hampering Ryu this season is her third round scoring, where she ranks No. 34 on tour. Ironically, her worst third round of the season was at the FM Championship, her lone win this year. Ryu ranks No. 3 though in both second and fourth round scoring average.
It is pretty clear to see that not only is Ryu the next in a long line of fantastic players from the Republic of Korea on the LPGA Tour, but she is in the group along with Jeeno Thitikul and Ruoning Yin as the growing superstars on the tour.
