By: Max Bechtoldt
As the Academy Awards prove, March of 2024 isn’t too late to honor the best of 2023. So, here I will honor the best of women’s golf last year, both in the amateur and the professional ranks. Without further adieu, here was the best in women’s golf in 2023:
Best Tournament:
The Mizuho Americas Open
Mostly remembered as Rose Zhang’s first LPGA Tour victory, this tournament brought a lot more to the table. The format of showing off the best of the LPGA and the best of women’s amateur golf was groundbreaking and legitimately helped to grow the game. The setting of a tournament with the New York City skyline as the back drop was breathtaking. But most importantly, the Michelle Wie hosted tournament was dramatic and compelling before the event started. The hype around Rose Zhang felt like an NBA first overall pick making their debut. And Zhang delivered and then some. Winning her first event in a playoff with major champion Jennifer Kupcho was the cherry on top of one of the most compelling weeks in women’s golf history.
Breakout Player of the Year
Ruoning Yin
Ruoning Yin achieved so much in her first full season on the LPGA Tour. She reached No. 1 in the world late in the season, and won two events seemingly out of nowhere. While LPGA superfans had started to understand her ability, the first major title of her career cemented her as a new superstar of the game. In total she had 10 top-10 finishes in her season, as well as two wins including one major. There was some great breakout stories in 2023, but none compared to Ruoning Yin’s.
Best Venue
Pebble Beach
The best that public golf has to offer in the United States was also the best that women’s golf saw in 2023. There’s really only one possible answer here. Pebble Beach is an immaculate venue, that showed off both its brute toughness, and its gorgeous views throughout the U.S. Women’s Open. Allisen Corpuz instantly became a star in the game specifically because of her win here. Anyone who has had the privilege to walk these links knows how special the venue really is. For spectators it was spectacular, with great sitelines, views and plenty of grandstands, there is no better venue in golf.
Comeback Player
Charley Hull
Charley Hull has had a long career for someone her age. Despite her somewhat young age of only 27-years-old, she has made every Solheim Cup since 2013. That early hype turned into somewhat of a disappointment until 2023. Despite no wins in the season, Hull was a major character in the 2023 LPGA season. Hull had six top-10 finishes in 2023, four of those were runner-ups. Of those runner-ups, two were in majors. Very few players put themselves in consistently strong positions quite like Hull in 2023.
Best Team Performance
Wake Forest Women’s Golf
No, Wake Forest didn’t have to directly beat the juggernauts of Stanford to win the national title, but winning the Division I National Championship should never be taken lightly. The Demon Deacons were certainly not the favorites to win it all, but looking at their roster, maybe they should have been. While Stanford had big names like Zhang, Brooke Seay and Megha Ganne, Wake Forest had Full Swing standout Rachel Kuehn, broadcaster Emilia Migliaccio and immediate superstar Carolina Chacarra. Wake Forest defeated USC 3-1 in the finals, and earned the spot as best team of 2023.
Best Individual Performance
Celine Boutier – Evian
Celine Boutier didn’t just win her first major. She won her first major in her home country of France. She didn’t just win her first major in France, she was the first French person to ever win a major in their home country. Not only that, she won by a startling six strokes with challengers like Brooke Henderson, Yuka Saso, Nasa Hataoka and Nelly Korda. There was not a single winner more dominant in the 2023 season, and the icing on the cake of winning in her home country? There was no doubt what the best individual performance of 2023 was.
Best Amateur
Rose Zhang
There really isn’t a lot to say here. The world of women’s amateur golf is lesser without Rose Zhang a part of it, but the world of women’s pro golf is so much brighter. Of the three biggest amateur titles on the schedule in 2023, Zhang won two of them. She won the individual title at the NCAA Division I National Championship for the second time. She also won the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. She was already a pro by the time the U.S. Women’s Amateur came around so it’s impossible to hold that against her. Zhang also won the Annika Award, the women’s golf equivalent to the Heisman trophy, for the second year in a row. Zhang of course is the greatest women’s amateur player ever, and she certainly was in 2023.
Best Professional
Lilia Vu
There is one player who won multiple golf majors in 2023, men or women. That player is Lilia Vu. If that is all she accomplished it would probably be enough to earn her this title, but that isn’t the entire story. Vu came into the season with no wins on her resumé. She left with four wins and a Chevron Championship title plus an AIG Women’s Open win. Vu’s 2023 was far from perfect, she missed four out of five cuts in the middle of the season, but her ascension to the top spot in the world rankings, where she still stands, was shocking. No player defined the LPGA season in 2023 more than Vu, and she rightfully won the Player of the Year award.
Best Moment
Carlota Ciganda Clinches the Solheim Cup
Carlota Ciganda wanted nothing more than to just have a chance to represent her country in the Solheim Cup. A Solheim Cup that would be in her home, Spain, for the first time in history. As a 33-year-old participant, just qualifying for the team would seem like a Cinderella story. But that wasn’t enough for Ciganda. She went 4-0-0 in her matches. Most notably, she clinched the point for Europe to retain the cup after two of the best shots in the history of the event. Her opponent in that match? The superstar American Nelly Korda, probably the headline player of the entire cup. While there was debate about the behavior of the European team in celebration, and the structure of the event allowing a tie to go to the previous champion, there wasn’t a single fan of women’s golf who wasn’t thrilled for Ciganda getting this moment.
