With him Victory in the Olympic women’s golf competition At Le Golf National, Lydia Ko won the gold medal and secured the final point needed for her inclusion in the LPGA Hall of Fame.
The LPGA Hall of Fame is different from the World Golf Hall of Fame in that the former is based on points, not votes.
Twenty-seven points are required to qualify. One point is awarded for each win in an official LPGA tournament and for each Vare Trophy (lowest scoring average for a season) or Rolex Player of the Year award. Two points are awarded for each major win and one point for an Olympic gold medal.
In addition to the required 27 points, players must have won or been awarded at least one of the following: an LPGA major, the Vare Trophy or Rolex POY honors.
Ko had 26 points after winning an LPGA tournament in January and having fulfilled all the other requirements. The victory in Paris gave her the final push.
The LPGA Hall of Fame committee may also induct select individuals through the Honorary Category, which it did with entertainer and tournament host Dinah Shore in 1994 and with eight of the LPGA’s 13 co-founders in 2022 (indicated below with *).
In 1999, when the LPGA lowered its threshold from 35 points to 27, it created a veterans category to allow for the possible inclusion of former players who would have qualified under the modified conditions (indicated below with **). The veterans category no longer exists.
Here’s a look at the 35 players currently in the LPGA Hall of Fame:
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Patty Berg (founder), 1951
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Betty Jameson (founder), 1951
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Louise Suggs (founder), 1951
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Babe Didrikson Zaharias (founder), 1951
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Betsy Rawls, 1960
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Mickey Wright, 1964
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Kathy Whitworth, 1975
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Sandra Haynie, 1977
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Carol Mann, 1977
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Joanne Carner, 1982
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Nancy Lopez, 1987
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Pat Bradley, 1991
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Patty Sheehan, 1993
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Dinah Shore (singer, actress and tournament host), 1994*
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Betsy Rey, 1995
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Amy Alcott, 1999
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Beth Daniel, 1999
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Julio Inkster, 1999
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Judy Rankin, 2000**
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Donna Caponi, 2001**
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Marlene Bauer Hagge (Founder), 2002**
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Annika Sørenstam, 2003
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Karrie Webb, 2005
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Se Ri Pak, 2007
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Inbee Park, 2016
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Shirley Spork, (Founder), 2022*
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Marilynn Smith, (Founder), 2022*
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Sally Sessions, (Founder), 2022*
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Opal Hill, (Founder), 2022*
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Helen Hicks, (Founder), 2022*
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Helen Dettweiler, (Founder), 2022*
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Bettye Danoff, (Founder), 2022*
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Alice Bauer, (Founder), 2022*
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Lorena Ochoa, 2022
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Lydia Ko, 2024
