This year was a tumultuous experience for Lydia Ko, as she could not win any events or have substantial top finishes. As a result, this year was the lowest in terms of Ko’s career earnings since her debut in 2013 on the LPGA Tour.

After her 10-year career, Ko finished 90th on the 2023 official money list and had only two top-ten finishes. How much did she end up making at the end of the year?

Lydia Ko’s 2023 career money

The Kiwi golfer was coming off a great 2022 season with three victories, the 2022 Rolex Player of the Year and the Vare Trophy, and ending the 2022 season by claiming the CME Group Tour Championship. The first event of the 2x major champ was better, as she finished T6 at the Honda LPGA Thailand and bagged $47,079.

In the next two events, the HSBC Women’s World Championship and the LA Open, Ko stood outside the top 30 mark. Thereafter, she missed the cut for the Chevron Championship and was T42 at the Cognizant Cup, amassing $37,191 from her four runs.

In the next nine events that followed from June to August, Ko missed the cut thrice and had the best finish of T33 at both; the Mizuho Open and the U.S. Women’s Open. In all the other events, she was in the 50s in positions. For 3 months of strong playing, she bagged $116,825. She played twenty games this season and earned the highest finish (3rd place, $147,030) in the BMW Ladies Championship.

Her other strong finish of the year came at the Maybank Championship in October. She earned a cheque worth $54,591 by finishing in the 11th spot on the leaderboard. The total prize money for Ko in 2023 is $247,335 in official LPGA Tour events. However, at the trailing end of the 2023 season, the upsetting year for Ko saw the light at the end of the tunnel.

Even though it was an unofficial event, Ko, with her Australian playing partner Jason Day, won the Grant Thornton event. The duo bagged $500,000 each. The unofficial money had increased Ko’s overall 2023 earnings to $747,335. In the end, Ko did not have a winless year and ended the 2023 LPGA Tour season on a sweet note.

Lydia Ko’s career earnings outside the LPGA Tour

Although Lydia Ko did not have any victories on the LPGA Tour this season, she won on the Ladies European Tour once. At the start of 2023, Ko won the Aramco Saudi Ladies International. She defeated Aditi Ashok with one stroke and won the event for the second time.

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This victory was the 26th of Ko’s career and gave her a $750,000 check as well, which is by far larger than all LPGA Tour and LET’s non-major events’ winner’s purses. This incredible victory of Ko makes her 2023 career earn $1,497,335 from that of $750k.

The 19x LPGA Tour winner is the fourth highest on the LPGA Tour career money list and one of the leading women golfers in the world. This year might have been what Ko expected; however, she will start the 2024 season with much confidence.

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