Nelly Korda vs Lydia Ko: Comparing Their 2023 Career Earnings Amid the Winless LPGA Season

The LPGA Tour hosted 32 events this year, some in America while some moving around the world. This year the women’s Tour traveled to 11 states in the US and 12 countries around the world. Many experienced the taste of victory, while many saw a fall in their career. 

There were two veterans on the Tour whose performance on the greens did not yield the best results. Nelly Korda and Lydia Ko did not win a single event for the 2023 LPGA Tour season, although they had some good finishes. Putting the golfers side by side, from their performances to their earnings, who had a better 2023? 

The LPGA CoverGirl had better performances

LPGA Tour’s first events of 2023 started with the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament in Orlando. The winner came out to be Canadian golfer Brooke Henderson, however, Nelly Korda could card a fourth finish. On the other hand, Lydia Ko’s first event of 2023 was the Honda LPGA Thailand, where she finished T6.

The start of their season was as they expected and Korda went on to have more top 10s. For the next six games, she always found herself in the top 10 except for the LPGA Drive On Championship. However, Ko was not as fortunate. 

The South Korean golfer missed two cuts thereafter while staying outside of the top 30 mark. The shocking gap between Ko’s only two top 10s of the year is seven months, as she had the last 3rd finish at the BMW Ladies Championship. This event was the only one which paid her the highest amount of $147,030.  

If we look at Korda’s 2023 trajectory, she had a more suitable performance, unlike Ko. With nine top 10s throughout this season, the 1x major champion got her highest pay at The Chevron Championship ($347,974) as she finished 3rd on the leaderboard. In the end, the winner came out to be the one with more top 10s. 

The winner is 8 Times LPGA winner

In 2023, Nelly Korda participated in 18 events and had 9 top 10s. Although she did not have any runner-ups, Korda managed to earn more than Lydia Ko per her various finishes. She stands 20th on the 2023 LPGA Official Money List, with $1,397,796 earned adding a million to her career’s money list.

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Comparably, Ko had more events played, with 20 in her 2023 season. Ko had only two top finishes and as a result, she acquired only $247,335, placing herself 90th on the 2023 Money List. The year proved to be much of a career slump for Ko than for 8x LPGA winner, Korda.

However, Ko is still ahead of Korda on the career-earning money list. Ko stands 5th with $16,942,692 while Korda is positioned 30th with $8,937,273 after her 127 games on the Tour. With the new season coming closer, a question that remains is will these two successfully end their winless drought?

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