Olympic champion Lydia Ko headlines field at LPGA stop in S. Korea this week

The reigning Olympic gold medalist Lydia Ko will headline the field this week at the lone annual LPGA Tour event in South Korea.

Ko, world No. 3, will tee off at the BMW Ladies Championship beginning Thursday at Seowon Hills at Seowon Valley Country Club in Paju, Gyeonggi Province. This will be the second straight year that the par-72, 6,680-yard course will host this 72-hole tournament.

Ko, a South Korean-born Kiwi, has enjoyed a strong second half of the season. She won her first career Olympic gold medal in Paris in August, after taking a silver and a bronze at the past two Olympic Games. And she captured her third career major title at the AIG Women’s Open later in August, before collecting another win in September. The 27-year-old has also qualified for the LPGA Hall of Fame.

Ko will be one of eight top-10 players to compete at this US$2 million tournament, a list that includes two South Koreans in Amy Yang (No. 8) and Ryu Hae-ran (No. 10). Yang and Ryu are also the only two South Korean players to have won on the tour this season.

Among South Korean players, former world No. 1 Shin Ji-yai will play on a sponsor’s invitation, after tying for fifth place last year.

The tournament’s organizers said earlier this month that the top-ranked Nelly Korda had committed to play, but she has pulled out due to what she said on Instagram was “a minor neck injury” sustained during practice.

Korda will be the only major champion for this season missing in action, with Yang, the winner of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, joined by Yuka Saso of Japan (U.S. Women’s Open), Ayaka Furue (Amundi Evian Championship) and Ko (AIG Women’s Open).

Ko won this tournament in 2022, when it was played in Wonju, Gangwon Province.

Minjee Lee of Australia will try to become the first player to successfully defend a title in the event’s five-year history.

The BMW Ladies Championship is the second leg of the LPGA Tour’s Asian swing. The tour made a stop in Shanghai last week, and will hop over to Malaysia next week before wrapping up the Asian trip in Japan in the first week of November.

In this Getty Images file photo from Sept. 28, 2024, Ryu Hae-ran of South Korea tees off on the 16th hole during the second round of the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship at Pinnacle Country Club in Rogers, Arkansas.