A Foursome of LPGA Tour Players to Watch in 2022
With the LPGA Tour’s 2022 season underway, we still haven’t seen last year’s top golfer tee it up.
Jin Young Ko, who won five times last year, including the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship, will likely return to action once the Tour heads to Asia.
We’ve already seen world No. 1 Nelly Korda — she was in the final group on Sunday at the Tournament of Champions to kick off 2022. Danielle Kang won the first event of the year. Lydia Ko won the second event, the Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio — her 17th (!) LPGA Tour title. Not bad for a 24-year-old.
But those are some names you likely already know. They’re near the top of the world rankings, and no one was surprised to see Kang, Korda, and Ko play so well to start the season.
There are, however, plenty of others worth looking out for this year.
Here are four other players to keep an eye on through 2022.
1. Leona Maguire
Leona Maguire was 4-0-1 at the 2021 Solheim Cup.
Golffile | Tom Boland
A celebrated amateur, Maguire – a 27-year-old from Ireland – has spent the last three years making a big-time mark in the professional game and is primed to find the winner’s circle on the LPGA Tour sooner rather than later.
Maguire made a splash at last year’s Solheim Cup going 4-0-1 in the matches helping lead the European squad to victory — with an exclamation point in Sunday singles when she dusted Jennifer Kupcho 5 & 4. Maguire was the first-ever golfer from Ireland to play in the Solheim Cup.
Prior to that, Maguire finished T6 at the Evian Championship — her best result at a major championship — thanks to her final round of 61. That score is the lowest round by a male or female golfer in any major championship.
Maguire is a two-time winner on the Epson Tour and was runner-up as LPGA Tour Rookie of the Year last year.
2. Patty Tavatanakit
While Maguire’s 2021 campaign was solid, it was Patty Tavatanakit who ran away with Rookie of the Year honors — and is now one of the top-ranked golfers in the world.
Tavatanakit, who sits 13th in the Rolex Rankings, captured the Chevron Championship last year for her first LPGA Tour title (and major championship). To go along with her trophy at the first major of the season she also finished T5 at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and T7 at the AIG Women’s Open.
The 22-year-old from Thailand also won three times in just eight events on the Epson Tour prior to earning status on the LPGA Tour.
Tavatanakit is one of the longest hitters in women’s golf and so far, there are no signs of a sophomore slump.
3. Lexi Thompson
Lexi Thompson finished in the top 10 seven times in 2021.
Caitlyn Jordan/Naples Daily News/USA Today Network
Can you believe that Lexi Thompson hasn’t won on the LPGA Tour in three years?
Thompson — who remains a long hitter, the face of plenty of marketing campaigns, and is quick with an autograph — has struggled to close the door recently. Her last win came June 2019 at the ShopRite LPGA Classic.
She had seven top-10 finishes a year ago. Perhaps the most heart-breaking of her finishes was her solo third at the U.S. Women’s Open when she lost a five-stroke lead and fell one shot back of a playoff.
Thompson, who is only 26, remains one of the game’s top Americans. But she’s been overtaken by Nelly Korda and Danielle Kang in the Rolex Rankings and will need to shake off plenty of disappointment from 2021 in order to get back to lifting a trophy.
4. Maude-Aimee Leblanc
Maude-Aimee Leblanc tees off in 2019 at the CP Women's Open in Ontario.
Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports
Ten golfers earned LPGA Tour status via their position on the Epson Tour money list last year, but none finished better in the first full-field event of the year than Maude-Aimee Leblanc.
Leblanc, who was T8 at the Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio, has quite the backstory. Part of Purdue’s NCAA championship winning team in 2010, she bopped back-and-forth between the Epson Tour and LPGA Tour for about a decade before she retired in 2019.
But in the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic, she was re-inspired to pick up the clubs again.
She had nine top-10 finishes on the Epson Tour last year and finished sixth on the money list to regain LPGA Tour status again.
While many eyes are on the distance of countrywoman Brooke Henderson, Leblanc actually hits it about 10 yards further (she averaged 285 yards off the tee on the Epson Tour last year, which would have been good enough for second on the LPGA Tour) and had a laser-like focus on improving her putting.
Here are three more players to watch:
- Lilia Vu: Was tops on the Epson Tour’s money list in 2021 thanks to three wins.
- Aditi Ashok: Finished fourth at the Tokyo Olympics. Is India’s top-ranked female golfer and became the first LPGA Tour golfer from India when she made her debut in 2017. Had three top-10’s in 2021.
- In Chee Chun: Had the lowest scoring average of any golfer in 2021 (69.629) without a victory. Hasn’t won since 2018.