With her victory in the Olympic womens golf competition at Le Golf National, Lydia Ko both won the gold medal and secured the final point necessary for inclusion in the LPGA Hall of Fame
The LPGA’s Hall is different than the World Golf Hall of Fame, with the former being points not votes based.
Twenty-seven points are needed for entry. One point is given for each LPGA official tournament win and each Vare Trophy (lowest scoring average for a season) or Rolex Player of the Year award. Two points are awarded for each major victory and another point is given for an Olympic gold medal.
In addition to the necessary 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 was sitting on 26 points, having won an LPGA event in January and having met all the other requirements. The triumph in Paris gave here the final push.
The LPGA Hall of Fame committee can also induct select individuals through the Honorary Category, which it did for entertainer and tournament host Dinah Shore in 1994 and eight of the LPGA’s 13 co-founders in 2022 (denoted below by *).
In 1999, when the LPGA reduced its threshold from 35 points to 27, it created a Veterans Category to allow for the possible induction of former players who would have qualified under the altered conditions (denoted below by **). The Veterans Category no longer exists.
Here’s a look at the 35 players currently in the LPGA Hall of Fame:
Patty Berg (Founder), 1951
Betty Jameson (Founder), 1951
Louise Suggs (Founder), 1951
Babe Didrikson Zaharias (Founder), 1951
Betsy Rawls, 1960
Mickey Wright, 1964
Kathy Whitworth, 1975
Sandra Haynie, 1977
Carol Mann,1977
JoAnne Carner, 1982
Nancy Lopez, 1987
Pat Bradley, 1991
Patty Sheehan, 1993
Dinah Shore (singer/actress/tournament host), 1994*
Betsy King, 1995
Amy Alcott, 1999
Beth Daniel, 1999
Juli Inkster, 1999
Judy Rankin, 2000**
Donna Caponi, 2001**
Marlene Bauer Hagge (Founder), 2002**
Annika Sorenstam, 2003
Karrie Webb, 2005
Se Ri Pak, 2007
Inbee Park, 2016
Shirley Spork, (Founder), 2022*
Marilynn Smith, (Founder), 2022*
Sally Sessions, (Founder), 2022*
Opal Hill, (Founder), 2022*
Helen Hicks, (Founder), 2022*
Helen Dettweiler, (Founder), 2022*
Bettye Danoff, (Founder), 2022*
Alice Bauer, (Founder), 2022*
Lorena Ochoa, 2022
Lydia Ko, 2024