With only six events remaining on the LPGA schedule, it’s crunch time for year-end awards. The 2024 Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year race is quite the international affair, with players from four different countries in the top five. An American player, however, isn’t among them.
Actually, an American hasn’t won Rookie of the Year since Paula Creamer in 2005. Auston Kim is the highest-ranked U.S. player on the list at No. 6, and she’d have to win this week’s BMW Ladies Championship to have a chance at the honor and then win three more times. Kim is currently tied for 14th.
There are seven players who mathematically have a chance to win, though it’s not a particularly tight race. Interestingly, an LPGA rookie has yet to win this season. Only top-40 finishes garner points. A victory is worth 150 points, a second is worth 80, and a 10th-place finish is worth 50 points.
Here’s how things stand as the season winds down:
Saigo leads the standings by 122 points and has led since the Dana Open in July. With seven top-10 finishes, she’s in line to become the second player from Japan to win Rookie of the Year, joining Hiromi Kobayashi (1990).
South Korea’s Im has four top-10 finishes this season. She’s also T-14 through two days at the rain-suspended BMW. The 26-year-old hasn’t finished outside the top 35 since mid-July.
Ruffels isn’t in the field at the BMW so she can’t make up any ground this week. The former U.S. Women’s Amateur champion has four top 10s this season, including a trio of third-place finishes from early in the year. She would become the fourth Australian to win Rookie of the Year, joining Karrie Webb (1996), Jan Stephenson (1947), and Margie Masters (1965).
Lee looks to add her second top 10 of the season this year at the BMW, where she’s currently T-23. Im would become the 15th player from South Korea to win Rookie of the Year, and the seventh Korean player to earn the award since Sei Young Kim in 2015. Haeran Ryu won it in 2023.
Guseva, the first player from Russia to earn an LPGA card, has four top 10s this season, including a share of second at the Portland Classic. The former Miami player won on the Epson Tour last season and earned her card through Q-Series.
