LPGA and LET 2024 predictions — Social snapshots from women’s golf
By Addie Parker
The IX: Golf Thursday with Addie Parker, Jan. 4, 2024
Happy New Year and Happy Golf Thursday! I hope you all had a fabulous holiday season, but now it’s time to get back to business, and boy, do we have some fun business ahead. A brief reminder that The IX has expanded its social platforms, so be sure to follow us on X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, and subscribe to our YouTube channel! It’s a great way to get to know the people behind these stories, and to get a deeper dive into the content that reaches your inbox everyday. With the LPGA season starting back up in two weeks, let’s get into some predictions I have for 2024.
Continue reading with a subscription to The IX
Get unlimited access to our exclusive coverage of a varitety of women’s sports, including our premium newsletter by subscribing today!
Already a member?
Login
The IX Newsletter: Six different women’s sports in your inbox every week!
Subscribe now and join us, just $6 a month or $60 a year. It’s the women’s sports media network we all wished for, and now it’s here!
Major Winners
The Chevron Championship: Lilia Vu, world No. 1, will come out the gate swinging in 2024. Vu has found her stride and I can see her defending her title at the first major of the season.
KPMG Women’s PGA Championship: Angel Yin, another player who seemed to have found her footing in 2023…Yin seems to be playing happier, and more freely. She’s fun to watch and it would be nice to see her hoist a major trophy.
U.S. Women’s Open: In Gee Chun, she won at Lancaster in 2015 and has special ties to the course (her foundation operates out of LCC) so it would be a bit of a storybook week if Chun pulls off the victory!
The Evian Championship: Brooke Henderson, statistics don’t lie… the Canadian loves Evian or Evian loves her! Either way, it’s no secret that Henderson plays well in the French Alps. She won in 2022 and was runner up to Celine Boutier in 2023…so perhaps this is the year she wins it again.
The Women’s AIG Open: Charley Hull, she always seemed to be in the hunt, especially in the later half of the season last year. She’s long and has enough creativity in her short game that I think will fair well at St. Andrews.
Breakout Stars/Rookies to Watch
In 2022 Gabriela Ruffels saw heartbreak, but she stormed back in 2023 securing her spot as a 2024 LPGA rookie. The Australian native is on just about everyone’s watch list this season and for good reason, as an Epson Tour grad, she won three times and had three more top-10 finishes (two of which were top-five) in 2023 and capped it off with earning Epson Tour Player of the Year honors.
Another Epson Tour grad and LPGA rookie to watch is Auston Kim. She ended her Epson season in style by capturing the tour championship, after acquiring ten top-10 finishes in 2023 alone. Kim has been putting in work this off season with renowned coach, Joe Mayo, who has worked with Viktor Hovland and revolutionizing his short game.
Kim is setting herself up for success working with the “TrackMan Maestro”, so I’m excited to see how she progresses this season.
Who to watch on the LET (and the merger)
One thing to keep an eye one this year is the vote for the LET and LPGA to merge. The vote was postponed in November for unspecified reasons.
As for players, two stand out for me.
17-year-old sensation Chiara Noja (who has already won on the LET) has a swing and stature similar to Nelly Korda — and I can see this 2024 being the year that she gains notoriety. She made her LPGA debut at the ShopRite Classic, where she finished T-12 at 8-under.
After a rough 2023 season, French golfer Pauline Roussin is hitting the reset button and getting back to form on the LET. She has played in the U.S. for the last two seasons but after recording just one top-10 finish, she returned to Q-School where she finished T51 in Alabama, an agonising one-shot shy of the top-45. She will compete solely on the LET in 2024.
In a heartfelt post on Instagram, Roussin didn’t shy away from her struggles last season.
I hope 2024 is kind to her, and she finds her footing once more.
NCAA/Amateur
Well with Rose Zhang out of the picture…who will be the new star of women’s amateur golf? Is it Anna Davis? Amari Avery? Time will only tell, but I think women’s golf especially in the amateur space is wide open. The junior circuit is littered with talent and I look forward to diving deeper in 2024.
The IX and The Equalizer are teaming up
The IX is partnering with The Equalizer to bring more women’s sports stories to your inbox. Subscribers to The IX receive 50% off their subscription to The Equalizer for 24/7 coverage of women’s soccer.
This week in women’s golf/must-click links
If you have links you wish to share for Golf Thursday, sources for golf news, or want to talk about anything at all, you can email me at addieparker25@theixsports.com! Discussion of any kind is always welcome…I mean it…MESSAGE ME!
LPGA News
Best Moments of the 2023 LPGA Tour Season
How Sponsorships are Helping Grow Women’s Golf
LET News
What’s in store for the LET in 2024
LET Podcast: After a rough season in 2023, Pauline Roussin is in reset mode, competing solely on the LET in 2024
English golfer Annabell Fuller has officially turned professional after securing her full LET card
Epson Tour News
Gabriela Ruffels: Breakout Golfers to Watch in 2024
Other News
What actually made the 2023 golf year
It’s time for women’s golf to thrive in 2024
Your business can reach over one million women’s sports fans every month!
Here at The Next and The IX, our audience is a collection of the smartest, most passionate women’s sports fans in the world. If your business has a mission to serve these fans, you should reach out to our team at editors@theixsports.com to discuss ways to work together. For a limited time, we are accepting paid collaboration inquiries for 2024.
Five at The IX: Social snapshots around golf
Things are a bit quiet across the women’s golf front but that doesn’t mean things aren’t happening! Here are a few, fun, social snapshots that I think are noteworthy.
This graphic of the LPGA schedule is one of my favorite things to look at — and I need a nap after watching it.
Women’s golf is getting the respect it deserves (at the end of this year, my guess is that there will be more than five names on this list).
Golf ebbs and flows, and LET golfer Pamela Asher took to Twitter (or X) to announce that she’s taking some time to step back from her professional golf career after failing to retain her card for the first time since 2013.
Like mother, like son! How cool is it that 50 years later, ROTY is staying in the family?
Bring on the new and improved equipment for the new year. Rose Zhang was spotted in southern California at Top Golf trying out the new Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke clubs.
Want women’s hockey content? Subscribe to The Ice Garden!
Here at The IX, we’re collaborating with The Ice Garden to bring you Hockey Friday. And if you want the women’s hockey goodness 24/7? Well, you should subscribe to The Ice Garden now!
| Mondays: Soccer |
| By: Annie Peterson, @AnnieMPeterson, AP Women’s Soccer |
| Tuesdays: Tennis |
| By: Joey Dillon, @JoeyDillon, Freelance Tennis Writer |
| Wednesdays: Basketball |
| By: Howard Megdal, @HowardMegdal, The Next |
| Thursdays: Golf |
| By: Addie Parker, @addie_parker, The IX |
| Fridays: Hockey |
| By: @TheIceGarden, The Ice Garden |
| Saturdays: Gymnastics |
| By: Lela Moore, @runlelarun, Freelance Writer |
