After the second day of competition, Korean golfer A Lim Kim holds a one-stroke lead at the LPGA Tour's HSBC Women’s World Championship in Singapore — with New Zealand’s Lydia Ko, Korea’s Hyo Joo Kim, and the UK’s Charley Hull hot on her heels.
World No. 9 Hull kept pace in second after the first day of competition, but No. 3 Ko pulled ahead to sit one stroke behind No. 34 A Lim Kim after two days of play.
Meanwhile, No. 29 Hyo Joo Kim sliced seven strokes off her first-round performance to pull level with Hull in third place after a strong second round.
The USA's top contenders thus far are No. 69 Sarah Schmelzel and recently minted first-time LPGA champion No. 30 Yealimi Noh, both of whom currently sit one stroke behind Hull in a five-way tie for fifth place.
Elite LPGA golfers lock in on high-stakes battle
The field in Singapore features nine of the world’s Top-10 players and 13 of the Top 15, with the only top-ranked absences coming from US stars No. 1 Nelly Korda and No. 15 Rose Zhang.
Korda is sitting out the Asia leg of the LPGA Tour for the second year in a row. She will also miss the upcoming tournaments in Thailand and China before making a scheduled return at Arizona's Ford Championship in late March.
Korda’s absence hasn’t lightened the Women's World Championship competition, however, as the tournament’s $1.8 million purse remains in close contention halfway through the event's four rounds.
"I don’t think I typically play really well on this golf course and I thought this year would be a good year to kind of turn that around," reigning Olympic gold medalist Ko told reporters following the second round.
"The scores haven’t really been that low these past couple days," she added. "I'm just trying to focus on me and hopefully just keep climbing up the leaderboard."
How to watch the LPGA Tour at the Women's World Championship
The third round of the LPGA Tour's 2025 HSBC Women’s World Championship tees off at 8:30 PM ET on Friday, with live coverage on the Golf Channel.
After four days of stiff competition, the 2025 Founders Cup yielded a first-time LPGA Tour winner on Sunday as US golfer Yealimi Noh surged to victory on strong back-nine play in Bradenton, Florida.
The world No. 32-ranked Noh kicked off her sixth season with the LPGA by lifting her first trophy in her 111th start.
In just two holes on Sunday, the 23-year-old flipped a one-shot deficit into a three-shot lead, eventually claiming the $300,000 championship check with an overall 21-under-par performance.
"I always knew it would happen and it was a matter of time," Noh told reporters after her win. "To really get it done, and especially in the first tournament of the year, is really nice."
Noh, who earned a captain's nod in the 2021 Solheim Cup, is officially on an upswing. After less successful 2022 and 2023 seasons, she made 21 cuts across her 25 LPGA starts in 2024, helping fuel last weekend's blockbuster 2025 debut.
"Having a lot of better results and getting my confidence back and contending a few times last season really helped me carry that out through the winter and just really prepare for this week," she explained. "[I] just felt really ready — this was going to be my year and week."
Founders Cup sees additional standout performances
Just behind Noh on last weekend's leaderboard is No. 7 Jin Young Ko. The South Korean star's narrow lead fell when she made her first bogeys of the competition, logging two back-to-back on Sunday.
The 15-time LPGA title-winner capped her tournament four strokes back from Noh, with US golfer and world No. 17 Megan Khang one stroke behind Ko in third place.
World No. 1 Nelly Korda finished tied for seventh place after capping her Founders Cup outing nine shots behind Noh.
The US star will next take a seven-week break, opting to sit out the upcoming trio of LPGA Tour stops in Asia. Korda will instead continue to search for her first victory of 2025 at the end of March, when she tees off at the Ford Championship in Chandler, Arizona.
US golf star Nelly Korda came out swinging this weekend, taking second place at the Tournament of Champions to launch her 2025 LPGA campaign.
The world No. 1 narrowly fell to tournament winner No. 35 A Lim Kim, with the South Korean standout picking up her third career LPGA win and her second since November 2024. Her 20-under-par result also marked her second straight win in which she never trailed at the end of any round.
Korda pulled within one stroke of Kim on the back nine, before the eventual champion surged ahead with three birdies in her last four holes. With her 7-under Sunday performance, Korda finished the tournament at an impressive 18-under.
The result marked Korda's fifth-straight Top 5 finish, a streak that dates back to last August's AIG Women's Open.
"This is what I love about golf — being in the hunt on a Sunday going down the back nine," an upbeat Korda told reporters after her final round. "I'm never going to complain finishing second in a tournament and giving it a run... There are definitely a couple putts I would like to have back, but overall I think I'm very happy with this week and excited for next week."
Next up: Korda's home course advantage
The LPGA next lands in Korda's hometown of Bradenton, Florida, for the Founders Cup, which tees off on Thursday.
That home course advantage, as well as the fact that Korda won the Drive On Championship on those links last season, makes her the tournament's unofficial favorite this year.
Fellow US star and world No. 14 Rose Zhang is the Founders Cup's defending champion, with her win snapping Korda's historic five-tournament win streak last year. That said, the 2024 edition took place at New Jersey's Upper Montclair Country Club, so the Florida relocation removes the course familiarity that would normally give the reigning title-holder an assumed edge.
Korda's preparation for the upcoming competition will be intentionally light, as she doesn't normally practice during tournament weeks.
"Definitely some areas where I feel like I need to kind of tighten up some loose ends," Korda said on Sunday. “Overall, I think I can’t complain about the state of my golf game right now.”
Unlike her jam-packed season start last year, this week's even will be Korda's last before a seven-week pause. She has opted out of three upcoming tournaments — the Honda LPGA Thailand, the HSBC Women's World Championship in Singapore, or the Blue Bay LPGA in China.
Korda will instead return to play at the end of March, when the Ford Championship tees off in Chandler, Arizona.
US golf star Nelly Korda will look to launch yet another historic run on Thursday, when the 2025 LPGA season kicks off at the Tournament of Champions in Florida.
Korda registered seven victories on the 2024 LPGA Tour, catapulting to No. 1 in the world rankings and taking home LPGA Tour Player of the Year.
Calling last season "very, very, very crazy," the 26-year-old tied an LPGA record with five of her wins coming in successive starts. The fifth victory came at the 2024 Chevron Championship, earning Korda the second major title of her career.
A fresh start for Korda as 2025 LPGA Tour begins
Despite aiming to continue her record run, Korda acknowledges that the 2025 LPGA season will present its own challenges.
"The field is different. There [are] different girls in the field. Weather is different. Golf course could be different. There are so many variabilities that just completely changes it," she told reporters on Tuesday.
Her first test takes place in Orlando. That's where Korda will enter her seventh Tournament of Champions — a competition she's yet to walk away from as a winner.
Following its 2019 launch, the annual four-day event is limited to players who've won major LPGA competitions in the last two years. Due in part to Korda's recent dominance, only 32 professional golfers fit this year's criteria, including defending title-holder and world No. 2 Lydia Ko and 2024 runner-up Alexa Pano.
Also in this weekend's field are US stars No. 5 Lilia Vu, No. 14 Rose Zhang, No. 15 Lauren Coughlin, No. 20 Angel Yin, and No. 21 Megan Khang.
The pro competition will also run concurrently with a 72-hole celebrity contest that includes USWNT icon Brandi Chastain, among others.
"It’s a different, relaxed vibe," Korda said about the tournament. "And no better way to start off the year than playing in this event."
How to watch the LPGA Tournament of Champions this weekend
The 2025 Tournament of Champions starts at 11:30 AM ET on Thursday. Live coverage of the competition will air across NBC networks.
Fever rookie Caitlin Clark rocketed to the upper tiers of Sportico's annual highest-paid women's sports athletes report on Wednesday, landing in 10th place with an estimated $11 million in yearly earnings.
With tournaments like the US Open guaranteeing equal purses across men's and women's events, tennis players dominated the findings, accounting for nine of the 15 entries. This includes first-place Coco Gauff, who, with $9.4 million in prizes plus $21 million in endorsements, tops the list for the second year in a row.
Skier Eileen Gu came in second, complementing her individual earnings with the list's highest-estimated endorsement profits at $22 million. Gymnast Simone Biles came in at No. 9 with an estimated $11.1 million in total income.
Golfers Nelly Korda and Lydia Ko also made the cut, mirroring the LPGA Tour's expanded purses.
Report highlights endorsements in women's sports
The report underlines the continued importance of endorsements in the women's game — particularly within team sports, where many athletes rely on supplemental income to boost relatively small pro salaries.
However, 2024's estimated $221 million in total earnings is up 27% over last year, with 11 athletes making at least $10 million compared to six in 2023.
Sportico's 15 highest-paid women's sports athletes
1. Coco Gauff: $30.4 million
Prize money: $9.4 million | Endorsements: $21 million
2. Eileen Gu: $22.1 million
Prize money: $62,000 | Endorsements: $22 million
3. Iga Świątek: $21.4 million
Prize money: $8.4 million | Endorsements: $13 million
4. Zheng Qinwen: $20.6 million
Prize money: $5.6 million | Endorsements: $15 million
5. Aryna Sabalenka: $17.7 million
Prize money: $9.7 million | Endorsements: $8 million
6. Naomi Osaka: $15.9 million
Prize money: $870,000 | Endorsements: $15 million
7. Emma Raducanu: $14.7 million
Prize money: $671,000 | Endorsements: $14 million
8. Nelly Korda: $14.4 million
Prize money: $4.4 million | Endorsements: $10 million
9. Simone Biles: $11.1 million
Prize money: $135,000 | Endorsements: $11 million
10. Caitlin Clark: $11.1 million
Salary/bonus: $100,000 | Endorsements: $11 million
11. Jasmine Paolini: $10 million
Prize money: $6.5 million | Endorsements: $3.5 million
12. Jeeno Thitikul: $9.1 million
Prize money: $7.1 million | Endorsements: $2 million
13. Jessica Pegula: $8.2 million
Prize money: $4.2 million | Endorsements: $4 million
14. Elena Rybakina: $7.9 million
Prize money: $3.9 million | Endorsements: $4 million
15. Lydia Ko: $6.7 million
Prize money: $3.2 million | Endorsements: $3.5 million
The 2024 Solheim Cup tees off on Friday, with US golf stars looking to topple three-time defending champs Europe in the team tournament's 19th iteration.
Alternating between European and US host courses each edition, teams compete in three days of match play, collecting one point for every win and a half-point for every tie. The US needs a total of 14.5 points to take this year's Cup outright, while Europe needs just 14 to retain it.
Team USA spans 12 of the sport's top-ranked and most decorated athletes, including Nelly Korda, Allisen Corpuz, Lauren Coughlin, Megan Khang, Ally Ewing, Lilia Vu, Rose Zhang, and the soon-to-retire Lexi Thompson.
US golfers on a mission to reclaim Solheim Cup dominance
Team Europe has held the Cup since 2019, but the margins have been razor thin. The 2023 event actually ended in a 14-14 tie, but as reigning champions, Europe retained the title in what the team considers their eighth victory over the US.
While the US holds the advantage over Europe in overall Solheim Cup wins, they haven't raised the trophy in seven years. And unlike other competitions with continuously swelling prize purses, only international bragging rights are on the line here.
Neither team has ever won four consecutive titles, and the US will aim to keep Europe from claiming that historic victory on home soil in Gainesville, Virginia, this weekend.
Star US golfer Nelly Korda sees Solheim Cup as "unfinished business"
All eyes are now on Team USA's Korda, who's coming off a banner 2024 after winning six different LPGA Tour events, including her second major.
"Whenever you get to wear the red, white, and blue and stars and stripes, there's a different meaning to it," the world No. 1 golfer told the BBC earlier this week. "You're playing not just for yourself, but for your captains, for your teammates, and your country, and there's just nothing like it. We have got some unfinished business."
How to watch the 2024 Solheim Cup women's golf tournament
The Solheim Cup starts Friday, September 13th, at 7:05 AM, with live coverage across NBC, the Golf Channel, and Peacock.