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.
Madelene Sagstrom had a strong day on the course Thursday, shooting 9-under 63 in the first round of the LPGA Founders Cup.
The runner-up in last year’s Women’s British Open shot a bogey-free round while also throwing out nine birdies – including four in a row to begin her day. At hole Nos. 12, 13 and 14, she rattled off three straight once again to extend her lead.
“It was one of those days,” said Sagstrom, a two-time European Solheim Cupper. “Like everything was easy. It’s like I was hitting the fairways, hitting the greens, and I was making all the putts. The hole just kept growing.”
She says at one point she turned to her caddie, Sean Codd, and told him that everything felt like a tap-in.
“It’s one of those days,” she said. “You just trying to hold on to momentum and just keep it going.”
The Swedish golfer is looking for her first win since the 2020 Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio. It was at that tournament that she shot a career-best 62. Yuka Saso currently owns this season’s lowest round on tour, shooting a 62 at the LPGA Hondo in Thailand in March.
Megan Khang was also bogey free on Thursday, finishing 8 under par.
“Definitely stroking it really well, reading the greens well,” said Khang.
World No. 1 Jin Young Ko is tied for 22nd after shooting 3-under 69. She had six birdies and three bogeys, failing to hit the fairway in those three holes.
“I want to play a bogey-free round next three days,” she added. “This course is really tough, so hit the fairway and hit the greens, make a par. Birdie or par.”
Anna Davis, who recently won the Augusta National Women’s Amateur at 16 years old and received a sponsor’s exemption for the tournament, shot a 70.
Early into the second round Friday, Sagstrom sat one-back of the lead, having made two bogeys. Sanna Nuutinen, meanwhile, had fought her way to the top of the leaderboard at eight under with four birdies and one bogey so far Friday.