The Rolex Player of the Year award was first given out in 1966 and has become one of the most prestigious and coveted honors an athlete can earn on the LPGA Tour. Several of the game’s greatest talents have been recognized with this accolade three or more times, having accrued the most Player of the Year points throughout a season, while others have become the first from their home countries to win the award. Take a look at just some of those notable athletes and learn more about the careers they’ve had while competing on the LPGA Tour.

Kathy Whitworth

The Texas native was the first woman to win the Rolex Player of the Year award in 1966 after capturing nine victories that season, and Whitworth then earned the honor each of the next three years as well, in 1967, 1968 and 1969. She was again named Player of the Year in three consecutive seasons from 1971 to 1973, and her seven Rolex Player of the Year awards are the second-most of all time. Whitworth is the winningest professional golfer in history, male or female, having captured 88 career titles on the LPGA Tour, the last of which came in 1985 at the United Virginia Bank Classic. She is a member of both the LPGA and World Golf Halls of Fame and is a seven-time winner of the Vare Trophy, an award annually given to the player with the season’s lowest scoring average.

JoAnne Carner

JoAnne Carner won her first Rolex Player of the Year award in 1974, a season that saw her capture six LPGA Tour victories after going winless in 1972 and 1973. The Washingtonian then earned Rolex Player of the Year honors in back-to-back seasons in 1981 and 1982, two years that saw Carner collectively earn nine of her 43 Tour titles, picking up four wins in 1981 and five victories in 1982. Carner was named the Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year in 1970, won five Vare Trophies and is an LPGA and World Golf Hall of Fame member.

Nancy Lopez

Nancy Lopez of the United States makes a chip shot onto the green during the 40th United States Women's Open Championship golf tournament on 14th July 1985 at the Upper Course of Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, New Jersey, United States.

Three-time KPMG Women’s PGA Championship winner Nancy Lopez was named the Rolex Player of the Year four times throughout her Hall of Fame LPGA Tour career. She first earned the accolade in 1978, a season that saw her win nine times, five of which came in five consecutive starts and one of which was her first major title that Lopez won at what was then known as the LPGA Championship at Jack Nicklaus Sports Center in Mason, Ohio. Lopez was also named the Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year in 1978. She then collected eight victories in 1979, a year-long performance that saw Lopez earn Rolex Player of the Year honors for a second straight season. Lopez was again named Player of the Year in 1985 after earning her second career major title at that year’s LPGA Championship in the Buckeye State and racking up four additional victories. The LPGA and World Golf Hall of Famer earned the award for the last time in 1988.

Betsy King

Betsy King is a three-time Rolex Player of the Year honoree, first earning the accolade in 1984 after a three-win season. King then picked up six victories in 1989, one of which was the U.S. Women’s Open at Indianwood Golf and Country Club in Lake Orion, Mich., en route to being named the Player of the Year for a second time. The LPGA and World Golf Hall of Fame member’s third and final Rolex Player of the Year award came in 1993. She won a total of 34 times on the LPGA Tour, six of which were major championship titles.

Beth Daniel

Beth Daniel is a three-time winner of the Rolex Player of the Year award. After being named the Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year in 1979, the South Carolinian won four times in 1980 en route to earning Player of the Year honors. Daniel did so again in 1990, a season that saw her rack up seven victories, one of which was her first and only major title at the Mazda LPGA Championship at Bethesda Country Club in Maryland, what is now referred to as the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. She was recognized with her third and final Rolex Player of the Year award after picking up four wins in 1994. Daniel is a Hall of Famer, a three-time Vare Trophy recipient and a three-time Money Title winner. She was given the Heather Farr Award by the LPGA in 2003, a season that saw her become the oldest winner in LPGA Tour history at what is now the CPKC Women’s Open.

Ayako Okamoto

Ayaka Okamoto

Japan’s Ayako Okamoto was the first international athlete and first Asian player to secure Rolex Player of the Year honors, doing so in 1987 after winning four titles that season. She also led the Tour in money that same year, making $466,034 in official earnings. Okamoto captured 17 victories in her LPGA career and remains the winningest player from Japan in the history of the organization.

Annika Sorenstam

As the first European named Player of the Year, the Swede still holds the record for most Rolex Player of the Year honors earned with eight, winning the award in 1995, 1997 and 1998 and then doing so again in five consecutive years from 2001 to 2005, tying Kathy Whitworth’s record of seven in 2004 and then overtaking the Texan in 2005. Sorenstam was Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year in 1994 and amassed 72 victories in her time as an active LPGA Tour member, 10 of which were major titles. The LPGA Hall of Famer won eight Money Titles and earned the Vare Trophy six times, in addition to her eight Rolex Player of the Year awards.

Laura Davies

Dame Laura Davies remains the only Englishwoman to ever win the Rolex Player of the Year award, doing so at the conclusion of the 1996 season. She racked up four wins that year, two of which were her third and fourth major victories, as Davies won what was then known as the McDonald’s LPGA Championship at DuPont Country Club in Wilmington, Del., and then captured the du Maurier Classic title in August at Edmonton Country Club in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Davies won a total of 20 times during her time actively competing on the LPGA Tour and played on every European Solheim Cup Team from the inception of the biennial team competition in 1990 to 2011.

Karrie Webb

Karrie Webb (center)

Australian Karrie Webb was named the Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year in 1996, and then just three years later, she secured both her first and her country’s first Rolex Player of the Year award in 1999 after collecting six victories, one of which was her first major championship, the 1999 du Maurier Classic. Webb was named Player of the Year again in 2000 following a seven-victory season that saw her win two majors at the Nabisco Championship, now known as The Chevron Championship, and the U.S. Women’s Open, which was held at the Merit Club in Illinois. She is a 41-time LPGA Tour winner, a seven-time major champion, a member of both the LPGA and World Golf Halls of Fame and a three-time Vare Trophy recipient.

Lorena Ochoa

Lorena Ochoa earned Rolex Player of the Year honors four consecutive times from 2006 to 2009 and remains the only player from her native Mexico to win the award. Ochoa also took home the Vare Trophy those same four years and was named Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year in 2003. She captured 27 LPGA Tour victories and two major championships throughout her career and was inducted into the LPGA Hall of Fame in 2022 when the 10-year playing requirement for entry was removed. Ochoa is also a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame and was inducted in 2017.

Yani Tseng

Yani Tseng is the only athlete from Chinese Taipei to win Rolex Player of the Year honors, doing so in back-to-back seasons in 2010 and 2011. Tseng picked up two major victories in 2010 at the Kraft Nabisco Championship and what is now called the AIG Women’s Open, additionally winning the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship that same season. The next year saw Tseng win a whopping seven times on the LPGA Tour, two of which were the 2011 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Locust Hill Country Club and the 2011 AIG Women’s Open at Carnoustie. Tseng also ascended to Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings No. 1 during the 2011 season, a position she held until March 2013 for a total of 109 career weeks.

Inbee Park

Maybe a bit surprisingly, Inbee Park has only been Rolex Player of the Year once in her illustrious LPGA Tour career, earning the honor at the conclusion of the 2013 season. It was a spectacular year for the Republic of Korea native, as Park won three majors, picking up titles at the Kraft Nabisco Championship, the Wegmans LPGA Championship and the U.S. Women’s Open at Sebonack Golf Club, and secured three other victories to become the first athlete from her home country to win the Player of the Year award. She became Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings No. 1 for the first time that same season and was the Tour’s leading money earner, making $2,456,619 in official earnings.

Ariya Jutanugarn

Ariya Jutanugarn is still the only player from Thailand to win the Rolex Player of the Year award, doing so twice in 2016 and 2018. The 2016 season saw Jutanugarn collect five victories, one of which was a major championship title that she captured at the AIG Women’s Open, making her the first Thai major winner on the LPGA Tour. Two years later, Jutanugarn secured Rolex Player of the Year honors for a second time following a three-win 2018 season that saw her pick up her second major victory at the U.S. Women’s Open, which was held at Shoal Creek Country Club. Jutanugarn also won the Money Title and the Race to the CME Globe in both 2016 and 2018, additionally earning Vare Trophy honors the latter of those two years.

Lydia Ko

After being named the Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year in 2014, Lydia Ko picked up her first Rolex Player of the Year award as an LPGA Tour sophomore in 2015, becoming the youngest athlete ever to earn the accolade. Seven years later, in 2022, Ko again captured Rolex Player of the Year honors when she swept the season-ending awards that year, also claiming the Race to the CME Globe title and the Vare Trophy after winning the CME Group Tour Championship at Tiburón Golf Club. She has collected 23 titles thus far in her LPGA Tour career and is a member of the LPGA Hall of Fame, becoming the youngest athlete to earn automatic entry into one of the most prestigious Halls of Fame in all of sports when she took gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics. She is the only athlete in Olympic golf history to complete the medal trifecta.

Much History Made by Rolex Player of the Year Honorees Since Award’s 1966 Creation

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