Lorena Ochoa

Lorena Ochoa

Lorena Ochoa (born November 15, 1981) is a Mexican golfer who plays on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour and is currently the number one ranked female golfer in the world. As the first Mexican golfer of either gender to be ranked number one in the world, she is considered the best Mexican golfer of all time.

Ochoa took up golf at the age of five. She won her first state event at the age of six and her first national event at seven.

As a junior, she captured 22 state events in Guadalajara and 44 national events in Mexico. She won five consecutive titles at the Junior World Golf Championships and in 2000 she enrolled at the University of Arizona in the United States on a golf scholarship. While a student, with regular tutoring she greatly improved her English by watching movies and reading magazines between practice and tournaments.

She was very successful in women's collegiate golf in the next two years, winning the NCAA Player of the Year Awards for 2001 and 2002, finishing runner-up at both the 2001 and 2002 NCAA National Championship and being named to the National Golf Coaches Association (NGCA) 2001 All-America First team. She won the 2001 Pac-10 Women's Golf Championships, was named PAC-10 Freshman/Newcomer of the Year 2001 and was All Pac-10 First team in 2001 and 2002.

In her sophomore year she had eight tournament wins in ten events she entered and set an NCAA record with seven consecutive victories in her first seven events. She won the Golfstat Cup in both 2001 and 2002. The Cup is given to the player who has the best scoring average versus par with at least 20 full rounds played during a season. setting the single-season NCAA scoring average record as a freshman at 71.33 and beating her own record the next year by just over a stroke per round with a 70.13 average.

In November 2001, Ochoa was presented with Mexico's National Sports Award by Mexican President Vicente Fox. She was the youngest person and first golfer to receive Mexico's highest sporting accolade. In 2006 she was named NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Most Outstanding Student Athlete, an award which was bestowed as part of the 25th Anniversary of Women’s Championships celebration, taking into account outstanding performances over the past 25 years. She was the recipient of the 2003 Nancy Lopez Award which is presented annually to the world's most outstanding female amateur golfer.

Ochoa left university after her sophomore year to turn professional. She won three of ten events played on the 2002 Futures Tour, and topped the money list to earn membership on the LPGA Tour for the 2003 season. She was also Duramed FUTURES Tour Player of the Year.

In her rookie season on the LPGA Tour she gained eight top-10 finishes including runner-up finishes at the Wegmans Rochester and Michelob Light Open at Kingsmill ending the season as the Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year and ninth on the LPGA official money list. In 2004 she won her first two LPGA Tour titles: the Franklin American Mortgage Championship (where she became the first Mexican born player to win on the LPGA Tour) and the Wachovia LPGA Classic. That same year she placed in the top ten in three of the four major championships.

In 2005, she won the Wegman's Rochester LPGA. In 2006, her first round score of 62 in the Kraft Nabisco Championship tied the record for lowest score ever by a golfer, male or female, in any major tournament. Her playoff loss to Karrie Webb marked her best finish until 2007 in an LPGA major. By the end of the year she won six tournaments, topped the money list and claimed her first LPGA Tour Player of the Year award which goes to the player who gains the most number of points throughout the season based on a formula in which points are awarded for top-10 finishes and are doubled at the LPGA's four major championships and at the season-ending ADT Championship. She also won the LPGA Vare Trophy for lowest scoring average on the LPGA Tour.

Her achievements were recognized outside the sport of golf when Ochoa won the 2006 Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year award and received the National Sports Prize for the second time.

In April 2007, Ochoa overtook Annika Sörenstam to become the world number one ranked golfer.

In August 2007, Ochoa won her first major championship at the historic home of golf, the Old Course at St. Andrews, with a wire-to-wire win by four shots at the Women's British Open. She won the next two LPGA events, the CN Canadian Women's Open and the Safeway Classic, the first to win three consecutive events since Annika Sörenstam in 2005.

Also in 2007, Ochoa became the first woman ever to earn more than $4,000,000 in a single season, surpassing Annika Sörenstam's previous record of $2,863,904.

In April 2008, Ochoa won her second major championship, this time at the Kraft Nabisco Championship, becoming the first golfer to win consecutive LPGA majors since Sörenstam in 2005. She celebrated this victory in the traditional fashion for the Kraft Nabisco by jumping into the pond on the 18th green. The following week, she won the Corona Championship in her home country by 11 strokes. This gave her the final tournament win she needed to qualify for the World Golf Hall of Fame, although she cannot be inducted until 2012, after she completes ten seasons on the LPGA Tour.

Ochoa is coached by Rafael Alarcon, a Mexican professional. Alarcon finished second in the 1976 Canadian Amateur Championship, won that title in 1979, then turned professional.

In November 2008, she became the host of a new annual LPGA event, the Lorena Ochoa Invitational, held at her original home course, Guadalajara Country Club. Proceeds from the tournament help support the Lorena Ochoa Foundation.

Lorena Ochoa's successes fuels the family business, the Ochoa Group in Guadalajara, managed by her brother Alejandro Ochoa.

Lorena Ochoa is represented by the Ochoa Sports Management, along with Alarcon and Sophia Sheridan, a Mexican golfer who plays on the LPGA's developmental tour. The Ochoas are confident the list will expand as they attempt to grow the game in Mexico through Ochoa Golf Academies, created by Lorena, Alejandro and Alarcon.

Ochoa Sports Management also operates the LPGA Corona Championship, an annual tour stop in Morelia, Mexico; and the Ochoa Invitational.

The Lorena Ochoa Foundation operates La Barranca, a primary school in Guadalajara with 250 underprivileged students and an innovative curriculum. In 2008, the foundation opened a high school with 21 freshmen students. The plan, according to foundation director Carmen Bolio, is to add a new class each year and then construct a high school building that's separate from the primary school. She is engaged to her boyfriend Andrés Conesa Labastida , CEO of Aeroméxico .

LPGA Majors are shown in bold.

DNP = did not play CUT = missed the half-way cut WD = withdrew "T" = tied Green background for a win. Yellow background for a top-10 finish.

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Lorena Ochoa Invitational

The Lorena Ochoa Invitational by Banamex and Corona Light is a golf tournament for professional female golfers on the LPGA Tour. Hosted by Lorena Ochoa, the event took place for the first time in November 2008 at the course where she learned to play the sport, Guadalajara Country Club in Guadalajara, México.

The Lorena Ochoa Invitational by Banamex and Corona Light is a limited-field tournament, limited to 36 golfers. The top five golfers in the Rolex Women's World Rankings are invited, in addition to the top 26 players on the LPGA money list not already in the field via the rankings. Another five golfers are invited through sponsor exemptions.

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Golf

The first game of golf for which records survive was played at Bruntsfield Links, in Edinburgh, Scotland, in A.D. 1456, recorded in the archives of the Edinburgh Burgess Golfing Society, now The Royal Burgess Golfing Society. The modern game of golf spread from Scotland and has now become a worldwide game, with golf courses in the majority of affluent countries.

Golf competition is generally played as stroke play, in which the individual with the lowest number of strokes is declared the winner, or as match play with the winner determined by whichever individual or team posts the lower score on the most individual holes during a complete round.

Golf as a spectator sport has become increasingly popular, with several different levels of professional and amateur tours in many regions of the world. Players such as Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Lorena Ochoa and Annika Sörenstam have become well-recognized sports figures across the world. Sponsorship has also become a huge part of the game and players often earn more from their sponsorship contracts than they do from the game itself.

The word Golf in its English form, was first mentioned in writing in 1457 on a Scottish statute of forbidden games as gouf, possibly derived from the Scots word goulf (variously spelled) meaning "to strike or cuff". This word may, in turn, be derived from the Dutch word kolf, meaning "bat", or "club", and the Dutch sport of the same name. The idea that “golf” is an acronym from "gentlemen only, ladies forbidden" is false - this is a folk etymology.

The most accepted golf history theory is that golf (as practiced today) originated from Scotland in the 12th century, with shepherds knocking stones into rabbit holes in the place where the famous Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews now sits. However, the origin of golf is unclear and open to debate.

Scholars have claimed references to a form of golf from hieroglyphs found on stone tablets dating to ancient Egyptian Pharaohs. Chuiwan ("ch'ui" means hitting and "wan" means small ball in Chinese) a game consisting of driving a ball with a stick into holes in the ground was first mentioned in Dōngxuān Records (Chinese: 東軒錄), a Chinese book of 11th century, and Chinese professor Ling Hongling of Lanzhou University claims that the game was brought to Europe by the Mongols in the 12th and 13th centuries. A Dutch game was mentioned on 26 February 1297 in a city called Loenen aan de Vecht. Here they played a game with a stick and leather ball. Whoever hit the ball into a target several hundreds of meters away the most number of times, won. The Scottish game of goulf (variously spelled) was mentioned in two 15th century laws prohibiting its play. Some scholars have suggested that this refers to another game, which is more akin to bandy, shinty or hurling than golf. There are also reports of even earlier accounts of a golf like game from continental Europe.

However, these earlier games are more accurately viewed as ancestors of golf, and the modern game as we understand it today originated and developed in Scotland: The earliest permanent golf course originated there, as did the very first written rules, the establishment of the 18-hole course, and the first golf club memberships. The first formalized tournament structures also emerged there and competitions were arranged between different Scottish cities. Over time, the modern game spread to England and the rest of the world. The oldest playing golf course in the world is The Musselburgh Old Links Golf Course. Evidence has shown that golf was played here in 1672 although Mary, Queen of Scots reputedly played there in 1567. In 1646 King Charles I of England, whilst held captive by the Scots in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, was reported to entertain himself by playing golf in Shieldfield.

As stated, golf courses have not always had eighteen holes. The St Andrews Links occupy a narrow strip of land along the sea. As early as the 15th century, golfers at St Andrews, in Fife, established a customary route through the undulating terrain, playing to holes whose locations were dictated by topography. The course that emerged featured eleven holes, laid out end to end from the clubhouse to the far end of the property. One played the holes out, turned around, and played the holes in, for a total of 22 holes. In 1764, several of the holes were deemed too short, and were therefore combined. The number was thereby reduced from 11 to nine, so that a complete round of the links comprised 18 holes. Due to the status of St Andrews as the golf capital, all other courses chose to follow suit and the 18-hole course remains the standard today.

In 2007 Golf Digest calculated that there were nearly 31,900 golf courses in the world, approximately half of them in the United States. The countries with most golf courses per capita, starting with the best endowed were: Scotland, New Zealand, Australia, Rebublic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Canada, Wales, United States, Sweden, and England (countries with fewer than 500,000 people were excluded). Apart from Sweden, all of these countries have English as the majority language, but the number of courses in new territories is increasing rapidly. For example, the first golf course in the People's Republic of China opened in 1984, but by 2008 there were 376 courses in that country.

The professional sport was initially dominated by Scottish then English golfers, but since 1918, The United States has produced the greatest quantity of leading professionals. Other Commonwealth countries such as Australia and South Africa are also traditional powers in the sport. Since around the 1970s, Japan, Scandinavian and other Western European countries have produced leading players on a regular basis. The number of countries with high-class professionals continues to increase steadily, especially in East Asia. South Korea is notably strong in women's golf.

In the United States, the number of people who play golf 25 times or more per year fell from 6.9 million in 2000 to 4.6 million in 2005, according to the National Golf Foundation. The NGF reported that the number who played golf at all fell from 30 million to 26 million over the same period.

Golf is played in an area of land designated a golf course. A course consists of a series of holes, each with a teeing area, fairway, rough and other hazards, and the green with the pin (flagstick) and cup. Different levels of grass are varied to increase difficulty or to allow for putting in the case of the green. A typical golf course consists of eighteen holes, but many smaller courses may only have nine.

Early Scottish golf courses, and similarly designed courses, are mostly laid out on linksland, soil covered sand dunes directly inland from beaches. This gave rise to the common description of a seaside course as a golf links. The turn of the 20th century, with its widespread use of heavy earth-moving equipment, saw a movement toward golf course design with an emphasis on reshaping the land to create hazards, and add strategic interest. Modern golf course design has seen a return to its roots. Architects appreciate once again how to maximize the subtleties in the existing land while tempering how much soil they move.

Environmental concerns over the use of land for golf courses have grown over the past fifty years. Specific issues include the amount of water and chemical pesticides and fertilizers used for maintenance, as well as the destruction of wetlands and other environmentally important areas during construction. The UN estimates that golf courses use about 2.5 billion gallons/9.5 billion liters of water daily. If potable, this amount of water would be enough to provide drinking water for 4.7 billion people. Many golf courses in the world are irrigated with non-potable water and/or rainwater. As a result of these concerns there has been research into more environmentally sound practices and turf grasses.

Every round of golf is based on playing a number of holes in a given order. A round typically consists of 18 holes that are played in the order determined by the course layout. On a nine-hole course, a standard round consists of two successive nine-hole rounds. Playing a hole on the golf course consists of hitting a ball from a tee on the teeing box (a marked area designated for the first shot of a hole, a tee shot), and once the ball comes to rest, striking it again. This process is repeated until the ball is in the cup. Once the ball is on the green (an area of finely cut grass) the ball is usually putted (hit along the ground) into the hole. The goal of resting the ball in the hole in as few strokes as possible may be impeded by hazards, such as bunkers and water hazards. In most typical forms of gameplay, each player plays his/her until it is holed.

Players can walk or drive in motorized carts over the course, either singly or with others, sometimes accompanied by caddies who carry and manage the players' equipment and give them advice.

A hole is classified by its par; the number of strokes a skilled golfer should require to complete play of the hole. For example, a skilled golfer expects to reach the green on a par-four hole in two strokes (This would be considered a Green in Regulation or GIR): one from the tee (the "drive") and another, second, stroke to the green (the "approach"); and then roll the ball into the hole in two putts for par. A golf hole is either a par-three, -four or -five sometimes -six rarely -two and -seven.

The key factor for classifying the par of a hole is the tee-to-green distance. A typical length for a par-three hole ranges between 91-224 meters/100–250 yards; for a par-four hole, between 225-434 meters/251–475 yards; and for a par-five hole, between 435 and 630 meters/476–690 yards. The slope of the course (uphill or downhill) can also effect the par rating. If the tee-to-green distance on a hole is predominantly downhill, it will play shorter than its physical length and may be given a lower par rating and the opposite is true for uphill holes. Par ratings are also affected by factors such as the placement of hazards or the shape of the green which can sometimes effect the play of a hole such that it requires an extra stroke to avoid playing into hazards.

Eighteen hole courses may have four par-three, ten par-four, and four par-five holes, though other combinations exist and are not less worthy than courses of par 72. Many major championships are contested on courses playing to a par of 70, 71, or 72. In some countries, courses are classified, in addition to the course's par, with a course classification describing the play difficulty of a course and may be used to calculate a golfer's playing handicap for that given course (c.f. golf handicap).

In match play, two players (or two teams) play each hole as a separate contest against each other. The party with the lower score wins that hole, or if the scores of both players or teams are equal the hole is "halved" (drawn). The game is won by the party that wins more holes than the other. In the case that one team or player has taken a lead that cannot be overcome in the number of holes remaining to be played, the match is deemed to be won by the party in the lead, and the remainder of the holes are not played. For example, if one party already has a lead of six holes, and only five holes remain to be played on the course, the match is over. At any given point, if the lead is equal to the number of holes remaining, the match is said to be "dormie", and is continued until the leader increases the lead by one hole, thereby winning the match, or until the match ends in a tie. When the game is tied after the predetermined number of holes have been played, it may be continued until one side takes a one-hole lead.

In stroke play, the score achieved for each and every hole of the round or tournament is added to produce the total score, and the player with the lowest score wins (Stroke play is the game most commonly played by professional golfers). If there is a tie after the regulation number of holes in a professional tournament, a playoff takes place between all tied players. Some playoffs employ a pre-determined number of holes, anywhere from three to a full eighteen. If at least two players remain tied after such a playoff, then play continues in sudden death format, with the first player to win a hole wins the tournament.

In a skins game, golfers compete on each hole, as a separate contest. Played for prize money on the professional level or as a means of a wager for amateurs, a skin, or the prize money assigned to each hole, carries over to subsequent holes if the hole is tied (or halved). If you come to the end of the round and there are still skins left over, play continues until the final skin has been decided.

In stableford the player gains points for the score achieved on each hole of the round or tournament (1 point for a bogey, 2 points for a par, 3 points for a birdie, 4 points for an eagle). The points achieved for each hole of the round or tournament is added to produce the total points score, and the player with the highest score wins.

A handicap is a numerical measure of an amateur golfer's ability to play golf over the course of 18 holes. Handicaps can be applied either for stroke play competition or match play competition. In either competition, a handicap generally represents the number of strokes above par that a player will achieve on an above average day (i.e., when playing well).

In stroke play competition, the competitor's handicap is subtracted from their total "gross" score at the end of the round, to calculate a "net" score against which standings are calculated. In match play competition, handicap strokes are assigned on a hole-by-hole basis, according to the handicap rating of each hole (which is provided by the course). The hardest holes on the course receive the first handicap strokes, with the easiest holes receiving the last handicap strokes.

Calculating a handicap is often complicated, but essentially it is representative of the average over par of a number of a player's previous above average rounds, adjusted for course difficulty. Legislations regarding the calculation of handicaps differs among countries. For example, handicap rules may include the difficulty of the course the golfer is playing on by taking into consideration factors such as the number of bunkers, the length of the course, the difficulty and slopes of the greens, the width of the fairways, and so on.

Handicap systems are not used in professional golf. Professional golfers often score several strokes below par for a round and thus have a calculated handicap of 0 or less, meaning that their handicap results in the addition of strokes to their round score. Someone with a handicap of zero or less is often referred to as a scratch golfer.

The rules of golf are internationally standardised and are jointly governed by the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews (R&A), which was founded 1754 and the United States Golf Association (USGA). By agreement with the R&A, USGA jurisdiction on the enforcement and interpretation of the rules is limited to the United States and Mexico. The national golf associations of other countries use the rules laid down by the R&A and there is a formal procedure for referring any points of doubt to the R&A.

The decisions on the Rules of Golf are based on formal case decisions by the R&A and USGA and are revised and updated every other year.

There are strict regulations regarding the amateur status of golfers. Essentially, anybody who has ever received payment or compensation for giving instruction or played golf for money is not considered an amateur and may not participate in competitions limited solely to amateurs. However, amateur golfers may receive expenses which comply with strict guidelines and they may accept non-cash prizes within the limits established by the Rules of Amateur Status.

In addition to the officially printed rules, golfers also abide by a set of guidelines called golf etiquette. Etiquette guidelines cover matters such as safety, fairness, easiness and pace of play, and a player's obligation to contribute to the care of the course. Though there are no penalties for breach of etiquette rules, players generally follow the rules of golf etiquette in an effort to improve everyone's playing experience.

A bunker is any prepared area from which turf and soil has been removed and replaced with sand. If a ball is in a bunker, the player can play the ball as it lies within the bunker without incurring any penalty strokes. The player can also, under penalty of one stroke, deem the ball unplayable, and drop the ball inside the bunker.(Rule 28). The player can not test the condition of the bunker, nor can he/she touch the ground within the bunker with his/her hand or a club. The penalty for grounding is two strokes in stroke play, or loss of hole in match play. (Rule 13-4).

A water hazard is any sea, lake, pond, river, creek, ditch or anything of a similar nature on the course. If the ball is in a water hazard, the player may play the ball as it lies or, under penalty of one stroke, play a ball from where it was originally hit; or, under penalty of one stroke, drop a ball at any point along the ball's flight path toward the hazard. (Rule 26-1).

A lateral water hazard is a water hazard so situated that it is not possible or impractical to drop a ball behind the hazard. If the ball is in a lateral water hazard, in addition to the options for a ball in a water hazard, the player may under penalty of one stroke, drop a ball within two club lengths of the point of entry into the hazard; or, under penalty of one stroke, drop a ball on the opposite side of the hazard no closer to the hole. (Rule 26-1).

Penalties are incurred in certain situations. They are counted towards a player's score as if they were an extra swing at the ball. Strokes are added for rules infractions, or for hitting one's ball into an unplayable situation. A lost ball or a ball hit out of bounds result in a penalty of one stroke and distance. (Rule 27-1) A one stroke penalty is assessed if a players equipment causes the ball to move, or the removal of a loose impediment causes the ball to move. (Rule 18-2) If a golfer makes a stroke at the wrong ball (Rule 19-2), or hits a fellow golfer's ball with a putt (Rule 19-5), the player incurs a two stroke penalty. Most rule infractions lead to stroke penalties, but also can lead to disqualification. Disqualification could be from cheating, signing for a lower score, or from rules infractions that lead to improper play.

Golf clubs are used to hit a golf ball. Each club is composed of a shaft with a lance (grip) on the top end and a clubhead on the bottom. Woods, are used for long-distance fairway shots; irons, the most versatile class, are used for a variety of shots, and putters, are used to roll the ball into the cup.

An important variation in different clubs is loft, or the angle between the club's face and the vertical plane. It is loft that makes a golf ball leave the tee on an ascending trajectory, not the angle of swing; virtually all swings contact the ball with a horizontal motion. The impact of the club compresses the ball, while grooves on the clubface give the ball backspin (a clockwise spin when viewed from a parallel standpoint to the left of the ball). Together, the compression and backspin create lift. The majority of woods and irons are labeled with a number; higher numbers indicate shorter shafts and higher lofts, which give the ball a higher and shorter trajectory.

While the variation of clubs can differ greatly between golfers, a set used to play a round of golf must have no more than 14 clubs. A full set typically consists of a driver, two fairway woods (generally 3- and 5-woods), a set of irons from 3 to 9, a pitching wedge, a sand wedge, a putter, and one more club of the player's choice. Many players opt to avoid the long irons (that many find difficult to hit), and replace them with more forgiving clubs, like hybrids.

Golf balls are famous for "dimples". These small dips in the surface of the golf ball decrease aerodynamic drag by increasing turbulence behind the ball in motion, which allows the ball to fly farther. A tee is used for resting the ball on top of for an easier shot; allowed only for the first stroke of each hole. Wood tees are inexpensive but plastic tees last longer. Long tees are suitable for woods and can position the ball higher off the ground. Short tees are suitable for irons and are less easily broken. Many golfers wear golf shoes with metal or plastic spikes attached to the soles. These shoes are designed to increase traction thus allowing for more longer, more accurate shots. A golf bag is used to transport golf clubs. Golf bags have several pockets designed for carrying various equipment and supplies such as tees, balls, and gloves required over the course of a round of golf. Golf bags can be carried, pulled on a two-wheel pull cart or harnessed to a motorized golf cart during play. Golf bags have both a hand strap and shoulder strap for carrying, and sometimes have retractable legs that allow the bag to sit upright when at rest. Golf also uses flags, known as the "pin" to show the position of the hole to players when they are too far away from the hole to see it clearly. When all players in a group are within putting distance, the pin, is removed by a "caddy" or a fellow competitor to allow for easier access to the hole.

The full golf swing is used in long distance shots or near the green from the fairway. Woods and irons can be used for the full swing. The golfer adjusts his/her swing to fit the circumstances of the play such as distance to the green, lie of the ball and location of the hazards. The face of the club starts on ground (except in sand play in which it is not permitted) square to the target line. For the right-handed golfer, it consists of a "backward swing" to the left, a "forward swing" back to the middle (where the ball is hit), and a "follow-through" back to the left.

The putt is used for putting the ball in the hole or closer to the hole (as in lagging) from the green or the fringe of the green. The putter is used for the putt. The golfer adjusts his/her putt to fit the circumstances of the play such as distance to the hole and slope of the green. The face of the club starts square to the target line. The club goes straight back and straight through along the same path like a pendulum.

The majority of professional golfers work as club or teaching professionals (pros), and only compete in local competitions. A small elite of professional golfers are "tournament pros" who compete full time on international "tours". Many club and teaching professionals working in the golf industry start as caddies or a general interest in the game, finding employment at golf courses and eventually moving on to certifications in their chosen profession. These programs include independent institutions and universities, and those that eventually lead to a Class A golf professional certification.

There are at least twenty professional golf tours, each run by a PGA or an independent tour organization, which is responsible for arranging events, finding sponsors, and regulating the tour. Typically a tour has "members" who are entitled to compete in most of its events, and also invites non-members to compete in some of them. Gaining membership of an elite tour is highly competitive, and most professional golfers never achieve it.

The most widely known tour is the PGA Tour, which tends to attract the strongest fields, outside the four Majors and the three World Golf Championships events. This is due mostly to the fact that most PGA Tour events have a first prize of at least US$800,000. The European Tour, which attracts a substantial number of top golfers from outside North America, ranks second to the PGA Tour in worldwide prestige. Some top professionals from outside North America play enough tournaments to maintain membership on both the PGA Tour and European Tour.

The other leading men's tours include the Japan Golf Tour, the Asian Tour (Asia outside Japan), the PGA Tour of Australasia, and the Sunshine Tour (for Southern Africa, primarily South Africa). These four tours, along with the PGA and European Tours, are full members of the trade body of the world's main tours, the International Federation of PGA Tours. Two other tours, the Canadian Tour and the Tour de las Américas (Latin America), are associate members of the Federation. All of these tours, except for the Tour de las Américas, offer points in the Official World Golf Rankings to golfers who make the cut in their events.

Golf is unique in having lucrative competition for older players. There are several senior tours for men 50 and older, the best known of which is the U.S.-based Champions Tour.

There are six principal tours for women, each based in a different country or continent. The most prestigious of these is the United States based LPGA Tour.

All of the leading professional tours for under-50 players have an official developmental tour, in which the leading players at the end of the season will earn a tour card on the main tour for the following season. Examples include the Nationwide Tour, which feeds to the PGA Tour, and the Challenge Tour, which is the developmental tour of the European Tour. The Nationwide and Challenge Tours also offer Official World Golf Rankings points.

The major championships are the four most prestigious men's tournaments of the year. In chronological order they are: The Masters, the U.S. Open, The Open Championship (referred to in North America as the British Open) and the PGA Championship.

The fields for these events include the top several dozen golfers from all over the world. The Masters has been played at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia since its inception in 1934. It is the only major championship that is played at the same course each year. The U.S. Open and PGA Championship are played at courses around the United States, while The Open Championship is played at courses in the UK.

The number of major championships a player accumulates in his career has an impact on his stature in the sport. Jack Nicklaus is considered to be the greatest golfer of all time, largely because he has won a record 18 professional majors, or 20 majors in total if his two U.S. Amateurs are included. Tiger Woods, who may be the only golfer in the foreseeable future likely to challenge Nicklaus's record, has won 14 professional majors (17 total if his three U.S. Amateurs are included), all before the age of 33. (To put this total in perspective, Nicklaus had won 11 professional majors and two U.S. Amateurs by his 33rd birthday, and did not win his 15th professional major until he was 35.) Woods also came closest to winning all four current majors in one season (known as a Grand Slam completed first by Bobby Jones) when he won them consecutively across two seasons: the 2000 U.S. Open, Open Championship, and PGA Championship; and the 2001 Masters. This feat has been frequently called the Tiger Slam.

Prior to the advent of the PGA Championship and The Masters, the four Majors were the U.S. Open, the U.S. Amateur, the Open Championship, and the British Amateur. These are the four that Bobby Jones won in 1930 to become the only player ever to have earned a Grand Slam.

Women's golf does not have a globally agreed set of majors. The list of majors recognised by the dominant women's tour, the LPGA Tour in the U.S., has changed several times over the years, with the last change in 2001. Like the PGA Tour, the (U.S.) LPGA has four majors: the Kraft Nabisco Championship, the LPGA Championship, the U.S. Women's Open and the Women's British Open. Only the last of these is also recognised by the Ladies European Tour. The other event that it recognises as a major is the Evian Masters, which is not considered a major by the LPGA (but is co-sanctioned as a regular LPGA event). However, the significance of this is limited, as the LPGA is far more dominant in women's golf than the PGA Tour is in mainstream men's golf. For example, the BBC has been known to use the U.S. definition of "women's majors" without qualifying it. Also, the Ladies' Golf Union, the governing body for women's golf in the UK and Republic of Ireland, states on its official website that the Women's British Open is "the only Women's Major to be played outside the U.S." For many years, the Ladies European Tour tacitly acknowledged the dominance of the LPGA Tour by not scheduling any of its own events to conflict with the three LPGA majors played in the U.S., but that changed in 2008, with the LET scheduling an event opposite the LPGA Championship. The second-richest women's tour, the LPGA of Japan Tour, does not recognise any of the U.S. LPGA or European majors as it has its own set of three majors. However, these events attract little notice outside Japan.

Senior (50-and-over) men's golf does not have a globally agreed upon set of majors. The list of senior majors on the U.S.-based Champions Tour has changed over the years, but always by expansion; unlike the situation with the LPGA, no senior major has lost its status. The Champions Tour now recognises five majors: the Senior PGA Championship, the U.S. Senior Open, the Senior British Open, The Tradition and the Senior Players Championship.

Of the five events, the Senior PGA is by far the oldest, having been founded in 1937. The other events all date from the 1980s, when senior golf became a commercial success as the first golf stars of the television era, such as Arnold Palmer and Gary Player, reached the relevant age. The Senior British Open was not recognised as a major by the Champions Tour until 2003. The European Seniors Tour recognises only the Senior PGA and the two Senior Opens as majors. However, the Champions Tour is arguably more dominant in global senior golf than the U.S. LPGA is in global women's golf.

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Annika Sörenstam

Annika Sörenstam ( listen (help·info)) (born 9 October 1970) is a Swedish professional golfer whose achievements rank her as one of the most successful golfers in history. Before "stepping away" from competitive golf at the end of the 2008 season, she won 90 international tournaments as a professional, making her the female golf player with the most wins to her name. She has won 72 official LPGA tournaments including ten majors and 18 other tournaments internationally, and she tops the LPGA's career money list with earnings of over $22 million -- over $8 million ahead of her nearest rival. Since 2006 Sörenstam has held dual American and Swedish citizenship.

The winner of a record eight Player of the Year awards, and six Vare Trophies given to the LPGA player with the lowest seasonal scoring average, she is the only female golfer to have shot a 59 in competition. She holds various all-time scoring records including the lowest season scoring average: 68.6969 in 2004.

Sörenstam made history at the Bank of America Colonial tournament in 2003 as the first woman to play in a men's PGA Tour event since 1945. Often known simply as "Annika," she achieved the fame of male golfers known in the same way: Arnie (Arnold Palmer), Jack (Nicklaus) and Tiger (Woods). Her growing off-course interests include the ANNIKA golf academy, golf course design, ANNIKA-branded products, and a charitable foundation.

Annika Sörenstam was born in Bro near Stockholm, Sweden. Her father Tom is a retired IBM executive, her mother Gunilla worked in a bank and her younger sister Charlotta is a professional golfer who coaches at her sister's academy. Annika and Charlotta Sörenstam are the only two sisters to have both won $1 million on the LPGA.

As a child, Sörenstam was a talented all round sportswoman. She was a nationally ranked junior tennis player, played football (soccer) in her hometown team Bro IK and was such a good skier that the coach of the Swedish national ski team suggested the family move to Northern Sweden to improve her skiing year round. At the age of 12 she switched to golf, sharing her first set of golf clubs with her sister -- Annika got the odd numbered clubs and Charlotta the even -- and earned her first handicap of 54. She was so shy as a junior she used to deliberately three putt at the end of a tournament to avoid giving the victory speech. The coaches noticed and at the next tournament both the winner and the runner-up had to give a speech. Sörenstam decided that if she were going to have to face the crowd anyway she might as well win and the deliberate misses stopped.

Her very successful amateur career included a win in the St. Rule Trophy played at St. Andrews and a runner-up finish in the Swedish national mother/daughter golf tournament. As a member of the Swedish National Team from 1987 to 1992, she played in the 1990 and 1992 Espirito Santo Trophy World Amateur Golf Team Championships, becoming World Amateur champion in 1992. Whilst waiting to start college in Sweden, Sörenstam worked as a personal assistant at the Swedish PGA and played on the Swedish Ladies Telia Tour, winning three tournaments during 1990/1991.

After a coach spotted Sörenstam playing in a collegiate event in Tokyo she moved to the United States to attend college at the University of Arizona. She won seven collegiate titles and in 1991 became the first non-American and first freshman to win the individual NCAA National Championship. She was 1991 NCAA Co-Player of the Year with Kelly Robbins, runner-up in the 1992 NCAA National Championship, 1992 Pac-10 champion and a 1991-92 NCAA All-American. At the 1992 United States Women's Amateur Golf Championship she was the runner-up to Vicki Goetze and thus received an invitation to play in the 1992 U.S. Women's Open, where she finished tied for 63rd. Having turned professional in 1992 and missing her LPGA Tour card at the LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament by one shot, she began her professional career on the Ladies European Tour or LET, formerly known as the WPGET.

Sörenstam was invited to play in three 1993 LPGA tournaments where she finished T38th, 4th, and T9th earning more than $47,000. She finished second four times on the Ladies European Tour and was 1993 Ladies European Tour Rookie of the Year. By tying for 28th at the LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament she earned non-exempt status for the 1994 season. Sörenstam's first professional win came at the 1994 Holden Australian Open Championship on the ALPG Tour. In the United States Sörenstam was LPGA Rookie of the Year, had three top-10 finishes including a tie for second at the Women's British Open and made her Solheim Cup debut.

1995 was her breakout year when she won her first LPGA Tour title at the U.S. Women's Open. She finished at the top of the Money List and was the first non-American winner of the Vare Trophy. She became the second player ever to be Player of the Year and Vare Trophy winner the year after being Rookie of the Year. A win at the 1995 Australian Ladies Masters and two other wins on the Ladies European Tour put her top of the LET Order of Merit and made her the first player to top both the European and LPGA Tour money lists in the same season. Her success worldwide resulted in her winning the Jerringpriset award in Sweden, the country’s most prestigious award in sports as well as being awarded the Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal.

1996 saw Sörenstam win her home LET tournament, the Trygg Hansa Ladies' Open in Sweden and three LPGA tournaments including the U.S. Women's Open. In defending her title she became the first non-American to win back to back U.S. Women's Open titles, passed the $1 million mark in LPGA career earnings, and won her second consecutive Vare Trophy.

She won six 1997 LPGA titles regaining the Money List and Player of the Year titles. Internationally she won on the JLPGA and defended her home LET title at the renamed Compaq Open. She became the first player in LPGA history to finish a season with a sub-70 scoring average of 69.99 en route to retaining the 1998 Player of the Year and Money List titles as well as winning the LET Swedish tour stop for the third time running. September 1999 saw Sörenstam change her on-course team replacing her caddie of six years, Colin Cann, with Terry McNamara who remains her caddie today.

At this point in her career, Sörenstam says she lost focus having reached her biggest goals. Karrie Webb became the best LPGA Tour player but Sörenstam still managed to win more LPGA tournaments than any other Tour player during the 1990’s. She qualified for the World Golf Hall of Fame when she won the 2000 Welch's/Circle K Championship, but was not eligible for induction until finishing her tenth year on the LPGA tour in October 2003. Sörenstam was the first international player to be inducted into the Hall of Fame through the LPGA criteria.

Having lost her preeminent position, Sörenstam embarked on a new five-day-a-week exercise program including weight-lifting and balance work which by 2003 added over 20 yards (18 m) to her driving distance. During the 2001 season she had eight LPGA wins, became the only female golfer to shoot a 59 in competition and the first LPGA player to cross the $2 million mark in single-season earnings. She set or tied a total of 30 LPGA records en route to regaining the Vare Trophy and winning her fourth Player of the Year and Money List titles in 2001. In a made-for-TV alternate shot competition between the two best male and female players in the world, Sörenstam and Tiger Woods beat Karrie Webb and David Duval.

At the end of that season Karrie Webb said she "would eat her hat" if Sörenstam repeated her eight wins in 2002. Sörenstam accomplished that feat, joining Mickey Wright as the only players to win 11 LPGA tournaments in one season, earning her fifth Player of the Year title and fifth Vare Trophy. She successfully defended the Kraft Nabisco Championship, her fourth major victory, and also won the ANZ Ladies Masters in Australia and Compaq Open in Sweden on the Ladies European Tour giving her 13 wins in 25 starts worldwide in 2002.

Amid notable controversy, Sörenstam was invited to play in the Bank of America Colonial golf tournament in Fort Worth, Texas in May 2003, making her the first woman to play in a PGA Tour event since Babe Zaharias, who qualified for the 1945 Los Angeles Open. PGA Tour player Vijay Singh was particularly critical of her presence; he was quoted saying she had no business playing and he hoped she missed the cut, although he later apologized. Cheered through each hole, she shot five over par, tying for 96th out of the 111 who finished the first two rounds, missing the cut. After shooting 1-over-par 71 in the first round, Sörenstam said she was nervous all day but pleased at her performance.

Later in the 2003 season she won the LPGA Championship and the Women's British Open becoming only the sixth player to complete the LPGA Career Grand Slam. She had five other victories worldwide, set or tied a total of 22 LPGA records and earned her sixth Player of the Year award. She competed against Fred Couples, Phil Mickelson and Mark O'Meara in the 2003 Skins Game, finishing second with five skins worth $225,000; Sörenstam holed a 39-yard (36 m) bunker shot on the ninth hole—the eighth eagle in The Skins Game history. She was awarded her second Jerringpriset award in Sweden plus the 2003 Golf Writers’ Trophy by the Association of Golf Writers.

Sörenstam's dominance continued in 2004 with her seventh LPGA Player of the Year award tying Kathy Whitworth for the most in LPGA history. She posted 16 top-10 finishes in 18 LPGA starts, including eight wins, had two additional international wins, became the first player to reach $15 million in LPGA career earnings and took her own LPGA single-season scoring average record to 68.69696, but played too few rounds to win the Vare Trophy. The Women’s Sports Foundation gave her the 2004 Sportswoman of the Year Award, and the Laureus World Sports Academy named her World Sportswoman of the Year. She also released a combination autobiography and golf instructional book, Golf Annika's Way.

2005 was a landmark year in Sörenstam's life both on and off the golf course. The announcement in February that she had filed for divorce from David Esch, her husband of eight years, which was finalised in August did not adversely affect her golf. Her achievements included being the first player in LPGA history to win a major three consecutive years at the LPGA Championship and the first golfer in LPGA or PGA history to win the same event five consecutive years at the Mizuno Classic. 11 wins in 21 tournaments entered worldwide included victory in the Scandinavian TPC hosted by Annika where she presented herself the trophy, giving her an eighth Money List title, tying the LPGA record, an eighth Rolex Player of the Year (POY) award (a record) and a sixth Vare Trophy. She is the only LPGA player ever to win Money List, POY award and Vare trophy in the same year in 5 different years. Team competition saw her make her seventh consecutive Solheim Cup appearance, her 4 points making her total 21, the event's all-time leading points earner, and the inaugural Lexus Cup was played with Sörenstam as the Captain of the victorious International Team.

When the first-ever official Women's World Golf Rankings were unveiled in February 2006, Sörenstam was confirmed as the number-one player in women's golf, a position she relinquished to Lorena Ochoa on 22 April 2007. In partnership with Liselotte Neumann in team Sweden she won the Women's World Cup of Golf, opened her LPGA season with a defence of her title in the MasterCard Classic. She then went winless in eight starts, causing some to talk of a slump. Her winning drought ended at the U.S. Women's Open where she won an 18-hole playoff over Pat Hurst for her 10th major championship title, tying her for third on the list of players with most major championship titles. She totalled 3 wins on the LPGA and two on the Ladies European Tour, the inaugural Dubai Ladies Masters and the Swedish tournament she hosts, which she defended in her home town at the course where she learned to play. Her International team lost the second Lexus Cup competition to Team Asia.

Sörenstam started 2007 by losing a playoff while defending of her MasterCard Classic title. At the Kraft Nabisco Championship she shot her highest 72-hole score in a major in nine years, a result explained by her subsequent diagnosis with ruptured and bulging discs in her neck, the first major injury in Sörenstam's 13-year LPGA career. After a two month injury rehabilitation break Sörenstam returned as the Ginn Tribute tournament hostess where she admitted to being at only 85% fitness and finished tied for 36th place. She was still not fully fit in her next two tournaments, the LPGA Championship where she finished tied for 15th place, and the US Women's Open, where as defending champion she finished tied for 32nd.

After an early round defeat at the World Matchplay Championship, Sörenstam had a more successful time in Europe where she finished sixth at the Evian Masters, 16th at the Women's British Open and ninth in the Swedish tournament she hosts on the Ladies European Tour. On her return to the US, Sörenstam had three top ten finishes but missed the weekend at the season closing ADT Playoffs for the second year running. This left her winless on the LPGA Tour for the first time since her rookie season. However Sörenstam did win a worldwide title at the Dubai Ladies Masters on the Ladies European Tour in November 2007 beating a competitive field.

Declaring herself recovered from injury and ready to return to a complete season of competitive golf in 2008, Sörenstam opened the year at the SBS Open at Turtle Bay where she captured her 70th LPGA Tour victory and first since September 2006. She won next at the Stanford International Pro-Am in April then following a week off, won again at the Michelob ULTRA Open at Kingsmill in a tournament record score, giving her three wins and over $1 million in earnings by mid-May. It was her 72nd and final ever win on the LPGA Tour.

On 13 May 2008, Sörenstam announced at a press conference at the Sybase Classic that she would "step away" from competitive golf at the conclusion of the 2008 season. That night, she threw out the first pitch of the Washington Nationals/New York Mets baseball game at Shea Stadium in New York and the following day read the Top Ten on the Late Show with David Letterman. Her last tournament victory came in a playoff at the Suzhou Taihu Ladies Open, an event co sanctioned by the Ladies European Tour and the Ladies Asian Golf tour. Her last scheduled tournament on the LPGA Tour was the season-ending ADT Championship in November, where she failed to make the weekend play in the event's unique playoff structure. Her final sanctioned LPGA appearance was as the winning captain of Team International at the 2008 Lexus Cup in Singapore. Her last professional tournament was the Dubai Ladies Masters on the Ladies European Tour in December 2008. where she finished tied for 7th.

Annika Sörenstam met her first husband David Esch in 1994 on the driving range at Moon Valley Country Club, Phoenix, Arizona, where she was an LPGA rookie practicing for a tournament and he was worked for club manufacturer Ping. They were engaged at the 1995 Evian Masters, married in Lake Tahoe on 4 January 1997, and were divorced in 2005. She announced her engagement to Mike McGee, the managing director for the ANNIKA brand of businesses and son of former PGA Tour and Champions Tour player Jerry McGee, in August 2007 and they were married at Lake Nona, Orlando, Florida on January 10, 2009.

Sörenstam began the transition from professional golfer to entrepreneur during the later years of her career attempting to combine her major passions, golf, fitness and charitable works, into various businesses under the ANNIKA brand with the brand statement "Share my Passion". They are all promoted by her website on which there is a blog to which she and her staff regularly contribute.

Sörenstam has undertaken a number of golf course design projects. Her first, the Annika Course, was completed at Mission Hills Golf Club in Shenzen, China in 2003 whilst the second was officially launched in January 2006 and opened in 2008 at Euphoria Golf Estate & Hydro in South Africa. She recently announced a new project at Mines Golf City, near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia whilst projects closer to home include a redesign of the Patriots Point Links Course near Charleston, South Carolina and a course at Red Mountain Resort, British Columbia.

The ANNIKA Academy at Ginn Reunion Resort began construction in 2006 and opened in April 2007 with Sörenstam's longtime coach Henri Reis serving as head instructor, her sister Charlotta an instructor and club fitter, her personal trainer Kai Fusser focusing on overall fitness training with the owner available for coaching on certain golfing packages.The opening ceremony included a Make-A-Wish Foundation golf clinic conducted by Sörenstam who is a United States ambassador for the Make-A-Wish Foundation and it also hosted clinics for junior golfers during the The Annika Invitational, an American Junior Golf Association invitation-only event featuring the top 60 girls from around the world hosted by The ANNIKA Foundation.

Other branches of the ANNIKA business include a clothing line with Cutter & Buck, a limited label wine produced in partnership with Wente Vineyards, and a signature fragrance developed by SA Fragrances. Sörenstam has also been a named hostess at a couple of golf tournaments, the Ginn Tribute hosted by ANNIKA on the LPGA tour and the Scandinavian TPC hosted by ANNIKA on the Ladies European Tour which she won for the first two years. Both tournaments have not survived the economic downturn.

One of Sörenstam's hobbies is cooking. She has participated in cooking demonstrations during LPGA tournaments and has talked about enrolling in cooking school. Before the 2003 season Sörenstam took the opportunity to improve her culinary skills by working eight hour shifts in the kitchens of the Lake Nona Country Club. Sörenstam has had a serious interest in investments, real estate and the stock market since she earned her first LPGA check and in August 2006 was invited to ring the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange.

LPGA Majors are shown in bold.

Ladies European Tour Majors are shown in bold. The Evian Masters is classified as a major by the LET but not the LPGA Tour, and along with the Women's British Open is co-sanctioned by the LPGA Tour, with wins counting for both tours.

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LPGA

The LPGA, in full the Ladies Professional Golf Association, is an American organization for female professional golfers. The organization, whose headquarters are in Daytona Beach, Florida, is best known for running the LPGA Tour, a series of weekly golf tournaments for elite female golfers from around the world that runs from February to December each year. In 2009, total prize money on the LPGA Tour will be nearly $55 million, a decrease of about $5 million from 2008, and 31 total official events, down from 34 in 2008.

Other "LPGA"s exist in other countries, each with a geographical designation in its name, but the U.S. organization is the largest and best known. The LPGA is also an organization for female club and teaching professionals. This is different from the PGA Tour, which runs the main professional tours in the U.S. and, since 1968, has been independent of the club and teaching professionals' organization, the PGA of America.

The LPGA was founded in 1950 by a group of 13 women, including Babe Didrikson Zaharias. It is now the oldest ongoing women's professional sports organization in the United States. Carolyn Bivens is the current LPGA Commissioner.

Most of the LPGA Tour's events are held in the United States. In 2009, two tournaments are scheduled for Mexico and one each in Singapore, Canada, France, England, China, South Korea, Thailand, and Japan. Four of the tournaments held outside North America are co-sanctioned with other professional tours. The Ladies European Tour co-sanctions the Evian Masters in France and the Women's British Open, held the following week. The other two co-sanctioned events -— the Hana Bank-KOLON Championship (LPGA of Korea Tour) and Mizuno Classic (LPGA of Japan Tour) -— are held in successive autumn weeks in Asia.

In its early decades, the LPGA Tour was dominated by American players. Sandra Post of Canada became the first player living outside the United States to gain an LPGA tour card in 1968. The non-U.S. contingent is now very large. The last time an American player topped the money list was in 1993, the last time an American led the tour in tournaments won was in 1996, and from 2000 through 2008, non-Americans won 28 of 36 major championships. In 2009, there are 122 non-Americans from 27 countries, including 47 from South Korea, 14 from Sweden, 10 from Australia, eight from the United Kingdom (four from England, three from Scotland and one from Wales), seven from Canada, five from Taiwan, and four from Japan.

In 2007, Americans saw a relative resurgence, winning 12 events. For the first time since 2000, two Americans won majors. However, only one American, Paula Creamer, won more than one event, while Mexico's Lorena Ochoa won eight times and Norway's Suzann Pettersen five. Koreans won only four events, seven fewer than the 11 they won in 2006.

In August 2008, the LPGA Tour announced a new policy to require all players who had been on the tour for two years to show proficiency in English or face suspension. The Tour rescinded the policy two weeks later amidst increasing criticism from fans, the media, and LPGA sponsors. Commissioner Bivens will be announcing a revised policy that will not include penalties. The LPGA has not disclosed by what standards English proficiency will be judged or provided information on whether it will provide education, tutoring, or classes for players whose native language is not English.

Besides the main LPGA Tour, the LPGA operates a second-level developmental tour, the Duramed Futures Tour. Top finishers at the end of each season on that tour receive playing privileges on the main LPGA Tour for the following year.

The LPGA also administers an annual Qualifying School similar to that conducted by the PGA Tour. Depending on a golfer's finish in the Qualifying School tournament, she may receive full or partial playing privileges on the LPGA Tour.

In 2001, the LPGA established the Women's Senior Golf Tour, now called The Legends Tour, for women professionals aged 45 and older.

Since 2006, all official LPGA tournaments have been part of a playoff system, leading up to the Stanford Financial Tour Championship, known through the 2008 season as the LPGA Playoffs at The ADT, held in November. The LPGA schedule is divided into two halves, with 15 players from each half qualifying for the Stanford Financial Championship based on their performance. Two wild-card selections are also included in the Playoffs. The winner of the Stanford Financial Championship, which features three days of “playoffs” plus the final championship round, earns $1 million.

The number in parentheses after winners' names show the player's total number of official money, individual event wins on the LPGA Tour, including that event.

Tournaments in bold are majors.

Top ten official money leaders as of March 1, 2009.

The LPGA Tour presents several annual awards. Three are awarded in competitive contests, based on scoring over the course of the year.

1 The five players with who won three titles in 1988 were Juli Inkster, Rosie Jones, Betsy King, Nancy Lopez, and Ayako Okamoto.

The table below shows the top 20 career money leaders on the LPGA Tour at the end of the 2008 season. All of the players who earned money in 2008 remain active in 2009, with the exception of all-time money leader Annika Sörenstam. There is a more complete list, updated weekly during the Tour season, on the LPGA's official site.

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