"Honestly, I Don't Think Much of It"… Lydia Ko's Career Earnings Are $220,000 Behind No. 1

Lydia Ko (29) is going after the No. 1 spot on the LPGA career money list at the 2026 Lotte Championship. The gap to Sorenstam in first place is $223,228, less than half of the winner's prize.

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Three-line summary

Lydia Ko's LPGA career earnings are $22,360,465, $223,228 behind No. 1 Sorenstam.
The 2026 Lotte Championship is held in Hawaii with a total purse of $3 million and a winner's prize of $450,000.
No. 3 Nelly Korda is also only $253,921 behind No. 1, so a race has formed over who will pass the record first.

The 2026 Lotte Championship begins at Ko Olina... at Hoakalei Country Club in Hawaii on October 1 local time. It runs four days. Ahead of the opening, questions from local media were focused on Lydia Ko (29), because there is a number at stake beyond the trophy. It is the No. 1 spot on the LPGA career money list, which Annika Sorenstam (55) is known to have held since May 2001.

The gap is narrower than you might think. Golf Digest, citing official LPGA figures, reported career earnings of $22,360,465 for Lydia Ko and $22,583,693 for Sorenstam (as of 2026.09.29). The difference is $223,228.

Lydia Ko's Career Earnings of $22.36 Million: Lining Up the Top 3

Lining up the rankings shows how tight the race is. The difference between No. 2 Lydia Ko and No. 3 Nelly Korda (28) is just $30,693. That figure comes from subtracting Lydia Ko's gap of $223,228 from Korda's gap of $253,921. The three players from first to third are bunched within a range of just over $250,000.

Rank	Player (age)	Nationality	Career earnings (USD)	Gap to No. 1 (USD)	Career wins	Earnings per win (calculated, USD)
1	Annika Sorenstam (55)	Sweden	22,583,693	—	72 wins	About 310,000
2	Lydia Ko (29)	New Zealand	22,360,465	223,228	23 wins	About 970,000
3	Nelly Korda (28)	United States	About 22,329,772	253,921	19 wins	About 1.18 million

As of 2026.09.29. Korda's career earnings were calculated by subtracting the reported gap from Sorenstam's record. Earnings per win is a simple calculation, dividing career earnings by the number of wins.

Korda is another candidate to threaten the record. In the 2026 season alone she has won 4 times, including 2 majors. According to the official LPGA page, her season earnings are $6.2 million, and she is currently world No. 1. We were unable to confirm in our reporting whether she is entering this tournament.

Lotte Championship Purse of $3 Million, $450,000 for the Winner

The LPGA announced that the total purse for this tournament is $3 million. The winner's prize listed on the Lotte Championship's official website is $450,000, which is 15% of the total purse. If Lydia Ko wins, she would, by calculation, surpass the record by $226,772. Lydia Ko is ranked No. 13 in the world (LPGA, 2026.09.29).

Whether a runner-up finish would be enough comes with conditions. Golf Digest reported that she could break the record with a finish as good as a tie for second with one other player, or better. A payout table by finishing position could not be confirmed from an official LPGA source.

Lydia Ko, 29: Different Math for 23 Wins and 72 Wins

Lydia Ko was born in Seoul on April 24, 1997, and received New Zealand citizenship at age 12. She joined the LPGA Tour in 2014. In February 2015, at 17 years, 9 months and 9 days old, she became the youngest world No. 1 of any gender. In 2024, at 27, she became the youngest Hall of Fame member in history. She has also won 3 majors and Olympic silver, bronze and gold medals.

The two have reached almost the same amount, but the way they built it is different. Dividing career earnings by the number of wins gives about $310,000 per win for Sorenstam and about $970,000 for Lydia Ko, a difference of about 3.1 times. Lydia Ko has also pointed out that the two played in eras with different prize-money levels.

Season Earnings of $1 Million vs. $6.2 Million: The Variables Left Before the Opening

This season has gone differently for each. According to the LPGA, Lydia Ko's 2026 season earnings are about $1 million, and she has no wins yet this season. What Korda has earned this season is more than 6 times Lydia Ko's. Even so, Lydia Ko is ahead in career earnings as a result of accumulating 121 career top-10 finishes.

If she wins, she will break the record for certain, while a runner-up finish depends on how many players tie for second. The gap figures are those reported by Golf Digest, and an official LPGA source money list could not be obtained (as of 16:00 KST, 2026.10.01). Lydia Ko's answer, as relayed by the Aloha State Daily, was short: "Honestly, I don't think much about that record."

Related official sites

LPGA Lydia Ko official profile — check career wins, season earnings and recent results
Lotte Championship official tournament guide — tournament schedule, total purse and host course information
LPGA official stats and rankings — check updates to the season and career money lists

Lead image · Archive photo · Not an on-site photo of the current tournament in the article · Photo composite · Photo: Wikimedia Commons (Keith Allison), CC BY-SA 2.0 · Photo: Wikimedia Commons (Keith Allison), CC BY-SA 2.0