Six-time LPGA Tour winner So Yeon Ryu has announced her plans to retire after the Chevron Championship in April.
The 34-year-old first played on the tour in 2012, but Ryu won her first LPGA Tour title and major victory at the 2011 US Women’s Open at The Broadmoor’s East Course in Colorado Springs, Colorado. As a rookie, she won the 2012 Dana Open in Toledo, Ohio and eventually won the Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year at the end of her inaugural season.
The Republic of Korea native didn’t win again on the LPGA Tour until 2014, when she captured the CPKC Women’s Open title, and then experienced another winless drought over the next two seasons, finally breaking through in 2017, arguably one of her strongest of the season on the LPGA Tour.
Ryu won her second major title that year, defeating Lexi Thompson in a four-hole playoff at The Chevron Championship at Mission Hills Country Club. A few months later, the two-time major champion took home the 2017 Walmart NW Arkansas Championship presented by P&G, a victory that catapulted her to the top of the Rolex Women’s World Golf Ranking.
Ryu was the third player from the Republic of Korea to rise to No. 1 in the world, following in the footsteps of Jiyai Shin and Inbee Park, and is one of five Koreans to hold the position since the inception of the Rolex Rankings. He has been ranked No. 1 for a total of 19 career weeks.
Her sixth season on the LPGA Tour also saw Ryu win the 2017 Rolex ANNIKA Grand Prix and the 2017 Rolex Player of the Year Award.
The following year Ryu won the 2018 Meijer LPGA Classic for Simply Give by two shots over Caroline Masson and has not won on the LPGA Tour since, earning 20 top-10 finishes in that span.
Ryu last competed on the LPGA Tour at the 2023 BMW Ladies Championship, finishing 68th. He has no starts scheduled before the Chevron Championship, which will be held at The Club at Carlton Woods in Houston, Texas from April 18-21.