Champion trends

With well over 100 players competing against one another, predicting the winner of any golf championship is a tall order.

Erring on the side of caution and plumping for one of the world’s top-10 doesn’t always reap dividends.

Many factors come into play before a winner can be identified confidently. Course form, recent form and injury can all be crucial elements before any specific golf stats are even considered. While all these can be wildly different from one week – and one event – to the next, certain trends do emerge over time.

So as we build-up to the 2025 AIG Women’s Open, we break down some key stats from the last 10 winners of the Championship to see if any patterns have emerged.

Winners (2015 – 2024)

2024: Lydia Ko [above]
2023: Lilia Vu
2022: Ashleigh Buhai
2021: Anna Nordqvist [top]
2020: Sophia Popov
2019: Hinako Shibuno
2018: Georgia Hall
2017: I K Kim
2016: Ariya Jutanugarn
2015: Inbee Park

Wins in calendar year

Recent form is probably the strongest indicator of a player’s chances at the beginning of any tournament – and this has certainly been reflected in the roster of recent AIG Women’s Open victors.

Six of the last 10 winners had recorded at least one victory in the calendar year prior to their AIG Women’s Open success: Lydia Ko (2024), Lilia Vu (2023), Hinako Shibuno (2019), I K Kim (2017), Ariya Jutanugarn (2016) and Inbee Park (2015).

And while Ashleigh Buhai (2022), Anna Nordqvist (2021) and Georgia Hall (2018) were unable to get in the winner’s enclosure, they had each finished in the top-10 at least twice in the build-up to the AIG Women’s Open.

The obvious outlier here is Sophia Popov, who was only able to play in four other events during a Covid-hit 2020.

Previous experience

It takes a special player to win a tournament at the first time of asking – see Shibuno (2019) [above]. Talent alone can prevail on occasion, but more often than not experience is the key ingredient behind a winning recipe.

Six of the last 10 winners had enjoyed at least five previous appearances at the AIG Women’s Open before they got their hands on the trophy, with Ko (2024), Buhai (2022) and Nordqvist (2021) all reaching double figures.

However, it didn’t take Vu (2023), Popov (2020), Shibuno (2019) or Jutanugarn (2016) very long to find their feet!

Number of previous appearances:

2024: Lydia Ko – 12
2023: Lilia Vu – 1
2022: Ashleigh Buhai – 14
2021: Anna Nordqvist – 14
2020: Sophia Popov – 1
2019: Hinako Shibuno – 0
2018: Georgia Hall – 5
2017: I K Kim – 9
2016: Ariya Jutanugarn – 2
2015: Inbee Park – 8

You might expect a winner to have come close the year before, but a glance at where each of the last 10 winners finished 12 months earlier suggests this isn’t really the case, with three having missed the cut, one not in the field and one with no previous experience.

Final position the year before they won:

2023: Lydia Ko – MC
2022: Lilia Vu – T41
2021: Ashleigh Buhai – MC
2020: Anna Nordqvist – T32
2019: Sophia Popov – Did not compete
2018: Hinako Shibuno – Won on debut
2017: Georgia Hall – T3
2016: I K Kim – T50
2015: Ariya Jutanugarn – MC
2014: Inbee Park – 4

Rolex Ranking

The number one player in the world will often command the lion’s share of column inches in the build-up to any major – but only one world number one (Park, 2015 – above) has won the AIG Women’s Open in the last 10 years.

Eight of the last 10 Champions were all inside the world’s top-45 at the time of their victory, with four (Ko, Vu, Jutanugarn and Park) inside the top 12. Once again, Popov (2020) is the outlier as she was outside of the world’s top 300.

Rolex Ranking at the time of AIG Women’s Open win:

2024: Lydia Ko – 12th
2023: Lilia Vu – 6th
2022: Ashleigh Buhai – 84th
2021: Anna Nordqvist – 37th
2020: Sophia Popov – 304th
2019: Hinako Shibuno – 44th
2018: Georgia Hall – 39th
2017: I K Kim – 21st
2016: Ariya Jutanugarn – 6th
2015: Inbee Park – 1st

Age

Three-time Champion Sherri Steinhauer (43) is the oldest winner of the AIG Women’s Open, while Jiyai Shin (20 years, 97 days) is the youngest.

While no winner in the last decade was close to threatening Steinhauer’s record, Shibuno (2019) and Jutanugarn (2016) [above] were just a few months younger than Shin.

Every Champion in the last 10 years has been aged between 20 and 34, with the average age being 26.4.

Age of the last 10 AIG Women’s Open Champions:

2024: Lydia Ko – 27
2023: Lilia Vu – 25
2022: Ashleigh Buhai – 33
2021: Anna Nordqvist – 34
2020: Sophia Popov – 27
2019: Hinako Shibuno – 20
2018: Georgia Hall – 22
2017: I K Kim – 29
2016: Ariya Jutanugarn – 20
2015: Inbee Park – 27