Sei Young Kim became only the 10th player in LPGA history to cross $15 million in career earnings after her victory at the BMW Ladies Championship. Kim’s $345,000 payday in South Korea moved her to $15,189,333 in total winnings, sandwiched in between Lorena Ochoa (11th) and Lexi Thompson (ninth).
“In the past, my standard was to earn a lot of money; that was also part of my goal as a player, but I don’t think that really held,” said Kim. “So from this year, my actual goal is to pull up my World Ranking, and I think that ranking tells a value of player in the world. I will do my best to pull up my ranking.”
Kim, 32, won the BMW by four strokes, ending a victory drought that stretched back to November 2020.
She becomes the seventh South Korean to win this season, the most of any country. Notably, this marks Kim’s first time winning on home soil.
“I think it took me more than 10 years to win a victory in front of my family and friends,” said Kim. “It means so much so me. It is a tournament that I really wanted to win, and I find that I can’t express my words to all of it. I really had good energy from all the fans, and really appreciate and thankful to that.”
Kim is now the fourth South Korean with 13 or more LPGA titles, joining Se Ri Pak (25), Inbee Park (21) and Jin Young Ko (15).
Here’s the breakdown of how much money each LPGA player earned at the BMW Ladies Championship, where there was a purse of $2.3 million and no cut: