Field lists don’t usually make history, but that’s exactly what happened at 5 p.m. Tuesday when the participants in the LPGA’s penultimate event of 2026, the Annika, were finalized. Absent from the field were Jeeno Thitikul and Miyu Yamashita, the second- and fourth-ranked players in the women’s game, respectively, meaning, after outstanding seasons, they had mathematically eliminated themselves from the LPGA’s Rolex Player of the Year race — and determined a winner.
That would be world No. 2 Nelly Korda, in the wake of her four-win (so far) 2026 and still with three events remaining on the schedule. This is Korda’s second time winning the prize; when she won her first POY, in 2024, she also locked up the title with three events remaining on the schedule.
This year’s accolade, though, comes with an added wrinkle, because it pushed Korda to within sniffing distance of the LPGA Hall of Fame. POY winners don’t just win a trophy and a year-end gala shoutout — they also get a point toward their Hall of Fame eligibility. In Korda’s case, that point increases her career point haul to 26, which is just one shy of the HOF entry threshold.
Regular-season LPGA wins also are worth one HOF point, meaning if Korda triumphs in either of her final two starts of 2026 — the Annika and the CME Group Championship — she will lock up her place in golf immortality before month’s end.
Players also can earn HOF credits by winning majors (which are worth 2 points); the Vare Trophy for lowest scoring average (1 point); or an Olympic Gold Medal (1 point). Korda’s 69.38 scoring average is tops on tour by a narrow margin but even if she holds on to that edge over the season’s last three events, she still won’t win the Vare because she will not have played the required minimum of 70 rounds.
This isn’t the first time this year that Korda’s Hall of Fame chances have come into focus.
After winning the season’s first two majors — the Chevron and the U.S. Open — Korda’s HOF point tally climbed to 25, leaving her one major title or two non-major victories away from punching her ticket. Not that she was paying much attention. At the season’s third of five majors, the KPMG Women’s PGA, at Hazeltine in late June, Korda confessed to having no clue either how many points are required for Hall of Fame eligibility or how many points she herself had accrued.
“I kind of like to be oblivious about it in that way,” Korda said that week. “I know a lot about the stuff that I want to know about, but this, I don’t want to put extra pressure on myself. I feel like the game of golf is already hard enough. If I add more pressure on myself then it’s going to be even harder. I think it’s an amazing accomplishment and it would be one of the best achievements of my career, for sure.”
Korda is only 28, but that would not make her the youngest player to enter the hall. That honor goes to Lydia Ko, who was 27 years, 3 months, and 17 days when she was inducted in 2024. Ko eclipsed the youthful mark of Inbee Park, who also was 27 when she qualified for the hall in 2016.
