| Duration | January 18, 2008 – December 14, 2008 |
|---|---|
| Number of official events | 37 |
| Most wins | 7  Lorena Ochoa |
| Money leader | Lorena Ochoa |
| Rolex Player of the Year | Lorena Ochoa |
| Rookie of the Year |  Yani Tseng |
← 2007 2009 → | |
The 2008 LPGA Tour was a series of weekly golf tournaments for elite female golfers from around the world that took place from February through December 2008. The tournaments were sanctioned by the United States–based Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA). In 2008, prize money on the LPGA Tour was $60.3 million, which was the highest in the history of the tour until 2016.
Lorena Ochoa topped the money list, earning $2,763,193. Ochoa also led the league in most wins with seven, including four consecutive tournaments in March and April and one major tournament.
The four major championships were won by: Lorena Ochoa (Kraft Nabisco Championship), Yani Tseng (LPGA Championship), Inbee Park (U.S. Women's Open), and Jiyai Shin (Women's British Open). All major winners except Ochoa were not only first-time major winners, but first-time winners on the LPGA Tour. Tseng, at 19 years old, and Park and Shin, both at 20 years old, became the youngest-ever winners of the respective majors.
On May 12, a day after winning her third tournament of the season, Annika Sörenstam announced her intent to "step away" from competitive golf at the end of the 2008 season. She continued to draw large crowds through the remainder of the season, though she did not win another tournament on the LPGA Tour before the end of the year.
Jiyai Shin, a 20-year-old non-LPGA member, set records on the LPGA Tour by winning three of the nine tournaments in which she played, including the Women's British Open and the season-ending ADT Championship with its $1 million first place prize. She became the first non-LPGA member ever to win three events.
The LPGA organization also attracted attention in 2008 when commissioner Carolyn Bivens announced a new policy in August that would have required all players who had been on the tour for two years to show proficiency in English or face suspension.[1][2] The Tour rescinded the policy two weeks later after increasing criticism from the media and from LPGA Tour sponsors.[3][4]
- ^ "LPGA to require all players speak English". Golf.com. Archived from the original on August 27, 2008. Retrieved August 26, 2008.
- ^ "Lieu: More American Requirements for LPGA Players". AsianWeek. Archived from the original on 3 September 2008. Retrieved 29 August 2008.
- ^ "The Marketing Doctor says: The LPGA Is Making A Big Mistake". Marketing Doctor Blog. August 28, 2008. Archived from the original on December 20, 2008.
- ^ Sirak, Ron (September 5, 2008). "LPGA Tour should have seen the fallout coming from English policy". ESPN. Archived from the original on September 9, 2008. Retrieved September 6, 2008.