There are 21 new athletes who will be competing throughout the 2025 season as rookies on the LPGA Tour. It’s an incredibly international class of first-timers, featuring only five American representatives and 16 players hailing from Australia, Chinese Taipei, England, France, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, the People’s Republic of China, the Republic of Korea, Spain and Sweden.

But many of these rookies are such in name only. Several have captured wins on tours all across the globe, some have played in the Olympic Games, and at the start of the year, five of these athletes were ranked inside the top 50 of the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings.

Japan’s Miyu Yamashita has been in the top 15 of the world rankings since Oct. 14, 2024, and the 2024 Olympian quickly proved that she’s here to play in her first start as a member at the Founders Cup presented by U.S. Virgin Islands, finishing in a tie for fourth at Bradenton Country Club.

Miyu Yamashita

Before joining the organization this season, an opportunity she earned after medaling at the Final Qualifying portion of 2024 LPGA Q-Series, Yamashita had competed in 12 LPGA Tour events, nine of which were major championships, and racked up six top-20 finishes, the most notable of which was a tie for second at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Sahalee Country Club. It was that performance in Washington state that ultimately qualified Yamashita for her first Olympics last August, and she nearly found a spot on the podium, tying for fourth at Le Golf National in her Games debut.

Rio Takeda won her first career LPGA Tour title at the 2024 TOTO Japan Classic as a non-member after outlasting Marina Alex in a six-hole playoff in her home country at Seta Golf Course. However, Takeda chose to defer the automatic LPGA Tour Membership offered as part of her non-member victory to the 2025 season, making her one of the 21 rookies who are teeing it up on Tour this year.

The Japan native won seven other titles on the JLPGA Tour last season and climbed inside the top 20 of the Rolex Rankings following her victory at the TOTO Japan Classic on Nov. 4, 2024, having yet to fall out of that position since. She made six LPGA Tour starts ahead of her debut season, and along with her victory, Takeda earned two other top-10 results, a tie for eighth that came at the 2023 TOTO Japan Classic and a tie for ninth that came at the 2024 U.S. Women’s Open presented by Ally at Lancaster Country Club.

Like Yamashita and Takeda, Ina Yoon battled her way into the top 50 of the Rolex Rankings last season, officially moving inside that cutoff on Aug. 19, 2024. The Republic of Korea native is still relatively new to the pro ranks, only turning professional in 2021, but she has shown out on the KLPGA Tour, collecting two victories at the EVERCOLLAGEN Queens Crown 2022 and the 11th JejuSamdasoo Masters in 2024 and earning several other top-five results across both the 2022 and 2024 seasons.

Yoon secured membership via Final Qualifying after finishing eighth in the last stage of 2024 LPGA Q-Series this past December. She had never played in any LPGA Tour event before becoming a rookie this season and made her first-ever LPGA Tour start at the Founders Cup presented by U.S. Virgin Islands at Bradenton Country Club, where she ultimately missed the cut.

The 2025 rookie class also features a pair of twins from Japan – Akie and Chisato Iwai – whose names fans have likely seen on LPGA Tour leaderboards in recent years. Akie had played in 11 Tour tournaments before earning status with a T5 finish last year at Final Qualifying, seven of which were major championships. In those 11 starts, Akie collected four top-15 results, the best of which is a tie for seventh that she recorded at the 2024 AIG Women’s Open at St Andrews. She has earned six wins on the JLPGA Tour and started the 2025 season at 30th in the Rolex Rankings, slipping to 33rd the week of Feb. 10 following a missed cut in her season debut at the Founders Cup.

Like her twin sister, Chisato earned LPGA Tour Membership at 2024 Final Qualifying, finishing second in Mobile, Ala. to secure a spot on Tour for the 2025 season. She competed in 11 LPGA Tour events prior to becoming a rookie, six of which were majors, and posted three top-20 finishes, results that include a tie for 10th at the 2024 TOTO Japan Classic, a tie for 13th at the 2024 Honda LPGA Thailand and a tie for 19th at the U.S Women’s Open at Lancaster Country Club.

Chisato Iwai

Chisato was another rookie in the top 50 of the Rolex Rankings at the beginning of the year, sitting at 48th in the world as of the Jan. 6th standings release. The 22-year-old has captured seven wins on the JLPGA Tour, recording two victories each during both the 2022 and 2023 seasons and collecting three titles in 2024.

Several of the 21 rookies this year are also Epson Tour graduates, a slate of athletes that includes Jenny Bae, Heather Lin, Ingrid Lindblad, Cassie Porter, Jessica Porvasnik, Miranda Wang, Fiona Xu, Madison Young and Yahui Zhang.

Bae is a name some might recognize, as she finished second to Stanford University standout Rose Zhang at the 2023 Augusta National Women’s Amateur. The University of Georgia alum also won the 2023 Juli Inkster Award as a University of Georgia Bulldog, and after turning professional, Bae captured two victories in back-to-back starts on the Epson Tour in 2023, winning the Hartford Healthcare Women’s Championship first and then taking home the Twin Bridges Championship title the very next week. She also won the Murphy El Dorado Shootout in 2024 to collect her third professional victory.

Lin joined the Epson Tour in 2023 and earned her first career victory on the Official Qualifying Tour of the LPGA in 2024 at the Epson Tour Championship at Indian Wells. It was a last-minute win that secured her the 15th and final LPGA Tour card available via the season-long Race for the Card, making Lin a 2025 LPGA Tour rookie.

Lindblad was a standout amateur and collegiate player during her time at Louisiana State University. The Swede turned professional in 2024 after finishing up a stellar career as a Tiger, one that saw her earn medalist honors 15 times as an individual, win both the 2024 ANNIKA Award presented by Stifel and the 2024 Inkster Award, be named a WGCA First-Team All-American five times, collect three SEC Player of the Year titles and earn 2024 WGCA PING Player of the Year honors.

Ingrid Lindblad

She also reached No. 1 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings, won the McCormack Medal in 2023 and played in four Augusta National Women’s Amateurs, finishing in the top three in three of those appearances. Lindblad won the Tuscaloosa Toyota Classic last season on the Epson Tour and earned two other top-two finishes at the Island Resort Championship presented by Delta County Chamber and the Guardian Championship, an incredible performance in just nine starts that saw her finish sixth in the Race for the Card.

Cassie Porter hails from Australia and joined the Epson Tour in 2023. She earned six career top-10 finishes while competing on the circuit, one of which was a victory that she nabbed at the 2024 FireKeepers Casino Hotel Championship. The 22-year-old finished 10th in the Race for the Card last season on the Epson Tour and ultimately secured LPGA Tour Membership because of that performance in the season-long points race. She made her first-ever LPGA Tour start at the Founders Cup presented by U.S. Virgin Islands in early February, missing the cut at Bradenton Country Club.

Hailing from Hinckley, Ohio, Jessica Porvasnik had been an Epson Tour member since the 2018 season before she earned 2025 LPGA Tour Membership via a fourth-place finish in the Race for the Card points competition last year. In her time on the Official Qualifying Tour of the LPGA, Porvasnik collected 10 career top-10 results, six of which came during the 2024 Epson Tour season, and made over $175,000 in official earnings.

People’s Republic of China native Miranda Wang finished T3 at the Epson Tour Championship at Indian Wells to acquire LPGA status in 2025, a performance that was one of six top-10 results she recorded last year on the Epson Tour. She has posted 10 career top 10s since joining that organization in 2023, including a victory at the 2023 IOA Championship, and prior to her time on the Epson Tour, Wang competed on the ANNIKA Women’s All Pro Tour, where she was named Player of the Year in 2022.

Fiona Xu is joining her fellow New Zealand native Lydia Ko on the LPGA Tour this season after earning LPGA Tour Membership with an eighth-place finish in the season-long point standings on the Epson Tour. Xu was an Epson Tour rookie in 2024, and during her brief time with the organization, she recorded three top-10 results, one of which was a win that came at the Copper Rock Championship last May. She made her first cut in her first LPGA Tour start as a member at the Founders Cup in Bradenton, Fla., tying for 48th.

Fiona Xu

Madison Young became an Epson Tour member in 2020, but she only played three full seasons on the Official Qualifying Tour of the LPGA before earning her LPGA Tour card. In that time, Young racked up eight career top-10 finishes, one of which was a victory at the 2024 Casino Del Sol Golf Classic, a win that ultimately helped her finish in the top 10 of the Race for the Card to secure LPGA membership for the 2025 season. Like Xu, the 27-year-old made her first cut as an LPGA Tour member at the Founders Cup in early February and ultimately finished alone in 58th.

China’s Yahui Zhang was the 2024 Gaelle Truet Rookie of the Year last season on the Epson Tour, an honor given to a first-year member who finishes with the best position in the year-long Race for the Card point standings. The now 19-year-old posted eight top-10 results as an Epson Tour rookie, a slate of finishes that saw her win the Four Winds Invitational on Sept. 1, 2024, by one shot over Fatima Fernandez Cano and Lauren Stephenson. Zhang has never previously competed on the LPGA Tour and is set to make her first-ever start at the Blue Bay LPGA in March.

In addition to those listed above, Saki Baba, Adela Cernousek, Mariel Galdiano, Julia Lopez Ramirez, Caley McGinty, Natasha Andrea Oon and Kate Smith-Stroh are also members of the 2025 rookie roster.

Japan’s Baba won the U.S. Women’s Amateur back in 2022, while Frenchwoman Cernousek captured an individual victory at the NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Championship in 2024. Galdiano, Oon and Smith-Stroh are all three Epson Tour alumni, and Europeans McGinty and Lopez Ramirez both turned professional in 2024, successfully securing membership at the Final Qualifying portion of 2024 LPGA Q-Series.

Rookie Review: Get to Know Some of the 2025 LPGA Tour Rookies

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