| Year: | 2008 |
| Tour: | LPGA Tour |
| Regular Season: | – |
| No Of Events: | 37 |
| Most Wins: | 6  Lorena Ochoa |
| Honor1: | Money leader |
| Honoree1: | Lorena Ochoa |
| Honor2: | Rolex Player of the Year |
| Honor3: | Rookie of the Year |
| Honoree3: |  Yani Tseng |
| Prevseason: | 2007 |
| Nextseason: | 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 six, 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 $1 million first place prize. She became the first non-LPGA member ever to win three events.
The LPGA organization also attracted attention in 2008 when commissioner Carolyn Bivens announced a new policy in August that would have required all players who had been on the tour for two years to show proficiency in English or face suspension.[1] [2] The Tour rescinded the policy two weeks later after increasing criticism from the media and from LPGA Tour sponsors.[3] [4]
ADT Playoff Categories:
The number in parentheses after winners' names show the player's total number of official money, individual event wins on the LPGA Tour, including that event.
| Date | Tournament | Location | ADT Playoff category | Winner | Purse ($) | Winner's share ($) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 20 | South Africa | unofficial | (Jennifer Rosales / Dorothy Delasin) | 1,400,000 | 210,000 | |
| Feb 16 | Hawaii | standard |  Annika Sörenstam (70) | 1,100,000 | 165,000 | |
| Feb 23 | Hawaii | standard |  Paula Creamer (5) | 1,300,000 | 195,000 | |
| Mar 2 | Singapore | winner | Lorena Ochoa (18) | 2,000,000 | 300,000 | |
| Mar 116 | Mexico | standard | Louise Friberg (1) | 1,300,000 | 195,000 | |
| Mar 30 | Arizona | standard | Lorena Ochoa (19) | 1,500,000 | 225,000 | |
| Apr 6 | Kraft Nabisco Championship | California | winner | Lorena Ochoa (20) | 2,000,000 | 300,000 |
| Apr 13 | Mexico | standard | Lorena Ochoa (21) | 1,300,000 | 195,000 | |
| Apr 20 | Florida | winner | Lorena Ochoa (22) | 2,600,000 | 390,000 | |
| Apr 27 | Florida | winner | Annika Sörenstam (71) | 2,000,000 | 300,000 | |
| May 4 | Oklahoma | standard | Paula Creamer (6) | 1,800,000 | 270,000 | |
| May 11 | Virginia | winner | Annika Sörenstam (72) | 2,200,000 | 330,000 | |
| May 18 | New Jersey | winner | Lorena Ochoa (23) | 2,000,000 | 300,000 | |
| May 25 | New York | standard | Leta Lindley (1) | 1,500,000 | 225,000 | |
| Jun 1 | South Carolina | winner |  Seon Hwa Lee (3) | 2,600,000 | 390,000 | |
| Jun 8 | McDonald's LPGA Championship | Maryland | winner | Yani Tseng (1) | 2,000,000 | 300,000 |
| End of first half of the season | ||||||
| Jun 22 | New York | winner | Eun-Hee Ji (1) | 2,000,000 | 300,000 | |
| Jun 29 | U.S. Women's Open | Minnesota | winner | Inbee Park (1) | 3,250,000 | 585,000 |
| Jul 6 | Arkansas | standard | Seon Hwa Lee (4) | 1,700,000 | 255,000 | |
| Jul 13 | Ohio | standard | Paula Creamer (7) | 1,300,000 | 195,000 | |
| Jul 20 | Illinois | standard | Ji Young Oh (1) | 1,700,000 | 255,000 | |
| Jul 27 | France | winner | Helen Alfredsson (6) | 3,250,000 | 487,500 | |
| Aug 3 | Ricoh Women's British Open | England | winner | Jiyai Shin (1*) | 2,100,000 | 314,464 |
| Aug 17 | Ontario | winner |  Katherine Hull (1) | 2,250,000 | 337,500 | |
| Aug 24 | Oregon | standard | Cristie Kerr (11) | 1,700,000 | 255,000 | |
| Sep 14 | Alabama | standard | Angela Stanford (2) | 1,400,000 | 210,000 | |
| Sep 28 | Alabama | standard | Lorena Ochoa (24) | 1,400,000 | 210,000 | |
| Oct 5 | California | standard | Paula Creamer (8) | 1,000,000 | 250,000 | |
| Oct 12 | California | standard | In-Kyung Kim (1) | 1,200,000 | 180,000 | |
| Oct 19 | Hawaii | standard | Morgan Pressel (2) | 1,500,000 | 225,000 | |
| Oct 26 | Chine | standard | Helen Alfredsson (7) | 1,800,000 | 270,000 | |
| Nov 2 | South Korea | standard | Candie Kung (4) | 1,600,000 | 240,000 | |
| Nov 9 | Japan | standard | Jiyai Shin (2*) | 1,400,000 | 210,000 | |
| Nov 16 | Mexico | standard | Angela Stanford (3) | 1,000,000 | 200,000 | |
| Nov 23 | Florida | n/a | Jiyai Shin (3*) | 1,550,000 | 1,000,000 | |
| Nov 30 | Singapore | unofficial | Team International | n/a | ||
| Dec 14** | Nevada | unofficial | n/a | |||
Money List leaders
| Rank | Player | Country | Earnings ($) | Events | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2,763,193 | 23 | |||
| 2 | 1,823,992 | 26 | |||
| 3 | 1,752,086 | 27 | |||
| 4 | 1,735,912 | 22 | |||
| 5 | 1,431,408 | 26 | |||
| 6 | 1,187,294 | 30 | |||
| 7 | 1,177,809 | 24 | |||
| 8 | 1,138,370 | 27 | |||
| 9 | 1,134,753 | 28 | |||
| 10 | 1,108,839 | 26 |
Full 2008 Official Money List - navigate to "2008"
Scoring Average leaders
| Rank | Player | Country | Average | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 69.70 | |||
| 2 | 70.47 | |||
| 3 | 70.56 | |||
| 4 | 70.77 | |||
| 5 | 70.88 |
Full 2008 Scoring Average List - navigate to "2008", then "Scoring Average"
The three competitive awards given out by the LPGA each year are:
Lorena Ochoa. Runner-up: Paula Creamer Lorena Ochoa. Runner-up: Annika Sörenstam Yani Tseng. Runner-up: Na Yeon Choi