Concord golfer Yealimi Noh wins her 1st pro golf tournament championship

CONCORD, CA (Feb. 20, 2025) — Concord’s homegrown golf star Yealimi Noh was the leader after three rounds of the Founders Cup in Bradenton, Florida earlier this month. However, walking to the 13th tee on the final day, she had less than a 27% probability of winning the tournament after three-time Founders Cup champion Jin Young Ko had overtaken her.

After birdies at 13 and 14, the 23-year-old Noh had taken control, fooling the computers and skeptical commentators on The Golf Channel live telecast to card a final round 68 and roll to a four-shot victory and her first-ever LPGA tournament championship while pocketing the $300,000 winner’s check.

“The teenage prodigy has come of age. She is a winner on the PGA Tour,” was the signature line as she capped off her best weekend on the LPGA Tour.

Going into the final day she held a narrow one-shot lead over former World No.1 Ko of South Korea. “Just really, really happy and just really proud of how I kept it together today,” Noh said after her victory. “I feel like I’ve been in this position a couple times now and I feel like I really learned from my past experiences. Really proud I’ve gotten it done today.”

 

Maintaining control

She credited her victory to maintaining control over her tempo, a key focus area she had worked on. “With nerves and excitement, everything gets a little quick for me, and that really translates into my swing. I kept it really calm and good tempo is all I was focusing on today.”

Noh added, “Being paired with Jin Young for the last two days, it was my first time playing with her yesterday and it was awesome to watch. I knew she wasn’t going to make any mistakes and be really solid. When I saw my opportunity and I kept it together, I was really proud of myself.”

The Founders Cup honors the 13 women who established the professional golf tour. It was the first tournament this year for Noh. “I have been getting my confidence back, especially in the latter part of last season. I was really ready and really confident entering 2025,” she told the media in her post tournament press conference.

Watch the post Founders Cup championship press conference.

“I always knew (a pro tournament win) would happen. I knew I could do it. When was the only question,” Noh explained while saying she doused champagne on several of her contemporaries as they won titles before her. This time Noh was the one getting sprayed as her parents looked on.

She got quite emotional when answering a question about what the first win means. She spoke about her parents (Brian and Kim Noh who formerly owned and ran Happy Roll restaurant at Todos Santos Plaza in Concord) and all the sacrifices they have made and support they have given her to reach this place.

She explained how important it was for them to be on hand for the victory. “They always told me to stay true to myself.”

Noh needed to cut the press briefing short to catch a flight to Dallas (her new home in Irving, Texas) and then another flight to San Francisco to celebrate with family and friends.

A journey from prodigy to pro and now champion

Noh began homeschooling at her Concord home and spending more time honing her golf game at Oakhurst Country Club in Clayton in 2016 after two years at Carondelet High where she helped the Cougars to top finishes in North Coast, Northern California and State championships.

Her trajectory was straight up with stunning successes on the elite amateur circuit in 2018 when she was the Rolex Junior Girls Player of the Year after winning four major championships in five weeks. That came in the summer when Noh should have been getting ready to enroll at UCLA on a full-ride scholarship. She decommitted from a verbal commitment to become a Bruin and instead focused on her professional aspirations.

The San Francisco born Noh played as a non-tour player in two professional tournaments in 2018 and five the following year, nearly winning the Cambia Portland Classic as a Monday qualifier and easily claiming her PGA tour card with a third-place finish at Q School.

Rookie year

She joined the LPGA Tour in the COVID-19 interrupted 2020 season and a year later was a member of the USA Solheim Cup team as a captain’s choice, where she won two matches for the Americans. Her rookie year saw her miss the cut only once in 16 starts and won $415,000.

She went over the million-dollar mark in official career earnings the following season with 20 made cuts in 23 tournaments plus the Solheim Cup ­performance.

Then the Concord-raised golfer hit a wall. Over the 2022 and 2023 seasons she missed the cut 22 times in 46 tournaments and won only $345,000 in those two years. Putting woes and a loss of confidence were major factors in her slump, forcing her to regain her tour card in the Q-Series at the end of 2023.

Her turnaround began last year with two top 10 finishes in the first half of the season as she adapted to a long putter while making 10 of 13 cuts. Noh really got back in a groove making 11 of 12 cuts and placing fourth twice during the balance of 2024. She had a career high $826,000 in tour earnings with five top 10 finishes.

Read more Pioneer stories about Yealimi Noh.