Exemption Categories:

S-11: Winners of individual LPGA co-sponsored events, whose victories are considered official and receive a full point allocation for the Race to the CME Globe, from the conclusion of the 2023 U.S. Women’s Open Championship to the initiation of the 2024 U.S. Women’s Open Championship. 

S-16: Top 10 points leaders in the LPGA Tour's 2024 Race to the CME Globe as of April 3
S-17: Top 75 points leaders in the Rolex Women's World Golf Rankings as of April 3

Ko stormed onto the world stage as a teenager, becoming No. 1 in the Rolex Rankings at 17 years, 9 months and 9 days, the youngest to achieve that status. When she won the 2015 Evian Championship, she became the youngest woman to win a major championship. She captured her second major in 2016 at the ANA Inspiration (now Chevron Championship). Ko had been the No. 1 player in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking for 130 weeks when she turned pro in October 2013. By then, she had already captured the 2012 U.S. Women’s Amateur, been a semifinalist in the 2012 U.S. Girls’ Junior and low amateur in the U.S. Women’s Open (2012). Ko was the low individual scorer in the 2012 Women’s World Amateur Team Championship while representing New Zealand. Ko twice won the CN Canadian Women’s Open (2012 and 2013) as an amateur, and won the event for a third time in 2015. She ended a three-year victory drought in April 2021 when she claimed the LOTTE Championship in Hawaii. She won again in 2022 at the Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio, and came within one victory of the LPGA Hall of Fame with her triumph earlier this year at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions in Florida. This will be her 13th start in the U.S. Women’s Open, with a best finish of T-3 in 2016 at CordeValle.