The LPGA Tour season concludes with the CME Group Tour Championship at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Florida.
Sixty of the world’s best players will compete, guaranteeing a fitting finale to the season as stars jostle for position hoping to claim the honour of this year’s Race to CME Globe champion. Korean players have dominated the last three tournaments, with Jin Young Ko winning it for the last two years, which followed compatriot Kim Sei-young’s 2019 victory. Both players are in the field this week.
Nelly Korda defended her Pelican Women’s Championship title last week, which was enough to see her return to World No.1, and she will be one of the favourites to triumph. Korda’s victory meant that Thai prodigy Atthaya Thitikul’s reign at the top was short-lived, lasting just two weeks. Nevertheless, Thitikul will be hopeful of finishing a memorable season on a high following two victories among 15 top-10 finishes.
Popular American Lexi Thompson won the title in 2018 and participates with other former winners, Charley Hull and Lydia Ko. New Zealander Ko recently parted ways with coach Sean Foley and instead began working with former coach Ted Oh on an informal basis. She will be hopeful the change can help her replicate her 2014 victory in the tournament. That was enough to help her win the Race to CME Globe that year – a feat she repeated in 2015 despite only finishing tied for seventh in that year’s season-closing tournament.
Although the tournament is open to the top 60 players in the Race to CME Globe rankings, Jessica Korda, Inbee Park and Linn Grant miss out, which has presented the opportunity for the players ranked 61 to 63 to take their places. Team USA’s Solheim Cup champion Stacy Lewis is one of the players promoted to the field along with Ariya Jutanugarn and Pornanong Phatlum.
A host of other top players are also competing, including two-time Major winners Minjee Lee and Brooke Henderson. Hye-Jin Choi, who posted top-10 finishes in two of this year’s five Majors, 2022 Chevron Championship winner Jennifer Kupcho and 2017 Women’s PGA Championship winner Danielle Kang also competing.
If the field is impressive, the purse on offer is at least as noteworthy. Players will compete for $7m, the highest prize money outside the Majors and $4m more than its nearest rival, the Cognizant Founders Cup. Meanwhile, the winner will bank $2m, the biggest prize in the history of women’s golf.
As well as the prize money, several awards are still…
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