There’s been clamoring for a huge payday for the women.
Now they’re going to get one.
The LPGA season wraps up this week with their Tour Championship with $1,500,000 on the line thanks to CME Group.
Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Fl., is the familiar site for this year-ending battle and yes, there’s big money on the line with one caveat — it’s winner-take-all.
This year-long “Race To The CME Globe” really wasn’t a race at all. The top 60 players made it but only one will walk away with the big cash and the top points leaders have no advantage at all. Whoever wins this week’s event, wins the $500,000 first-place money as the 72-hole tournament winner AND collects the $1,000,000 in bonus money as well.
The top five in the points rankings, for what that’s worth, are Jin Young Ko, Brooke Henderson, Minjee Lee, Jeongeun Lee6 and Nelly Korda, in that order.
Ko has already wrapped up the Rolex Player Of The Year award. The LPGA awards that strictly on a points system and Ko, who sits at the top of the world rankings, has easily been the tour’s star this season. But she comes into this finale worried about an injury she suffered to her left ankle. Ko felt pain in that ankle finishing off the first round of the Taiwan Swinging Skirts event three weeks ago, in her last start before coming to Naples. She withdrew in the middle of the third round because of the pain.
“I’m hopefully getting better,” Ko said this week.
On Thursday Ko, age 24, will play in the lead group with Henderson, age 22 and Lee, age 23, showing off the next generation of young stars in women’s golf.
From the American perspective, Nelly Korda is only 21 and she looks like she’s ready to become the new face of golf for United States players. Korda is now the highest-ranking American in the world, checking in at No. 3. Danielle Kang has risen to the top 10 and is No. 8 while Lexi Thompson’s up-and-down season has left her clinging to the No. 9 ranking. Thompson is the defending champion for the event this week but saw Ariya Jutanugarn take the overall CME Globe title and the million dollar bonus last year.
Jutanugarn has struggled after winning virtually ever award in 2018, she’s fallen all the way down to 10th in the world rankings.
All that aside, there’s been a push for more money in the women’s game. This week it’s there — but just for one player.
