NAPLES, Fla. (AP) — The stakes are so high at the CME Group Tour Championship that whoever wins will make more in one week than any player in the 30 tournaments leading up to the LPGA’s season finale.
The $11 million prize fund is second only to the U.S. Women’s Open ($12 million) on the LPGA Tour. But the $4 million that goes to the winner makes it the richest in women’s golf, and third in all of golf behind the men’s Tour Championship ($10 million) and The Players Championship ($4.5 million).
More than money is at stake for Nelly Korda.
She could become the first player since Tiger Woods in 2010 to go from winning seven times one year to no victories the next year.
Korda won seven times a year ago and stamped herself as the dominant figure in women’s golf, all of which might contribute to a year of astonishing parity in which 28 of the 30 official tournaments had different winners. Jeeno Thitikul and Miyuu Yamashita are the only players to win twice.
“It’s definitely been an interesting year I would say,” Korda said Wednesday at Tiburon Golf Club. “There has been good, there has been flashes of really good and there has been flashes of I don’t know what just happened. But I would say overall that’s just kind of golf. Coming off last year it’s kind of always going to be difficult to back that up.”
“But yeah, it definitely sucks in a way that I didn’t get to raise a trophy,” she said. “But I still have one more week to try to get that done.”
The difference is Korda’s game didn’t feel that far off, and the numbers support that. She also is proud that she stayed relatively healthy all year without having to miss chunks of time, although she skipped both Asia swings.
Her scoring average is 69.58 — down from only 69.56 a year ago. She was runner-up in the season opener, a runner-up in the U.S. Women’s Open.
“It comes down to sometimes one shot. It’s like one putt lips out and you don’t get your momentum. It’s just such a fine line when it comes to golf,” Korda said. “And I’m not disappointed with the season. Obviously, like I would’ve loved to raise a couple of trophies. When it comes down to my stats and the way my body has felt, it’s been amazing compared to … I don’t know, since 2021 I think I’ve been out for a couple months every single year with injuries.”
“I always like to take the positives out of the year,” she said. “I still have one more week. You never know what’s going to happen.”
Equally intriguing is the race between the two multiple winners this year. Thitikul replaced and then moved well beyond Korda at No. 1 in the women’s world ranking. Yamashita won the Women’s British Open for her first major and already won the LPGA rookie of the year.
Both have a chance at the coveted LPGA player of the year, which comes with one point toward LPGA Hall of Fame status.
Yamashita would need to win to have a chance in the points-based award, and that would make her the first player to win outright the rookie of the year and player of the year in the same season since Nancy Lopez in 1978. Sung Hyun Park of South Korea was rookie of the year and shared player of the year honors in 2017.
Minjee Lee leads the LPGA money list at $3,822,388, based mostly on her KPMG Women’s PGA title and the best performance in the five majors. Thitikul is second, and Yamashita is third. No one else has earned more than $3 million.
The key for so many players is just getting to the Tour Championship because all 60 players only have to win to take the richest prize in women’s golf.
That includes Lottie Woad, who was still at Florida State this year and even extended the lease on her apartment in Tallahassee. But she won the Women’s Irish Open as an amateur, nearly won a major in France, turned pro and then won the Women’s Scottish Open.
Four months later, she’s No. 10 in the world ranking, playing in the CME Group Tour Championship and has a shot at winning $4 million. She was asked what kind of car she could buy with that.
“I’m just trying to focus on getting my license first before I think about that,” the English star said with a laugh. “It needs to fit golf clubs, and also … I live in college towns, so I don’t want it to stand out too much.”
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