Thompson, Howell close year with wins
LEXI Thompson was the best this week, and Ariya Jutanugarn was the best all season.
Neither left any doubt about that yesterday.
Thompson shot a 2-under 70 to finish at 18-under 270 and win the LPGA’s seasonending CME Group Tour Championship by four strokes over Nelly Korda.
The win makes this the sixth consecutive year that Thompson has won at least once, extending the longest such active streak on the LPGA Tour.
Jutanugarn took the other two big prizes up for grabs, clinching the year-long Race to the CME Globe prize — and the $1 million bonus that comes with that — as well as the Vare Trophy for winning the season’s scoring title.
The world No.1 already had wrapped up player of the year honours, and finished 2018 with a 69.415 scoring average to edge Australia’s Minjee Lee (69.747) for the top spot there. Jutanugarn shot a 66 yesterday, finishing the week tied for fifth at 12-under 276. Korda closed with a 71. ON THE men’s Tour, Charles Howell III made a 15foot birdie putt on the second hole of a play-off with Patrick Rodgers in the RSM Classic to end an 11-year victory drought.
The 39-year-old Howell dropped to his knees and buried his head in his hands, then tearfully embraced his wife and two children.
He earned $1,152,000 and a return trip to his hometown of Augusta, Georgia, in April to play in the Masters for the first time since 2012.
After Rodgers sent a birdie attempt of 21 feet past the cup on the second extra hole, Howell’s putt died in the cup and capped a comeback in which he went bogey-double bogey on his first two holes to lose the lead he had held through the first three rounds.
IN DUBAI, Danny Willett won the European Tour’s season-ending DP World Tour Championship by two shots for his first victory since the 2016 Masters.
The 31-year-old Englishman closed with a 4-under 68 to finish at 18-under 270.
Francesco Molinari tied for 26th to take the Race to Dubai prize. The British Open champion secured the title when Tommy Fleetwood failed to win the tournament.
England’s Matt Wallace (68) and American Patrick Reed (70) tied for second.
Molinari said he would have “laughed” if anyone had predicted his successes in an “incredible” 2018 campaign.