Jutanugarn sisters chasing $1m jackpot in Florida season finale
Lot at stake for top five LPGA players in Florida
Sisters Ariya and Moriya Jutanugarn could still win the US$1 million (33 million baht) bonus at the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship, which tees off today in Naples, Florida.
World No.9 Ariya sits No.9 in the the Race to the CME Globe standings and still has a chance at winning for the second consecutive year.
The 21-year-old from Bangkok must win the Tour Championship and hopes the other results go her way at the Tiburon Golf Club to pocket another $1 million.
Ariya won her first title of the year — and sixth overall — at the Manulife Classic and took the world No.1 spot in June.
However, she has since suffered a slump in form and missed the cut at four successive majors.
Ariya finished joint 16th at the Blue Bay LPGA in Hainan, China, last week for her best result since the Manulife Classic.
World No.21 Moriya, who is eighth in the standings, has been more consistent.
She was runner-up in Hainan, losing to China’s Feng Shanshan by a stroke.
Moriya, who is still looking for her first LPGA win, needs at least a top-three finish in Naples and hopes the higher-ranked stars have poor results.
The sisters will play together in the first two rounds along with American Cristie Kerr, winner of the 2015 Tour Championship.
The Tour Championship is for the top 72 players in the Race to the CME Globe and LPGA champions who otherwise qualify.
At stake at the season finale is not only the $1 million bonus but also the player of the year award, the Vare Trophy for the lowest scoring average and the money title.
South Korea’s Park Sung-Hyun, the US Women’s Open champion, has already won the rookie of the year title and she has a chance to join Nancy Lopez as the only players to be rookie of the year and player of the year in the same season.
American Lexi Thompson leads the CME race ahead of Park, newly-crowned world No.1 Feng, South Korea’s Ryu So-Yeon and Canada’s Brooke Henderson.
The quintet control their fate — win in the Tour Championship and bank $1 million.
Ryu leads the player-of-the-year standings but Feng, Park and Thompson could snatch the award from Ryu.
Park leads Ryu by $298,047 in the money race with the winner of the Tour Championship receiving $625,000 in prize money.
Thompson leads Park and Chun In-Gee, another South Korean, in the scoring average category.
Feng, Park, Ryu and Thompson are the top four players in the world rankings and the No.1 spot could change hands at the end of the tournament.
It could be a huge week for Thompson, who is chasing four season-ending honours.
But the 22-year-old from Florida prefers to keep her eyes on the golf course rather than on the statistics. To her, golf is a feel game, not a numbers game.
“I don’t really pay attention to stats and everything. My dad does, but I don’t,” said Thompson. “I really just go on how I feel with my game throughout rounds. I know where I missed putts, where I need to improve on, where I didn’t get up and down or anything like that. I think it’s the same things I need to work on this offseason, but maybe tighten up my ball striking even more.”