Jin Young Ko, the No. 1 player in the world, shoots a 6-under 66 to win the LPGA finale by five shots.
Jin Young Ko missed most of the LPGA Tour season and still won the yearlong money title.
That’s what a $1.1 million check does.
Ko, the No. 1 player in the world, put an emphatic capper on her truncated year Sunday by shooting a final-round 6under 66 and winning the CME Group Tour Championship in Naples, Fla., by five strokes over Hannah Green and Sei Young Kim.
“I still can’t believe it, that I’m here, that I won this tournament,” Ko said.
With a birdie on the final hole, the LPGA’s final putt of the season, Ko finished at 18 under for her seventh career LPGA win. Green’s finalround 67 — on her 24th birthday — helped push her into the second-place tie.
Kim, who took a one-shot lead into the final round, shot 72 and that was good enough for her to clinch Rolex Player of the Year honors. Danielle Kang won the Vare Trophy for the lowest scoring average.
“Feels like a pretty solid accomplishment in 2020, to be honest,” Kang said.
Ko started the final round one shot back of Kim and opened with a birdie. The key stretch was Ko’s run of three straight birdies on the 12th through the 14th — her longest such run of the week. She left a chance for a fourth in a row just left of the cup on 15, then all but wrapped up the win with another birdie on the 16th.
The win wrapped up a wireto-wire year in the No. 1 spot for Ko, who has held the ranking since July 29, 2019. She moved to $5,600,824 in career earnings, making her the 71st player in LPGA history to cross the $5 million mark.
Her approach Sunday was quite simple: “I just (thought), OK, 18 holes left and then go home,” Ko said.
She’s going back to South Korea as a winner, too.
Ko played only four LPGA events in 2020 — she competed six times on the Korean LPGA while riding out the coronavirus pandemic at home — but Sunday’s win and a check for $487,286 for finishing second in last week’s U.S. Women’s Open helped push her season earnings to $1,667,925. That would have been good for fifth best on tour last season, when each of the 21 leading money-winners all appeared in at least 20 events.
Sunday marked the end to the 18-event LPGA season that was cut almost in half by the pandemic and was shut down for 51⁄ 2 months from midFebruary through the end of July. Next season is scheduled for 34 events, starting with the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., from Jan. 2124.
Team Thomas wins PNC
Justin Thomas and Tiger Woods traded text messages on the eve of the final round at the PNC Championship in Orlando, Fla., their teams tied for the lead and in contention. Neither mentioned winning.
This was about Woods getting to play alongside 11-yearold son Charlie, watching him twirl the club after a good drive and yes, even deliver a fist pump in his red shirt on Sunday
For Thomas, it was about competing with his father Mike, a long time club professional in Kentucky and the only coach he’s ever had.
Team Thomas birdied the opening seven holes and the father delivered a 5-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole that gave them a 15-under 57 in the scramble format and a oneshot victory over Vijay Singh and son Qass.
They won the Willie Park Trophy. It only felt like the other 19 teams won a participation trophy.
“Memories we’ll have for our entire lives,” Woods said after he and Charlie posted another 62 to finish seventh.
“He’s not going to appreciate this at 11 years old. I didn’t when I was with my dad. As the years go by, you start appreciating it more.”