Jutanugarn sweeps LPGA season hardware
Lexi Thompson was the best of the week, and Ariya Jutanugarn was the best all season. Neither left any doubt about that Sunday in Naples, Fla.
Thompson shot a 2under-par 70 to finish at 18-under 270 and win the LPGA’s season-ending CME Group Tour Championship by four strokes over Nelly Korda.
Jutanugarn took the other two big prizes that were up for grabs, clinching the yearlong 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 honors, and finished 2018 with a 69.415 scoring average to edge Minjee Lee (69.747) for the top spot there.
Jutanugarn shot a 66 on Sunday, finishing the tournament tied for fifth at 276.
“It felt great today,” Jutanugarn said. “I’m very proud of myself.”
Jutanugarn briefly lost the lead in the projected Globe standings Sunday after Brooke Henderson made three birdies on her first seven holes to grab the top spot. Jutanugarn reclaimed the advantage with four birdies in a six-hole stretch midway through her round, and the trophy was just about clinched when she birdied the par-5 14th almost simultaneously to Henderson making bogey on the par-3 16th.
“It means so much to me because like, to be honest, after 2016, I never expected anything,” Jutanugarn said. “I feel like I achieve like too much already in my life, so I never think I can do anything more than that. So this year ... just like unbelievable.”
Thompson’s win makes this the sixth consecutive year that she has won at least once, extending the longest such active streak on the LPGA Tour.
“Golf is my life,” Thompson said. “But it is just what I do. I’m coming to realize that. Still not there some of the days because it is so much a part of my life, but it is just a sport. There is so much to life other than that, my family and my friends and just loving every bit of that and just being grateful for what I have.”
PGA Tour: Charles
Howell III made a 15-foot birdie putt on the second hole of a playoff with Stanford alum Patrick Rodgers in the RSM Classic at St. Simons Island, Ga., to end an 11-year victory drought.
Howell, after closing with a 3-under 67 — birdieing Nos. 15-17 to match Rodgers at 19-under 263 in the final PGA Tour event of the year — 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, Ga., in April to play in the Masters for the first time since 2012. European Tour: Danny Willett ended his title drought in thrilling fashion, winning the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai by two shots with a final-round 4-under 68 for an 18-under total of 270. It was the 31-year-old Englishman’s first victory since the 2016 Masters.
British Open winner Francesco Molinari finished tied for 26th to win the European Tour’s Race to Dubai season points title.