Three big winners at LPGA finale
After Mother Nature tried to crash the party, Lydia Ko, Inbee Park and Cristie Kerr did plenty of celebrating Sunday.
Overnight storms and heavy early-morning rain prompted a delay to the final round of the CME Group Tour Championship and saturated Tiburon Golf Club, but then drama replaced the departing clouds, as so much was at stake over the final 18 holes of the season.
And after 10 months and 31 tournaments played over 15 countries, the LPGA tour’s biggest season-ending awards, the $1 million bonus for the Race to the CME Globe and the win in the final event were still in doubt with two holes to play.
But after a wild, serious game of musical chairs that finished under brilliant sunshine, Ko added to her list of youngest to do this and do that, Park qualified for the LPGA Hall of Fame and Kerr reminded everyone the ball doesn’t know your age as she, at 38, won the Tour Championship.
Ko, on the other hand, is still a teen but won the $1 million bonus for the second consecutive year and remained No. 1 in the world. At 18, she became the youngest to win Rolex player of the year honors and the money title; she already was the youngest to win on tour, the youngest to win a major and the youngest No. 1.
“Oh yeah,” Ko said as a glass box filled with $1 million in cash was handed to her. She tied for seventh. “At the start of the week, I would say the biggest trophy that would mean a lot to me would be the player of the year. And it was so emotional to win because my team is here.
“I think the great thing is we’ve got three different winners. Who would have known that there would be three winners at the end of the week?”
Winner No. 2 was world No. 2 Park, who won the Vare Trophy for lowest scoring average; she and Ko each won five titles this year. Winning the Vare Trophy gave Park the last of the 27 points she needed to earn entry into the LPGA Hall of Fame. She is 27.
“The Hall of Fame was really on my mind all this week,” said Park, who fell two shots short of winning the $1 million. “Going into the Hall of Fame is something I’ve been dreaming of all of my life.”
Winner No. 3 was Kerr, who made a 35-footer for birdie on the 15th and a 12-footer for eagle on the 17th to highlight the 18th title of her career. With a 2-foot par putt on the final hole, she finished with a 4-under-par 68 to beat Ha Na Jang (69) and Gerina Piller (67) by one shot.