Kelly shoots up 100 places and looks good for Olympics

Kelly Tan’s (pic) Olympic bid is gaining momentum, thanks to her fine back-to-back results on the LPGA Tour.

The 26-year-old enjoyed a steady rise in the Women’s World Golf Ranking (WWGR), with her tiedninth result at last week’s Marathon Classic lifting her 39 rungs to No. 276.

Kelly was No. 378 prior to the restart of the LPGA Tour a fortnight ago.

As the season resumed after the five-month long Covid-19 pandemic suspension, Kelly impressed by finishing tied11th at the LPGA Drive On Championship to climb to No. 315. Her career best position was No. 153 in July 2016.

If her current form is anything to go by, Kelly could improve on her position further at the Ladies Scottish Open which begins tomorrow.

It is important for Kelly to remain inside the top 400 in the next 10 months as that is the projected cutoff to qualify for the 60-woman field for the Tokyo Olympics.

The qualification period ends on June 28 next year.

Kelly is currently 51st in the International Golf Federation (IGF) Olympic rankings released on Monday, up from 54th the previous week.

Kelly is seeking her second Olympic appearance after finishing 51st in her debut at the 2016 Rio Games.

Apart from the Olympics, her decent performances have also boosted her hopes of qualifying for the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship for the first time.

Kelly’s result last week propelled her from 38th to 25th in the season-long Race to CME Globe standings.

The top 60 finishers at the end of the regular season will get to play in the Tour Championship at the Tiburon Golf Club in Florida from Dec 17-20.

The Tour Championship offers a lucrative prize purse of US$5mil (RM21mil).

As it is a no-cut event, the qualifiers are already assured of pocketing US$12,000 (RM50,300). The winner’s share is a whopping US$1.5mil (RM6.3mil).