Ko wins LPGA finale to earn record $2M payout
Lydia Ko NAPLES, FLA. — never won more in one day than on Sunday in the CME Group Tour Championship, where she claimed the richest prize in women’s golf at $2 million with a victory that allowed her to win LPGA player of the year.
Ko outlasted Leona Maguire of Ireland in the final round, seizing control with a 7-foot birdie putt on the 16th hole and closing with 2-under 70 for a two-shot victory.
Unflappable in a strong but occasional wind, Ko wiped away tears when she tapped in for par on the final at Tiburon Golf Club.
“There was a lot of things on the line today,” Ko said. “I really wanted to play the best golf I can. I knew it would be a tough battle, especially with how tough the conditions were.”
The $2 million prize took her season earnings to just over $4.3 million, leaving her $591 short of the Lorena Ochoa’s record for single-season earnings set in 2007. Ko clinched the points-based award for LPGA player of the year for the second time, and she won the Vare Trophy for the second straight year for having the lowest scoring average.
Player of the year and the Vare Trophy are each worth one point, along with the victory, giving her 25 points toward the 27 points needed for the LPGA Hall of Fame.
The 25-year-old Kiwi, tied with Maguire at the start of the final round, took her first lead with a birdie on the par-3 eighth hole. Ko still led by one shot when she hit her tee shot just short of the flag on the par-3 16th and made the 7-foot birdie putt.
Ko two-putted from 25 feet for birdie on the par-5 17th to keep her lead at two shots going to the final hole, and she played it safe from there.
Ko finished at 17-under 271 and won the LPGA Tour finale for the second time. Her first title in the CME
Group Tour Championship was in 2014 when she was 17 and already becoming a dominant figure in women’s golf.
Ko is on the verge of the LPGA Hall of Fame at age 25, a testament to how good she has been for so long.
She ends the year with three victories — her first multiple-win season since 2016 — and had nine other finishes in the top five.
McIlroy clinches Race to Dubai title
Another year without a major was no less special for Rory McIlroy, who finished Sunday as Europe’s top-ranked golfer for the fourth time and became only the second player to capture season titles on the PGA Tour and European tour.
Jon Rahm felt the same way.
Rahm opened with three straight birdies on his way to a 5-under 67 to win the DP World Tour Championship for the third time, by two shots over England’s Tyrrell Hatton and Sweden’s Alex Noren.
“Hopefully, people can stop telling me that it was a bad year,” Rahm said. “Three wins worldwide, three wins in three different continents. Yeah, it wasn’t a major championship, but it’s still a really, really good season.”
Rahm also won the Mexican Open on the PGA Tour and the Spanish Open to go along with the European tour’s season finale that came with a $3 million prize.
He finished on 20-under 268 at Jumeirah Golf Estates.
McIlroy now has gone eight years since his last major — he finished in the top 8 in all four majors this year — but won the FedEx Cup and its $18 million bonus, along with the Canadian Open and the CJ Cup in South Carolina.
Along the way, he returned to No. 1 in the world.
“I think my goal has been to just become a more complete golfer and I feel like I’m on the journey to doing that,” McIlroy said. “