LPGA race for No. 1 goes down to wire
Ko, Jutanugarn chase the tour points title and $1 million bonus
By Lydia Ko’s standards, this is a major slump.
She hasn’t won in nine starts since mid-July, her best finish being a silver medal at the Rio Olympics. She hasn’t been among the top 10 in any of her past five starts and wasn’t even in the top 40 in three of those.
Despite all that, all the big prizes — player of the year, money title, scoring title and the yearlong points chase called the Race to the CME Globe and the $1 million bonus — are well within Ko’s reach this week. The LPGA Tour season wraps up with the CME Group Tour Championship that starts Thursday in Naples, Florida, when Ariya Jutanugarn and Ko will basically go head to head for year-end honors.
“Obviously, I’m not coming into this week with the greatest form,” said Ko, who won the Globe in its inaugural season in 2014 and retained it last year. “But I still feel like it’s been a season where I’m really proud of it. For me to be in this position, to have an opportunity to go for the Globe again — and all the other things — it’s a pretty cool position to be in.”
Only a win this week would be enough to give Ko her second straight player-of-the-year award; any other result, and that title goes to Jutanugarn. They come in separated by $17,305 in the money standings, and Ko (69.611) enters with a minuscule edge over In Gee Chun (69.632) for the Vare Trophy presented to the player with the lowest scoring average.
“It would be a pretty special Sunday,” Ko said.
It’s probably going to be anyway, whether that’s the case for Ko or someone else. The LPGA got a dream scenario last season, when all the trophies were decided in the final holes on the final day.
“I’m not going to be nervous,” Jutanugarn said.
The points in the CME Globe standings reset for the final week, so Jutanugarn, Ko and Brooke Henderson all truly control their destinies when it comes to the $1 million bonus. Win this week, and the Globe is hers.
“Going into this year it was a big goal of mine to be in the top three and give myself a great opportunity in the final event of the year,” Henderson said. “I’m really looking forward to it. I know it’ll be a tough week, a tough four rounds, but I know if I get off to a fast start and am able to play my game, maybe good things will happen.”
Jutanugarn turns 21 next week. Still, she’s the elder stateswoman among the three who arrived in Naples this week with the most realistic chances of hoisting the CME Globe on Sunday. Ko, who has been the world’s No. 1 player for more than a year and will remain there for the foreseeable future, is 19. Henderson turned 19 in September.
McIlroy concedes crown: Rory McIlroy is resigned to losing his Race to Dubai crown, but his motivation this week is to successfully defend his DP World Tour Championship title in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and move one step closer to regaining the world No. 1 ranking. McIlroy could have replaced Jason Day atop the rankings by winning the European Tour’s seasonending tournament, but Russell Knox’s decision to withdraw last week reduced the strength of the field and lowered the number of points available. If Knox, ranked No. 18, had remained in the field, the winner of the tournament would have gained 54 points — enough for McIlroy to surpass Day. Instead, the winner will earn just 52 points, leaving McIlroy short even with a victory. McIlroy acknowledged that he can finish the season atop the European Tour rankings, but knows it’s unlikely. He must win and needs Henrik Stenson, Danny Willett and Alex Noren, each above him in the Race to Dubai standings, to struggle.
European Tour changes: The European Tour announced that it will group at least seven of its marquee events together as the Rolex Series and will be scrapping the Final Series format beginning with the 2017 season. The BMW PGA Championship, the Irish Open, the Scottish Open and the Italian Open will join the three Final Series events — the Turkish Airlines Open, the Nedbank Golf Challenge and the season-ending DP World Tour Championship — as part of the new schedule. The Race to Dubai, formerly known as the Order of Merit, will be retained. Each of the seven events will have a prize purse of at least $7 million.