Check out the best photos from the LPGA’s CME Group Tour Championship.
It all comes down to this.
The LPGA’s final event is here, as the 2023 CME Group Tour Championship kicks off Thursday in Naples, Florida, at Tiburon Golf Club. The top 60 golfers in the season-long standings will compete for a $7 million purse.
Celine Boutier and Lilia Vu enter the tournament at 1 and 2 in the standings. The course is a par-72 layout measuring 6,556 yards.
Lydia Ko won the Race to CME Globe last year and captured the CME Group Tour Championship, though she’s one of the numerous big names who is not in attendance this week.
The runner-up of next year’s event will receive $1 million. Every competitor will be awarded at least $55,000.
NAPLES, Fla. – Terry Duffy and CME and have once again raised the bar for women’s golf. Beginning in 2024, the LPGA’s season-ending CME Group Tour Championship will offer an $11 million purse and record $4 million winner’s check, the tour has announced.
The runner-up of next year’s event will receive $1 million. Every competitor in the 60-player field will be awarded at least $55,000.
In addition, CME Group has extended its sponsorship of the Tour Championship and Race to the CME Globe through 2025.
“As a long-standing supporter of women in business and sports, CME Group is pleased to continue our partnership with the LPGA to further elevate women’s golf,” CME Group Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Terry Duffy said in a release.
“Beginning next year, the CME Group Tour Championship’s $11 million purse will be the highest on the LPGA Tour, and the $4 million first-place prize will be the largest single prize in women’s sports. Both of these developments will make our event even more exciting for the players and spectators, while bringing more parity to the game.”
CME Group CEO Terry Duffy speaks to the media after announcing a two-year sponsor extension of the CME Group Tour Championship with a increased $11 million purse and record $4 million first-place prize during a news conference at The Ritz-Carlton Naples in Naples, Florida. (Photo: Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
This week marks the 10th playing of the CME Group Tour Championship at Tiburon Golf Club. The inaugural Race to the CME Globe points race was in 2014. From 2011-2013, the season-ending event was known as the CME Group Titleholders.
When CME first became a title sponsor in 2011, the purse was $1.5 million. It moved up incrementally until 2019 when it doubled from $2.5 million to $5 million, with the winner earning $1.5 million.
Duffy said back then that he wanted to be a leader. His efforts pushed the LPGA majors – the U.S. Women’s Open in particular – to a higher standard.
This year’s CME purse of $7 million – of which $2 million goes to the winner – is already larger than two LPGA majors: Amundi Evian ($6.5 million) and Chevron Championship ($5.1 million). Next year’s purse of $11 million matches that of the 2023 U.S. Women’s Open. The KPMG Women’s PGA recently upped its purse to $10 million and the AIG Women’s British checked in this year at $9 million, 23 percent higher than last year.
“CME Group has been pushing the LPGA forward at every step of our evolution since 2011,” said LPGA Commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan, “and with this extension they are once again helping take the LPGA, women’s golf and women’s sports to unprecedented heights.”
Angel Yin took a more conservative approach to the season and won big.
NAPLES, Fla. — Angel Yin took a more conservative approach to the season and won big. In addition to claiming her first LPGA title in 159 starts, she won $1 million for clinching the season-long Aon Risk Reward Challenge. Thailand’s Atthaya Thitikul finished second.
When Aon introduced the challenge in 2019, the $1 million prize became the largest single monetary prize on the LPGA. The payout is the same on the PGA Tour, where Tyrrell Hatton won.
Yin, 25, said that in previous years she’d come to a reachable hole and automatically want to go for it. This year, however, the power player has learned to embrace her wedge play.
“When you overlook the small things, it doesn’t benefit you,” said Yin. “So what I started doing is I started looking at the small things and cherishing it more and accumulating that more, and I think that’s what really helped.
“(In) Cincinnati I made an eagle. That was huge, but it wasn’t really planned for. It was really lucky. If you really think about it, eagles are (made) with a lot of luck. Birdies are more calculated. If I can just put all my money on my birdies, I can get my return.”
At the Solheim Cup in Spain, the always entertaining Yin wore sunglasses to a Team USA press conference in a nod to Deion Sanders. The LPGA marketing team presented Yin with Sanders T-shirt after her Wednesday press conference in Naples.
For Yin, who has played the past four seasons without a personal sponsor, this money gives her the ability to help others who might find themselves in similar financial situations in other business endeavors.
“I’m very blessed with a lot of people in my life that have been a lot of support,” said Yin, “but let’s just say on the financial side or other support hasn’t been as great. I feel like if I have the ability to do that, I want to be able to reach out.
“Because money makes things go around, and as much as we don’t want to talk about it, it can bring a lot of things in life and create a lot more opportunities. … We’re here for a long time, and I want to find out what my passions are in life. I want to be able to help people that haven’t been helped out.”
Angel Yin of the United States speaks with the media after winning the 2023 AON Risk Reward Challenge at Tiburon Golf Club on November 14, 2023 in Naples, Florida. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
After coming up short against Lilia Vu in a playoff at the Chevron earlier this season, Yin went head-to-head again against the current World No. 1 at the Buick LPGA Shanghai last month and came out on top.
There’s still plenty of talk about who didn’t make the field in Naples, Florida.
NAPLES, Fla. — While nine players are making their debut at this week’s CME Group Tour Championship, there’s still plenty of talk about who didn’t make the field.
Throughout the season, players earn points toward the Race to CME Globe, which is used not only to determine the field at Tiburon Golf Club but also to determine what kind of status – if any – players have for the next season.
The top 60 players and ties after The Annika driven by Gainbridge event qualified for the Tour Championship, which features a $7 million purse and $2 million payout to the winner.
“No matter what’s happened this year, obviously, it doesn’t summarize what’s happened in the past nine years.”
BELLEAIR, Fla. – Lydia Ko’s 10th season on the LPGA has come to an end. The woman who swept the postseason awards last year at the CME Group Tour Championship won’t be in the field to defend her title in Naples, Florida. The former phenom’s glorious comeback campaign flamed out in 2023.
For all the out-of-the-blue success stories on the LPGA this year, Ko’s struggles are by far the most shocking development. Winless on the LPGA this season, Ko finished 100th on the CME points list. Ko can use her winner’s status to get into plenty of events next year.
A 16-year-old Ko said at the start of her LPGA career that she wouldn’t play past the age of 30. Now a decade into a career that’s yielded 19 LPGA titles, including two majors, and more than 100 weeks at No. 1, Ko knows she’s deep into the back nine of her career. The two-time Olympic medalist (silver and bronze) wants to play for gold next summer in Paris. She also wants to qualify for the LPGA Hall of Fame. She’s two points shy of the 27 needed, which means two regular-season wins or one major title would get her there.
Did the pressure to reach the Hall get to her this year?
“I think so,” she said. “That would be a lie, I think, if you said no.”
The truth is Ko doesn’t know when she’ll call it quits. She could, as she said, win two tournaments and say, “peace out.” She could retire after the Olympics next year. She could get inspired by more success and decide to play til she’s 30.
What she does know is that she doesn’t want to come to the end and ask herself, what’s next?
“I want to have my second chapter, whatever the career may be, like, ready before I retire from competitive golf,” she said, “so that I’m not lost.”
Ko has talked to enough retired athletes to know that without a plan, an identity crisis could unfold. She wants to be prepared enough to leave the tour with a new sense of purpose. Lorena Ochoa, she said, is a role model for how to retire right.
What Ko knows for certain is that she’d like to finish the degree in psychology that she started eight years ago in South Korea. She has a year and a half left. Now married and living in California, the idea of finishing off that degree at a place like Stanford intrigues her.
There was a time when Ko wanted to study law, not because she wanted to become a lawyer, but because she found the law fascinating.
“I think some of my studies,” she said, “I could actually like completely divert into like something that I’m intrigued about more so than I’m going to make a business out of it.”
Last August at the LPGA stop in Portland, a struggling Ko got some advice from LPGA legend Juli Inkster. The Kiwi hadn’t finished in the top 10 since February, and her ball-striking was in the doldrums.
Inkster told Ko to set a goal of trying to break par every round. At that point, Ko hadn’t broken par in nine rounds on the LPGA.
“I think that really simplified it for me,” said Ko.
Lydia Ko of New Zealand reacts as she walks towards the second fairway during the final round of the 2023 BMW Ladies Championship on the Seowon Hills course at Seowon Valley Country Club in South Korea. (Photo: Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)
The next month in South Korea, ahead of the BMW Ladies Championship, Ko met with Jin Young Ko’s swing instructor, Si Woo Lee for some help. Ko played the BMW on a sponsor exemption despite being defending champion.
Lee helped her to a third-place finish in South Korea, and she followed it up with a share of 11th in Malaysia. Ko, who will partner with Jason Day at the new Grant Thornton Invitational before officially heading into the offseason, feels like she finally has some positive momentum to carry into the winter break. Prior to that, Ko felt like she was stepping in quicksand, sinking further and further away from her goals.
For all the heartache, she’s in a good place.
“No matter what’s happened this year, obviously, it doesn’t summarize what’s happened in the past nine years,” said Ko, voicing a big-picture perspective that will serve her well.
At this time last year, Ko collected three Hall of Fame points at the CME: one for her tournament victory in Naples along with two points for winning the Vare Trophy and Rolex Player of the Year. She racked up five points for the year to get to 25.
Suddenly, a lifelong goal that once felt so far away seemed within reach.
Ko, however, is quick to point out that it wasn’t that long ago that she went three years on tour without winning. And that her last major victory came seven years ago at the 2016 ANA Inspiration. She knows better than anyone that the task ahead is doable but tough.
“I can’t even remember what I was doing a week ago, let alone in 2016,” she said. “A lot of things have changed.”
Whatever happens in the coming years, Ko is certain that she won’t become a part-time player. She won’t hang on or hang around if her heart doesn’t want to give 100 percent.
“If I’m doing it,” she said, “I want to do it properly. And I want to do without regrets.”
Here are 10 players on the bubble heading down the final stretch.
Only three events remain on the LPGA schedule before the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship, and there are some big-name players sitting on the outside. The top 60 players on the Race to CME Globe points list will qualify for the season finale in Naples, Florida, Nov. 16-19, where anyone in the field can win the top prize in women’s golf of $2 million.
This week’s Maybank Championship in Malaysia has a field of 78 players with no cut. A victory is worth 500 points, and a 10th-place finish garners 75. The Toto Japan Classic in early November is another no-cut event, which means that like the Maybank, every LPGA player in the field will earn CME points, should she complete all four rounds.
The Annika driven by Gainbridge at Pelican is the final event before the CME points list is finalized on Nov. 12.
Here are 10 players on the bubble heading down the final stretch:
Tiburon Golf Club is in the midst of a busy four-month stretch.
Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Florida, is in the midst of a busy four-month stretch.
The Greg Norman-designed course hosted the LPGA’s CME Group Tour Championship last month. This week, it hosts the QBE Shootout, an unofficial event on the PGA Tour schedule. The tournament features 12 teams of two golfers playing 54 holes in a scramble, modified alternate shot and four-ball format. The CME and the QBE are played on Tiburon’s Golf course.
Come February, Tiburon will host the PGA Tour Champions with the Chubb Classic, which will be on the Black course.
Tiburon is the only golf facility to host LPGA, PGA Tour Champions and PGA Tour-sanctioned tournaments.
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“Our team is honored to once again have the privilege to host these three professional events in such a short period of time,” Tiburon general manager Kevin DeDonato said in a release. “As our area recovers from the impact of Hurricane Ian, we are very proud to showcase the resiliency this market has in pressing forward. Our entire team at Tiburon is grateful for the support we receive from all of our partners and we look forward for three successful events.”
Lydia Ko won the CME Group Tour Championship last month. She also locked up the Vare Trophy for lowest scoring average and Rolex Player of the Year.
The QBE Shootout begins Friday with the scramble portion. Saturday is alternate shot, and Sunday is four-ball. Two LPGA stars, Nelly Korda and Lexi Thompson, are in the field, along with 22 men’s professionals.
The Chubb Classic’s 36th anniversary is in 2023, and it will be the third straight year the event is played at Tiburon. Bernhard Langer is expected to return to defend his 2022 title against many of the game’s biggest names, including Jim Furyk, Ernie Els, Jerry Kelly and many others.
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Despite playing some of the best golf since she broke onto the LPGA nearly 10 years ago, Lydia Ko still had to confront her most vocal critic throughout the year … her mom, Tina.
“My mom does joke to me at times,” Ko said before playing Sunday’s final round at the CME Group Tour Championship. “She’s, like, ‘You played so much better when you were, like, 15.’
“I was, like, ‘Thanks, Mom. What am I meant to do with that information?’ ”
Perhaps take it and prove her wrong?
Because that’s just what the 25-year-old from New Zealand did at the final event of the LPGA season.
Ko capped a comeback year by winning the CME Group Tour Championship at Tiburon Golf Club and the $2 million first-place prize money. The win was her third this season and her 14th top 10.
And just in case mom is not paying attention, Ko may have to build a new case in her Orlando home just for the hardware she took home Sunday.
Aside from the glass globe for Sunday’s win, she adds the Rolex Player of the Year trophy for the second time in her career and the Vare Trophy – a silver bowl that goes to the golfer with the low season-long scoring average – for the second consecutive year.
Now will mom give her some credit?
“Oh, hell no,” she said. “I’m like 5 in my mom’s eyes.”
But Ko would not have it any other way. She credits her mom for keeping her “super grounded,” like when she asked about one shot Sunday, her worst of the day.
“Remember that thing you hit on 14 and it went in the water?” her mom said. “I was like, yes, thanks mom.”
The significance of Ko’s reward for shooting 2-under 70 and finishing the weekend 17-under par, two shots better then Ireland’s Leona Maguire, cannot be understated.
Big check for Ko, bigger checks to come on LPGA Tour
Commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan announced the tour will distribute more than $100 million in prize money for the first time next season.
And although Ko’s final earnings for the season, $4,364,403, falls $591 short of the record set by Lorena Ochoa in 2007, she moves into the fifth spot in career earnings with just less than $16.7 million.
Two more years close to what she’s done in 2022 and Ko will pass Annika Sorenstam as the career money leader in women’s golf.
Ko’s season was highlighted by bookend wins at the Gainbridge LPGA in Boca Raton and the Tour Championship. Her other victory was at the BMW Ladies Championship in South Korea, which was as special as any win in her career coming in her native country.
“A bucket list thing,” she said.
This is her first multiple win season since 2016, the year after she became the youngest golfer, man or woman, to reach No. 1 in the world. She was 17.
“This year has been special,” she said.
Ko and Maguire started the cool, damp, windy day at 15-under, five shots ahead of the field. Maguire was one shot clear of Ko twice in the first seven holes before a birdie on the par-3 No. 8 gave Ko a lead she never relinquished
Birdies on 16 and 17 sealed the win.
“I wanted to not set too high expectations,” Ko said. “I want to end the season on a high, but know that whatever happens, and even though there’s a lot of things on the line, just know that it’s been a great season.”
Even mom can agree.
“She might be one of my toughest critics but I know that she wants me to just keep growing,” Ko said. “I should say ‘thank you’ more often, but I don’t end up saying that. It’s easier to say it when she’s not here, but I have to thank her because she does everything for me.”
NAPLES, Fla. – Tears welled up in Lydia Ko’s eyes on the 18th green Sunday as she wrapped up a monumental comeback season. Soon after, she wrapped her arms around a tall, slender man wearing black and khaki, who wiped tears of his own. This marked the first time Jun Chung had seen his soon-to-be-bride win in person. Most of their golf together is casual, with dinner on the line or a fun dare.
Chung, son of Ted Chung, vice chairman and CEO, Hyundai Card, Hyundai Commercial, works in finance for Hyundai and has a home in San Francisco. Because of the pandemic, they were pen pals for six months before meeting for the first time. Shortly after, Ko broke a three-year victory drought in Hawaii. Friends started calling him her good-luck charm. His presence in her life, however, brought a lot more than luck.
Ko’s older sister and manager, Sura, said that she could tell a significant difference in Lydia after Jun came into her life.
“Since she met him,” said Sura, “she finds her own peace.”
That peace translated to bona fide comeback season, with Ko winning for a third time on the LPGA in 2022 at the CME Group Tour Championship, collecting her second Rolex LPGA Player of the Year Award and second Vare Trophy for lowest scoring average in the process.
And, after a record $2 million payday at the CME Group Tour Championship, she also clinches the LPGA money title with $4,364,404. That’s $591 shy of Lorena Ochoa’s all-time record in a single season.
“He puts a smile on my face,” said Ko, now a 19-time winner on the LPGA. The couple will marry Dec. 30 in Seoul.
Ko came into the final round tied at 15 under with Leona Maguire, five shots clear of the field. Maguire took the lead early as Ko bogeyed the first hole on a blustery, overcast day at Tiburon Golf Club.
By the time they made the turn, the standing had flipped, with Ko on top by a stroke. After both made shocking bogeys on the par-5 14th, with each finding the hazard, other players popped into the conversation. As Anna Nordqvist posted a final-round 67 to get to the clubhouse at 14 under, Ko hit the gas, making birdies on Nos. 16 and 17 to pull two clear of the field. She closed with a 70 to finish at 17 under.
“Lydia is a class act,” said Maguire. “She always is. She was really steady, really solid. She obviously putts phenomenally well, so any time she got a chance, she took it, and that’s what you have to do.”
Lydia Ko poses for a photo with the Vare Trophy, the Rolex Player of the Year trophy and the CME Globe trophy after winning the CME Group Tour Championship at Tiburon Golf Club on November 20, 2022 in Naples, Florida. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
Chung played tennis in high school and took up golf during the pandemic. He admits having to Google Ko’s career in those early stages of their relationship. Their favorite thing to do together is play golf. He carries his bag; she uses a push cart. They play Lake Nona in Orlando, Florida, where Ko has a home, and around California.
“I try to make it entertaining for her,” Chung said with a smile.
Ko’s instructor, Ted Oh, said the most impressive thing about the former phenom is her relentless work ethic. They’ll have day-long practice sessions together in San Francisco, and then Ko will head to the gym at night.
“People just don’t know the behind-the-scenes stuff she does,” said Oh. “It’s crazy.”
Chung, who flew into Naples on Saturday, agrees.
“Sometimes it’s really annoying because it makes you feel so bad,” he said, laughing. “She just won’t sit down and take a breather, but it’s really inspiring to see her.”
From Ko’s point of view, the balance in her life has never been better. For a while, she said, her identity felt so connected to her score. Chung has given her a new perspective of golf and life, knowing that her performance has no bearing on how Chung perceives her. Though she really did want to win this one with him by her side.
“After meeting him,” said Ko, “I’ve actually wanted to like work harder during the times that I am working. And then also enjoy, you know, time off. And I think I probably had a few more breaks than I did like two, three years ago, but I think that’s just only helped me to be more focused and be more on when I’m actually doing my work.”
After Ko won at the BMW Ladies Championship in South Korea last month, she broke down bawling when she phoned Chung, wanting nothing more than to celebrate that special moment with him. She’s always dreamed on winning on South Korean soil.
“I think he motivates and inspires me to become a better person and a better player,” she said.
Lydia Ko poses for a photo with her family, and the Vare Trophy, the Rolex Player of the Year trophy and the CME Globe trophy after winning the CME Group Tour Championship at Tiburon Golf Club on November 20, 2022 in Naples, Florida. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
With Sunday’s triumphs, Ko, 25, moves within two points of the 27 needed to qualify for the LPGA Hall of Fame. The youngest player to qualify for the Hall is Inbee Park, who was 27 back in 2016.
Ko said earlier this week that she wouldn’t hang around to chase one Hall of Fame point if she knew it was time to leave the game. From the moment she turned pro, Ko has said that she won’t play past the age of 30. Sura believes that if her sister gets to 27 points, she might start to shut it down soon after.
Competing in the 2024 Olympics in Paris, however, is high on the priority list. Should she win two more points before Paris, Sura said her sister would press to play in one final Olympics.
“She wants to do so many things after golf,” said Sura. “She said she wanted to be an interior designer at some point. I’m like, you’re not from the arts.”
The first thing Oh noticed when he started working with Ko earlier this season was how much more relaxed she seemed. Chung is a kind, easygoing fellow, who is quick to laugh and stay in the background. Sura said they often mirror each other.
“Nothing is going to change too much next year,” said Chung, standing on the back of the 18th green, away from the cameras. “She’s going to keep playing. I don’t want to interfere with that. I want her to give all she’s got for the time she has left.”
The 2022 LPGA season finale featured the largest first-place paycheck in women’s golf history.
Another record payday in women’s golf took place at the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship.
Lydia Ko took home the $2 million first-place prize, moving her to fifth on the career money list, passing Suzann Pettersen ($14,837,579) and Lorena Ochoa ($14,863,331) with $16,695,357 in official earnings. She has won $4,364,403 total this season.
Lorena Ochoa still owns the single-season earnings record of $4,364,994, 2007, just $591 more than Ko in 2022.
Seven-figure checks remain rare in women’s golf. This year, seven will be handed out, though the Aon Risk Reward Challenge $1 million prize is unofficial money. Minjee Lee won both the $1.8 million winner’s check at the U.S. Women’s Open and Aon race this year.
