This week the LPGA Tour calendar comes to an end and it does so already with Nelly Korda crowned with the Best Player of the Year award even before the end of a course that closes the CME Group Tour Championship. The tournament, which is held at the Tiburon Golf Club in Naples (Florida), brings together the 60 best players in the season’s points classification.
It is not just any event, but the final, where the field is cut and a financial prize is put at stake, which this year is even greater. The tournament will have a total purse of 11 million dollars, including a historic check of 4 million for whoever wins, that is, the largest individual prize in the history of women’s golf. The second will receive 1 million.
Nelly Korda is undoubtedly one of the favorites, and no wonder, since last Sunday The Annika won. Her year has been, to say the least, historic on the LPGA Tour, as this campaign she has won seven titles on this circuit, five of them in consecutive appearances. What she will not be able to win is the Vare Trophy that is awarded to the player who has the best hitting average. Jeeno Thitikul leads the classification (69.54), followed by Korda (69.66), but none of them could win the trophy because they do not reach the minimum 60 rounds due to the periods of injury they have experienced. Haeran Ryu (69.98) and Ayaka Furue (70.05) will compete.
What interests us most is the participation of Carlota Ciganda, who entered the Tour Championship as number 60 in the annual ranking. The Navarrese is now 39th in the world and last week she was 14th at The Annika. She has not finished rounding off a performance this year, but the Spaniard remains a very solid player characterized by consistency.
