The biggest prize money for first place in women’s golf was at stake at the CME Group Tour Championship on Sunday, with the last standing woman raising $ 1.5 million for winning the LPGA season finale with no cut and limited field. And if that last woman was either Nelly Korda or Jin Young Ko, the world’s No. 1 and No. 2 golfer, she would also claim the LPGA’s Rolex Player of the Year Award.
Turns out it was Ko who played a remarkable final 18 holes to wrap up a formidable 2021 season at the Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Florida, beating Nasa Hataoka.
With her fifth title of the year and the twelfth of her LPGA career, Ko has delivered a performance that was simply mind-boggling given the circumstances. The 26-year-old South Korean had been nursing a left wrist injury all week that prevented her from hitting a single practice ball on the driving range all week. Somehow, the tournament’s defending champion managed to hit her last 63 green greens in the rule
Korda meanwhile has put together an impressive round, shooting a three under 69 only to end six shots back. Suffice it to say, there wasn’t much she could do to keep up with Ko.
The total prize pool this week is $ 5 million, which is impressive, but will climb to $ 7 million in 2022 (with the winner making $ 2 million). That’s how much every player in the field will earn this week. We’ll be updating the list after Sunday’s goal to include the names of the players who played and how much they won.
Win: Jin Young Ko, -23, $ 1,500,000
2: Nasa Hataoka, -21, $ 480,000
T-3: Mina Harigae, -18, $ 268,657
T-3: Mina Harigae, -18, $ 268,657
T-5: Megan Khang, -17, $ 145,041.33
T-5: Minjee Lee, -17, $ 145,041.33
T-5: Nelly Korda, -17, $ 145,041.33