World No 1 Jin Young Ko ends 2020 season on high note

When she woke up Monday morning for the final round of the U.S. Women’s Open, Jin Young Ko wasn’t even in the CME Group Tour Championship field. 

Following a blistering 6-under 66 today, the No. 1 player in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings captured a five-stroke victory and earned the title of Race to the CME Globe champion. With the victory comes a $1.1 million check, the largest single prize in women’s golf this season.

 

Ko finished atop the leaderboard at -18 overall, one off the tournament scoring record, with fellow major winners Hannah Green and Sei Young Kim finishing tied for second at -13.

 

“I still can't believe it, that I am here. And then I won this tournament,” said an incredulous Ko, who earned a berth in the championship by virtue of her runner-up finish at the U.S. Women’s Open. “I want to thank God. He makes my plan. Not me. I did nothing. He makes everything, so I just want to thank God and I can't believe right now.”

 

Although Ko started the day trailing Kim by one stroke, she quickly joined her countrywoman at the top with a birdie at No. 1. Still knotted after nine holes, Ko charged home on the back nine with five birdies, including a perfectly paced 10-foot birdie on No. 18 that sealed the win. With the lucrative prize now in her pocket, Ko already knows the major purchase that is first on her wish list.

 

“I looked (at a) house in the States until this morning because I had no money in my bank account because I send to Korea all my money,” said Ko, who is eyeing a house in Frisco, Texas, near her good friend M.J. Hur. “So, I needed money for buy the house. But, yeah, I can buy house right now.”

 

With her second-place finish, Kim captured 2020 Rolex Player of the Year honors by six points over 2013 winner Inbee Park. It was more than a worthy consolation prize for Kim, who shot an even-par 72 on Sunday to fall short of her third title of the season.

 

“I'm little disappointed I couldn't play well today, but I finish normal,” said Kim. “But very happy I got the Player of the Year. It's really awesome. And then, yeah, I'm very proud of her win this tournament.”

 

On her 24th birthday, Green made a good run at earning perhaps the best of all possible birthday presents. While not enough to take the title, a bogey-free 67 did earn the Australian major champion her only top-10 finish of the season. With a two-week quarantine ahead of her in order to return home to Perth, Green is more than happy to finish the season on a high note.

 

“Felt like I did some good work through quarantine with my coach. Gained some distance, so that really was nice to actually come out and see it in a tournament,” said Green. “I wish there was an event next week because I finally feel like everything is coming together, but then again, I want to go back to Australia.”

 

Mina Harigae and Lydia Ko played alongside Green on Sunday, with the entire group returning bogey-free rounds. Harigae finished in solo fourth at -12, while Ko and Lexi Thompson tied for fifth at -11.

 

Danielle Kang, a two-time winner in 2020, finished with the season with a scoring average of 70.082 to claim the Vare Trophy, awarded to the player with the season’s lowest scoring average. Kang tied for 30th at –3 overall.

Thai No 1 Ariya Jutanugarn enjoyed an unbelmished round of a 67 and a total 8 under-par-280 to share the 10th spot along side Anna Nordqvist and Cristie Kerr. 

 

KO CLAIMS 2020 OFFICIAL MONEY TITLE

Across four events played this season, World No. 1 Jin Young Ko secured the 2020 Official Money Title. With her win at Tiburon Golf Club, Ko earned a $1.1 million winner’s prize, for a total of $1,667,925 earned this season. Aside from her win, Ko earned $9,106 with her T34 finish at the Pelican Women’s Championship, $71,553 with her fifth-place result at the Volunteers of America Classic and $487,286 from her second-place performance at the U.S. Women’s Open.

 

In 2019, Ko also claimed the Official Money Title, earning $2,773,894 thanks, in large part, to four wins that included major championship victories at the ANA Inspiration and The Evian Championship.

 

SEI YOUNG KIM WINS ROLEX PLAYER OF THE YEAR

With her T2 finish at the CME Group Tour Championship, Sei Young Kim is the 2020 Rolex Player of the Year. Kim earned 118 points with two wins this season at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and the Pelican Women’s Championship presented by DEX Imaging and Konica Minolta, and captured three additional top-10 finishes at the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions (T7), Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio (5th) and Walmart NW Arkansas Championship presented by P&G (T5).

 

“It feels great. I'm very proud of it. Yeah, it's great because me and Paul, we working hard and we been great this year,” said Kim, who was named the Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year in 2015. “I'm very thankful to all who is around me, like parents and then my coach and my trainer, Mr. Moon, and yeah, my family. Yeah, I'm very thankful to all of them.”

 

Inbee Park came in second to Kim in the Rolex Player of the Year standings, earning 112 points. In 2020, Park won the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open and finished the year with seven additional top-10 results in 13 events, including three runner-up performances at the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions, KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and Volunteers of America Classic. Danielle Kang was third in points with 87, after two wins at the LPGA Drive On Championship – Inverness Club and Marathon LPGA Classic presented by Dana along with three additional top-10s across her 13 starts.

 

The prestigious Rolex Player of the Year award was introduced to the LPGA in 1966. LPGA Tour players are awarded points at each official LPGA tournament based on top-10 finishes with the top points earner taking home the prestigious honor each year. Points are doubled at each of the LPGA's five major championships - ANA Inspiration, KPMG Women's PGA Championship, U.S. Women's Open, AIG Women's Open and the Evian Championship.

 

DANIELLE KANG WINS THE 2020 VARE TROPHY

With rounds of 71-75-70-69 at the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship, Danielle Kang etched her name in the LPGA Tour history books with a scoring average of 70.082 to win the 2020 Vare Trophy.

“At the end of the round, I looked at my caddie and said, ‘We won the Vare.’ That is an accomplishment in all cases,” said Kang, who hit 13 of 14 fairways today and 14 greens in regulation. “This one feels like a really good mark in my career, that I was able to do it and accomplished it. I can look back on the 2020 season and at the Vare Trophy, and that’s part of it.

“To be part of the legends [list to win the Vare Trophy], I just want to make them proud moving forward as well, because they left this game for us and they left this stage for us, and I wish that I can do that for the future.”

 

Earlier in the week, Kang also pledged $1,000 for every birdie she made during tournament action to St. Jude Children’s Hospital, a proud partner of the LPGA Tour. Thanks to 16 birdies at Tiburón Golf Club, Kang raised $16,000 on her own, while donations through her online platform are nearing $15,000 with time still left to donate.

“I always like to say give when you can. I was really inspired by how Mary Browder spoke about St. Jude and I was very appreciative of CME to host the event,” Kang said. “We have to appreciate that. With all that said, being able to play for something and knowing that we can make a difference, no matter how I finished I am personally donating $16,000. Plus all the people that were involved in the pledge account [online], really thankful.”

 

IF THERE WAS A TROPHY FOR MOST BOGEY-FREE ROUNDS, IT WOULD GO TO MINA HARIGAE

On a day with so many awards and trophies to hand out, including the CME Group Championship trophy and Rolex Player of the Year Award, another shoutout goes to 11-year LPGA Tour veteran Mina Harigae, who didn’t record a bogey since the first round on Thursday. In sum, Harigae recorded two bogeys, 14 birdies, and 60 pars throughout the four days, leaving her with an overall score of -12.

 

“For the most part I was hitting the ball really solid. I think maybe the last two days I hit a lot of greens so I only had to try to get up and down a few times,” said Harigae. “When I missed the green my short game saved me and I made a couple good par putts and couple good chips. Yeah, just everything felt good.”

 

Speaking modestly, the American-Japanese player hit 56 of 72 greens in regulation and 51 of 56 fairways with luck having nothing to do with it. It was all of Harigae’s hard work since the summer of 2019.

 

“It feels like a long time. Honestly I think the process started probably like a year and a half ago. Even like January, February I was still working on a lot of things, so the break actually helped my game a lot. Once we started, I was like a whole new person,” said Harigae.

 

JIN YOUNG KO A WHITE KNIGHT TO CAP OFF 2020

It has been hard to look forward. Planning past tomorrow in 2020 has seemed like an exercise in frustration and futility. Where are we going? What is Plan B? And then, when summer slipped to fall and fall into a disheartening winter, the questions became darker. What are we doing? What is the point?

 

Through it all, golf has been a respite, a light, an oasis in a desert of despair. From the first Drive On Championship at Inverness Club to the CME Group Tour Championship the week before Christmas, the LPGA Tour did its part to add some normalcy to the abnormal. Players like Danielle Kang, Sei Young Kim, Stacy Lewis and Angela Stanford gave us a reason to cheer, a reason to breathe, a north star on which to set our bearings in what often seemed like an unbearable time.  

 

The fact that Jin Young Ko would win the CME Group Tour Championship in just her fourth start of the year and become the only player since the LPGA began keeping statistics to win the season-long money title in just a tick over a month is the perfect metaphor for 2020. Ko couldn’t plan for this week. She didn’t know until last Monday that she was in the field. She had to finish fourth or better at the U.S. Women’s Open to qualify. In the frigid north winds of Houston, Ko shot a closing 68 to finish tied for second.

 

A week later, she rolled in a 10-foot putt on the final green at Tiburon Golf Club – her fifth birdie in seven holes – to shoot 66 and put the perfect capstone on the year. Dressed in what has become her traditional Sunday white, Ko blew a kiss to the sky to cap off her five-shot victory.

 

She is a white knight for a black time.