A little less than two months from now, the Tour’s best will be brought on stage during the Rolex Awards Ceremony in the nights leading up to the CME Group Tour Championship to accept the biggest end-of-year awards. With a five-event Asian swing, the Lorena Ochoa Invitational, and end-of-season finale CME Group Tour Championship left on the docket, all of the major awards are still very much in play.
Stacy Lewis swept the money list, Vare Trophy and Rolex Player of the Year awards a year ago but is currently running a distant third in each category in 2015. Quite simply, it’s been the Lydia Ko and Inbee Park show in 2015. The legend versus the phenom. Both have won majors, both have four wins, and both have passed the world No. 1 ranking back and forth all season. Ko and Park have been busy rewriting the record books, too. Ko became the youngest major champion in women’s golf history with a win at the age of 18 at the Evian Championship. She also tied Annika Sorenstam’s record of 29 consecutive rounds under par. Park, for her part, tied the lowest score ever in a major with a 19-under-par effort in her third consecutive win at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.
Ko leads Park in the Race to the CME Globe standings, which she won a year ago. Park narrowly leads Ko for the Vare Trophy, Rolex Player of the Year and money list standings. But with such a close race they are all up for grabs. Ko leads Park by just 61 points in the Race to the CME Globe standings. Park leads Ko by just $125,500 on the money list, 19 points in the Rolex Player of the Year hunt and less than a tenth of a stroke in the Vare Trophy standings.
A win by either at Sime Darby LPGA Malaysia would flip all of the awards in their favor, which is entirely possible considering when Ko or Park are in the field this year, one has taken the title 40 percent of the time. Now, with three weeks of rest between the Evian Championship and the Asian swing, both are working to prepare for the final two months of the season.
“Now I just kind of need to go back to square one, do my basic practices and work my way towards the Asia Swing,” Ko said after her win at Evian. “I'm pretty sure it's going to be a great couple weeks in Asia. I kind of have to think of this in the back of my mind, enjoy it, but also prepare for what's coming up next.”
The Rolex Rookie of the Year remains in doubt, too, with a rookie class that is as strong as any the Tour’s ever seen. Currently, five rookies sit inside the top 18 on the 2015 money list, creating the most intriguing race for the Rolex Rookie of the Year in years, maybe ever. Sei Young Kim currently leads Hyo Joo Kim by 92 points, and Kim’s ranked third in the Rolex Player of the Year standings, showing how strong of a season the rookie with two wins has had. Minjee Lee, Ha Na Jang, and Alison Lee are all within striking distance as well with seven events left but would need a strong move in the Asian swing to make noise.
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