One shot in either direction for Lydia Ko or Inbee Park could make a season’s worth of difference this week at the CME Group Tour Championship, the finale for the 2015 season. The duo has won five times each and jockeyed between first and second on the top season-ending awards categories for most of the year.
The two are scheduled to be paired together in the first round on Thursday and will receive numerous comparisons all week. Here are a number of them:
| CATEGORY | KO | PARK | DIFFERENCE | NOTEWORTHY |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Race to the CME Globe | 5,000 | 4,500 | 500 | Ko is the No. 1 seed and Park No. 2, but No. 3 Stacy Lewis could win it all with a win, much like Ko did in 2014. *-A points reset gives Ko a 500-point lead entering this week. |
| Rolex Rankings | 12.40 | 12.31 | .09 | Ko has been No. 1 for four weeks, but low player this week is No. 1. |
| Stroke Average | 69.449 | 69.433 | .016 | Ko must score two strokes lower than Park to overtake first place after leading the category entering the Lorena Ochoa Invitational. |
| Player of Year | 276 | 273 | 3 points | Ko leads, but points are awarded for top-10 finishes this week (30, 12, 9, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, respectively, for positions 1-10). Park needs a minimum of an eight-place finish to tie if Ko doesn’t post a top-10. |
| Earnings | $2,758,417 | $2,570,096 | $188,321 | Ko leads, but there’s a $500,000 first-place prize this week. |
| Driving Distance | 250.26 (64) | 248.15 (76) | NA | Neither player has ever finished in the top 10 in this category. |
| Driving Accuracy | 74.6% (48) | 76.40% (33) | NA | Once again, not near the top but both always among the most accurate. |
| Greens in Regulation | 76.8% (2) | 74.6% (6) | NA | Six years ago, Park ranked 138th in this category. |
| Putting Avg. | 29.36 (18) | 29.1 (12) | NA | Park has finished first in the category twice (2009, 2012). |
Park’s Hall of Fame credentials
Inbee Park is only one point and one year away from eligibility for the LPGA Hall of Fame. With last week’s victory in Mexico, Park has accumulated 26 of a necessary 27 points to earn the career honor. She has three avenues this week to gain that final point – a victory in Naples, earning the Rolex Player of the Year honor or the Vare Trophy for scoring average. In her ninth year on the LPGA, the 27-year-old South Korean must also be an active member for 10 years, which she will meet in 2016. Induction in the World Golf Hall of Fame, a separate entity, requires a minimum age of 40 to be inducted, so Park will assuredly get in but would have to wait 13 years to be formally inducted.
Also, Park is now on the cusp of being the highest earning South Korean-born golfer. She has won $12,521,080 in her career, eighth all time, and just $42,579 behind No. 7 Se Ri Pak.
CME Group field stats
A look at some of the statistics and facts about this week’s field:
- 2: Rookie Sei Young Kim has won three times this year and she has a chance to complete a rare statistical double. She is tied for first in birdies this season with Stacy Lewis (393) and leads the LPGA in eagles (14), with two players three back at 11.
- 18: The 71-player field includes players from 18 countries, led by the United States (24) and South Korea (17). The other countries include Australia, Canada, China, Colombia, England, France, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand and The Philippines.
- 26: The average age of the field is 27. The youngest competitor is 18-year-old Canadian Brooke Henderson, who is 4 ½ months younger than Lydia Ko, and there are five teenagers playing this week. The oldest participant this week is Scotland’s Catriona Matthew, 46.
- 31: Chella Choi will be making her 31st start of the season this week, the only player to participate in all of the tournaments. This week will mark her 138th of 139 LPGA events over the last five seasons. Despite her consecutive streak of tournaments, Mi Hyang Lee has played the most rounds, 106, as she has made 28 starts and missed only two cuts in 2015.
- .770: Lexi Thompson leads the Greens in Regulation category, but barely. Lydia Ko is second at .768.
- 89.6: Mo Martin continues to establish Driving Accuracy marks that may be difficult to top. Martin leads the LPGA by hitting 89.6 percent of the fairways this season, far ahead of the all-time mark, established by Mika Miyazato (86.2 percent) in 2011. That was the year before Martin debuted on the LPGA. Since 2012, Martin has finished third, first, first and is all but assured of finishing first again this season. In four seasons on the LPGA, Martin has hit 86.6 percent of her fairways in competition.
Etc.
This week’s TV: 4-6:30 p.m., EST Thursday-Saturday on the Golf Channel (tape) and 2-4 p.m., Sunday live on ABC. … Kris Tamulis missed getting into the CME Group Tour Championship last year by four points after finishing 70th on the LPGA money list. The Naples resident won this year to get in. This year, Mi Jung Hur finished 72nd on the money list but 73rd in points, one behind Min Lee. … Carlota Ciganda was the runner-up to Inbee Park last week in Mexico. This week, she returns to Naples where she was in a playoff with Julieta Granada and Lydia Ko before Ko won. … The 71-player field includes the top 72 and ties from the Race to the CME Globe points race and those who have won during the season outside of that and non-members who have won. Brooke Henderson, 18, qualified as a non-member winner. … Nine of the top 10 players in the Rolex Women’s World Rankings are entered. South Korea’s In Gee Chun, ranked ninth, the U.S. Women’s Open champion and a LPGA non-member, is not playing. The field also has 21 of the world’s top 25 players from the rankings, missing only non-LPGA members. The LPGA money list is represented by all of the top 20 and 48 of the top 50, with South Africa’s Leigh-Anne Pace and Japan’s Sakura Yokomine opting not to play. … The 2015 season began Jan. 28 at the Coates Golf Championship in Ocala, Fla., and ends 200 miles south of that in Naples. California has the most LPGA events, with three.
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