Click here for complete groups and tee times for the opening round of CME Group Tour Championship.
Mirim Lee, Gerina Piller, Brittany Lang
Group 13 – 1st Tee – 9:46 a.m.
Mirim Lee, Gerina Piller and Brittany Lang are grouped together in the opening round of the season’s final event. All players are grouped on Thursday according to their position in the Race to the CME Globe point standings. This group sits outside the top-9 are are unable to mathematically have a chance of winning the $1 million dollar prize, but all have a shot at winning the CME Group Tour Championship. Lee is coming off a T-37 finish in her last start in Malaysia and will look to crack the top-20 in this event for the first time this week. Piller, on the other hand, plays well at the end of the season and has twice finished runner-up at the final event of the year including last season. A win this week would be a first for Piller. Reigning U.S. Women’s Open champion, Lang, is the final member of this group. She’s coming off a T-27 finish in her last start at the TOTO Japan Classic. She’s had mixed success in this event where she finished T-32 last season but cracked the top-10 in 2014.
Stacy Lewis, So Yeon Ryu, Lexi Thompson
Group 15 – 1st Tee – 9:57 a.m.
Stacy Lewis, So Yeon Ryu and Lexi Thompson are grouped together on day one in Naples. All three members of this group are outside the top-9 in the Race to the CME Globe point standings and therefore have no mathematical chance of winning. Lewis is looking to pick up her first win in more than two years at an event where she has played well, finishing in the top-15 in her last two starts and is coming off a T-31 finish in her last start in Japan. Ryu has played great golf of late, posting two top-5 finishes in her last two starts on Tour. However, Ryu struggled in this event last year where she finished T-62. Thompson is the final member of this group and will look to improve on her strong finish in Naples last season where she was fourth for the week. The American hasn’t finished outside the top-14 in her last two starts.
Minjee Lee, In Gee Chun, Haru Nomura
Group 19 – 1st Tee – 10:19 a.m.
Minjee Lee, In Gee Chun and Haru Nomura are grouped together on Thursday in Naples. Lee is a two-time winner this season and holds the No.7 position in the Race to CME Globe point standings, giving her a mathematical chance of winning the season long race on Sunday. Chun, who locked up the Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year award with her victory at the Evian Championship, sits in the No.8 spot in the standings. Nomura holds the No.9 position, the last spot with a mathematical chance of winning the $1 million dollar bonus.
Ha Na Jang, Sei Young Kim, Shanshan Feng
Group 21 – 1st Tee – 10:30 a.m.
Ha Na Jang, Sei Young Kim and Shanshan Feng holds the No. 4, 5 and 6 spots, respectively, in the Race to the CME Globe point standings. Jang is a three-time winner in 2016 and she nearly won this event last year, finishing in a share of second after firing rounds of 69-65-69-69 for the week. Kim, who locked up rookie of the year honors at this event last season, struggled here last year and was unable to crack the top-20. Feng is currently one of the hottest golfers on the planet. She's coming off back-to-back victories and hasn’t finished outside the top-4 since winning the bronze medal at the Olympic games in Rio in August. Feng has had mixed success in Naples where she was T-46 last season and T-12 in 2014.
Ariya Jutanugarn, Lydia Ko, Brooke Henderson
Group 23 – 1st Tee – 10:41 a.m.
World No.2 Ariya Jutanugarn, No.1 Lydia Ko and No.7 Brooke Henderson hold the coveted top-3 positions in the Race to the CME Globe point standings. The trio control their own destiny in being able to win the season long race by winning the Tour Championship on Sunday.
Jutanugarn holds the No.1 spot in the Race to the CME Globe and Rolex Player of the Year standings, and leads the money list. The five-time winner finished in a share of 30th in this event last season. Ko sits in the No.2 spot in the Race to the CME Globe and Rolex Player of the Year standings as well as the money list, but currently leads the Tour in scoring average. The world’s top ranked player won both the Tour Championship and Race to the CME Globe in 2014 and won the season long race again in 2015. But Ko has struggled in the final stretch of this season and has yet to crack the top-10 since the Manulife LPGA Classic in September. She recently parted with her caddie and has a new looper on the bag she began working with in her last start in Japan. Henderson holds the No.3 position in the Race to the CME Globe point standings and is making her 31st start of the year this week, more than any other player on Tour. Henderson is a two-time winner in 2016 coming off a 20th place finish last week in Mexico. She finished 13th in this event last season.
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