Lydia Ko just finished her first season on the LPGA Tour as a 17-year old, but she played like a seasoned professional and didn’t seem to need much adjustment to life on the LPGA Tour. After turning professional last October, Ko has won three times this year (and finished in the top-10 12 additional times) including this week’s CME Group Tour Championship and inaugural Race to the CME Globe as well as the Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year award. As the youngest player in the field this week, she netted the largest payday in women’s golf history – $1 million for the Race to the CME Globe and $500,000 for the CME Group Tour Championship.
Although the Race to the CME Globe was won in regulation, Ko needed four playoff holes against Julieta Granada and Carlota Ciganda to win the tournament – she made four straight pars and finished the tournament at 10-under par. Ko is currently ranked No. 3 in the Rolex World Rankings and has showed a remarkable consistency in her game. She’s never missed a cut in 42 LPGA starts and was one of only three players on Tour in 2014 to record three wins. She has five career victories so far, two of which came as an amateur (2012, 2013 CN Canadian Women’s Open). Ko’s essentially rewrote all the age related LPGA records, becoming the youngest winner in Tour history, youngest Rolex Rookie of the Year ever and now the youngest to $2 million in career earnings.
Stacy Lewis also had a very impressive season in 2014, sweeping the LPGA’s three most prestigious honours – Rolex Player of the Year, Vare Trophy (lowest scoring average) and LPGA Official Money List title. Lewis becomes the first American to take home all three awards since Betsy King in 1993 and the first player since Yani Tseng in 2011. Make sure to check out this awesome video featuring Lewis as well by Mizuno Golf titled “Golf vs. Scoliosis.”
Source: LPGA
