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NAPLES, FLORIDA | They saved the best for last. The best two players together in the final group, knotted at the top and battling for the biggest winner’s check in women’s golf. Throw in some of the best golf of the year, which the LPGA Tour dished out at the CME Group Tour Championship, and the only official event played the week before Christmas proved to be a fitting farewell to this abominable year.
Consider the fact that world No. 1 Jin Young Ko, who spent almost the entire year at home in South Korea – foregoing her title defense at the ANA Inspiration and having no chance to defend at the canceled Evian Championship – walked to the second tee on Sunday morning tied for the lead and with a chance to make history, capturing the 2020 LPGA money title in just four starts.
Then think about Sei Young Kim, the No. 2 player in the Rolex Rankings and defending CME champion, who had her own extra motivations. Kim arrived at Tiburón Golf Club having won twice during the summer, including a ridiculously good performance at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Aronimink. For the season, she led the tour in greens in regulation, putts per greens in regulation and scoring.
But because she stayed home in South Korea during a good chunk of the pandemic, Kim wasn’t eligible for the Vare Trophy. And because of the way Player of the Year points are distributed, she came into the week trailing Inbee Park, who had one win in February and seven other top-10s, for that award. As much as Kim understood the math, she didn’t like it. Player of the Year was a goal. A win would take care of it.
Back and forth they went for the first 10 holes on Sunday. Kim started with the lead until Ko birdied the first. Then Ko led when Kim bogeyed the fifth. Then they fell back into a tie when Ko bogeyed the ninth. But starting at 12, Ko showed why she’s at the top of the world despite a break that would have rusted the best of swings.
Ko did not tee it up in an LPGA Tour event in 2020 until she arrived near Tampa, Florida, for the Pelican Women's Championship in mid-November, the week the CME Group Tour Championship is usually played. She finished tied for 34th that week. Then, she finished fifth at the Volunteers of America Classic in Texas. And last week Ko tied for runner-up at the U.S. Women’s Open.
On Sunday, she kept that trajectory going, making four birdies in five holes to win the CME Group Tour Championship and take the money title in a record-setting four starts.
Kim pushed a few tee shots that cost her. Still, she tied Hannah Green for second, good enough to leapfrog Park and lock up Rolex Player of the Year honors.
It was a wild ride. But what else is new in 2020?
LPGA commissioner Mike Whan recapped the year in and out of golf when he said, “It's been the most anxiety-ridden, sometimes frustrating, oftentimes embarrassing (year ever), because every day, every morning started with the same set of emails and calls from different people and everybody had the same kinds of fears and concerns. You're on one of these Zoom calls and 15 faces are looking back at you like you're some sort of expert on this. And I knew from the very beginning that I wasn't.”
But golf made it through. In fact, golf led.
“I'm sitting here today after 7,200 COVID tests and $3.5 million in unplanned COVID expenses in 2020," Whan said. "My team, my athletes, my caddies and my tournaments really stepped up and here we sit with an incredible year behind us. We also dealt with wildfires they haven't seen in Portland for 75 years, 100-year floods in Michigan, extreme heat in Palm Springs, extreme cold in Texas … quite frankly, you can't rattle me this year on weekly issues because we won the war. We got ourselves to the end of this thing.
“Most importantly, our fans responded. Our viewership's up over almost 30 percent this year. Nobody saw that coming either before a pandemic or after. Our engagement factors (are) up 44 percent. Over 3.3 million people a week every time we tee it up engage with our sport. That's a new record for us.”
Those fans saw a year of stories that could last a decade: Danielle Kang with back-to-back wins in Ohio; Ally Ewing with her first career victory at Reynolds Lake Oconee; the sports story of the year with Sophia Popov, ranked 305th in the world and barely a blip on the professional scene, winning the AIG Women’s Open at Royal Troon; and of course Ko roaring to a win and money title in Naples.
A terrific ending that, in March, no one would have thought possible.
“I was just having this conversation with my wife last night,” Whan said. “I, of course, was complaining about something and she said, ‘Mike, stop it. You didn't lose a single employee in 2020. You didn't have one hospitalized player, staff member, volunteer, or local official. And you didn't leave one venue in a worse situation than before you got there.’
“Our ability to cross state lines and country lines has been proven in 2020. But the biggest accomplishment is that a group of about 130 staff members figured out a pandemic nobody knew anything about in January and got us here safely.
“I’m really proud of that.”
Top: Jin Young Ko hugs Sei Young Kim as Georgia Hall looks on.
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