The LPGA Tour plays its final event of 2013 when the CME Titleholders is played this week at the Tiburon Golf Club at the Ritz Carlton Resort in Naples in Florida.
The event as it is now known was first played two years ago when won by South Korea’s Hee Young Park, and last year, fellow South Korean Na Yeon Choi won the season-ending event last year at Twin Eagles, beating another fellow compatriot player, So Yeon Ryu, by two strokes.
To earn a start in the event a player must have finished inside the top three at any event of the 2013 schedule. The tournament will start this Thursday Nov. 21st and will run through Sunday Nov. 24th, sporting a $2 million purse with a winner’s share of $700,000.
Only two players have crossed the $2 million mark this season—Inbee Park and Suzann Pettersen—but with the big first-place prize, Stacy Lewis is still very much in the mix this week. Park leads the money list with $2,393,513, followed by Pettersen ($2,284,326) and Lewis ($1,894,630).
Lewis would be the first American to win the money title since Betsy King won it in 1993.
Park is coming fresh off her fourth-place finish at the Lorena Ochoa Invitational this past weekend, which allowed her to become the first South Korean player to win the points-based Player of the Year award. The top-ranked Park swept the first three major championships of the season and has three other LPGA Tour wins this season. She's winless in nine starts since the U.S. Women's Open in late June.
Another storyline that will unfold this weekend is the race for the Vare Trophy Awarded by the LPGA to the woman golfer with the lowest average strokes per round during that year. The PGA equivalent is the Vardon Trophy which was won by Tiger Woods for the ninth time this year.
Lewis leads Pettersen by the slimmest of margins, 0.104, while last year’s winner, Inbee Park, trails Lewis by 0.417. Lewis is trying to become the first American winner since Beth Daniel in 1994.
Both Lewis and Pettersen are playing for their first Vare Trophy award, while Park will try to become the first player to win in back-to-back years since Lorena Ochoa won four-consecutive years from 2006-2009.
Youth is something to watch for this weekend. Either of the two teenagers, Lydia Ko and Lexi Thompson, could easily steal the Titleholders spotlight from the Big Three of Park, Pettersen and Lewis.
The 16-year-old New Zealander phenom Ko is making her professional debut after missing out on so much prize money over the past two years she now has a chance to build he bank balance with a bang. The Canadian Women's Open winner the last two years has been granted LPGA Tour membership for the 2014 season.
The 18-year-old American Thompson, who had an impressive Solheim Cup debut this year, has followed it with some impressive individual stroke play. Her win at the Sime Darby LPGA Malaysia followed by a win at the Lorena Ochoa Invitational have been downright breathtaking. She’s coming in to the Titleholders with seven Top-10 finishes, two victories in her last four tournaments, and she’s red hot.
One last race that is coming down to the wire is the Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year. Caroline Masson leads the race by 11 points over Moriya Jutanugarn. But if Masson pulls it off this week at Tiburon Golf Club, it will be with a broken thumb.
Earlier this month in Japan, Masson fractured her right thumb while playing ping pong with her caddie, Jason McDede on Tuesday before the tournament started. She won the match and went on to finish tied for 60th in the golf tournament.
Japan’s Ayako Uehara would have to win this week to have a chance at the title. She currently trails Masson by 90 points.
The CME Group Titleholders is a tournament where anyone can rise up to the occasion and take the win. It could be full of surprises by the time it reaches the 72nd hole.
The Golf Channel will provide daily coverage of the CME Titleholders, here is the schedule (all times ET):
Thursday: 1:30-4:00 p.m.
Friday: 2:00-4:00 a.m., 1:30-4:00 p.m.
Saturday: 1:00-3:00 a.m.; 1:30-4:00 p.m.
Sunday: 1:00-3:00 a.m.; 1:30-4:00 p.m.; 9:00-11:30 p.m.
Monday: midnight-2:30 a.m.