The best of the best in women’s golf are all set to play the LPGA Tour’s season finale once again.
The CME Group Tour Championship tees off Nov. 16 from Naples, Florida at the Tiburon Golf Club with the top 60 in the season-long Race to CME Globe ready to roll.
A pair of four-time winners will be facing off in the season finale for all the marbles.
Celine Boutier heads to the last event of the year in the top spot after her four wins in 2023, including the Amundi Evian Championship. Lilia Vu, however, is right on her heels. She’s also won four times this year including two majors – both the AIG Women’s Open and The Chevron Championship – and will head into the season finale after topping the field at the penultimate event of 2023, The Annika driven by Gainbridge at Pelican.
With her win, Vu moved to No.1 in the world and No.1 in the Player of the Year race.
Vu already captured the Rolex Annika Major Award, which recognizes the player who has the most outstanding record in all five major championships during the LPGA Tour season.
With only the top 60 in the Race to CME Globe teeing it up in Naples, notables like Lexi Thompson (No. 79) and Lydia Ko (No. 100) will not be in the field.
Thanks to some stellar final-round efforts at The Annika, each of Patty Tavatanakit (up four spots), Bianca Pagdanganan (up five spots), and Stephanie Kyriacou (up 15 spots) earned their way into the last event of the season.
Even though she missed the cut and had to sweat it out on the weekend, Madelene Sagstrom earned the 60th and final spot in the field.
Golf Town Athlete Brooke Henderson will head to the final event of the season looking to finish exactly the same way she started – with a win.
Brooke, who won the season-opening Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, has had an up-and-down season – by her own admission – but showed plenty of great signs of great play to come at The Annika. She opened the event with her lowest-ever round on the LPGA Tour, a 62. She switched to a new set of TaylorMade irons before teeing it up in Asia a few weeks ago and things are starting to click. She hit 18 of 18 greens in the opening round of The Annika. She ended up tied for 19th – her 12th top-25 finish this year.
“Definitely trending in the right direction, which is really exciting! You know, I’m trying to finish the year out strong,” Brooke said. “(The 62 was) definitely a great day and a bit of a confidence booster. Hopefully just keep going.”
The LPGA Tour’s final event of the year is set to have a purse of $7 million (U.S.) with the winner receiving $2 million – the biggest prize in women’s golf.
Tiburon Golf Club is near Brooke’s wintertime home and she is familiar with the course and the Floridian conditions. Brooke has notched four top-10 results at the event the last five seasons, including a tie for seventh last year, and between the comfort and some season-ending momentum, it should be a great week to end the year with!