Lexi Thompson won the final LPGA Tour tournament of the year, but Ariya Jutanugarn took home the $1-million prize for the Race to the CME. And Golf Town athlete Brooke Henderson made a late charge, but couldn’t quite catch the Thai star, finishing second in the CME and in a tie for 10th in the tournament.
“It’s been a long year,” Thompson said after her round. “Just the up and downs and just the things I’ve been dealing with, they all kind of hit me this year. To be able to end the year like this and just keep on fighting throughout the whole year has meant the world to me. Just shows anything is possible. You have to fight through whatever you’re going through.”
The long-hitting Thompson had her brother, Curtis, caddying for her during the week, finishing four shots ahead of Nelly Korda. It was a big improvement over Thompson’s play in 2017 at the same event, where she missed a short putt that would likely have given her a win at the tournament and player of the year honours. Instead, Jutanugarn birdied the final holes to win the tournament.
It was a challenging year for Thompson, 23, who withdrew at the Ricoh Women’s British Open for a mental health break, taking a month off in the process, a very unusual move for an LPGA Tour pro.
Thompson said the win helped her outlook.
“It’s helped out tremendously with my attitude just in general, just showing the hard work that I’ve been putting in these last, well, this whole year really,” she said. “Just the amount of work I’ve been putting in my game, just to see it pay off in these four days was huge for me. I’ve been waiting for that moment.”
On the equipment side, Thompson was using Cobra’s new F9 Speedback driver, which is available for pre-order next month.
New driver. Same drive. Congratulations @lexi for winning the @CMEGroupLPGA. #KINGofSPEED #lexithompson #beastmode pic.twitter.com/E87btkRVII
— COBRA Golf (@cobragolf) November 18, 2018
Jutanugarn, currently the top-ranked female player in the world, said it was great to win the Race to the CME Globe, a year-long points-based prize, and credited her Canadian short game coach, Gareth Raflewski, with some of her success.
“He makes it simple, and actually this year I’m struggle with my putting last few months, and I took the video and sent to him and he told me what I should do,” she said. “Then I didn’t do it, so I kept putting badly for so long until I saw him this week.”
As for Brooke, she told reporters she’s taking a bit of downtime and then will continue to work on her game. She finished an outstanding year, with two wins, including her historic victory at the CP Women’s Open in Regina.
I am so Grateful for another awesome year on @LPGA tour!! 🙏🏻😁 2 wins, 11 top-10 finishes and #9 Rolex World Ranking!
— Brooke Henderson (@BrookeHenderson) November 19, 2018
“For me, I think [the goal is] just consistency,” she said. “My driver and long game has been really good. That’s kind of my strengths for sure. But around the greens I want to improve a little bit, so I’ll work with my dad and my sister to try to get that a little bit better.”