Just three weeks have passed in the 2015 Race to the CME Globe, but it’s already apparent that this race is not a sprint but a marathon.
Three weeks have equaled three different leaders in the season-long points competition:
- Na Yeon Choi won the first week at the Coates Golf Championship and took the lead.
- Just one week later, Choi was tied atop the standings after two events when Sei Young Kim captured the Pure Silk-Bahamas LPGA Championship.
- Last week, 2014 CME Globe Champion Lydia Ko won the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open at famed Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Australia to take over sole possession of the lead.
- But don’t forget about the consistency of Thailand rookie Ariya Jutanugarn. The 19-year-old LPGA rookie has finished third, tied for second and 11th to begin the year, good enough to climb to second in the Race to the CME Globe standings.
Ko understands the patience necessary to capture the competition. Last year, Stacy Lewis led the standings for the majority of the season and was first entering the finale, the CME Globe Championship, followed by second-place Inbee Park. Ko was third in the standings after a points reset entering the event in Naples, Fla., won the tournament in a playoff and the season-long title to capture a LPGA record $1.5 million payday.
The Race to the CME Globe, in its second season, is a season-long points competition in which LPGA Members accumulate points in every Official LPGA Tournament. At the end of the season, the winning player will be named the “Race to the CME Globe Champion.” The competition began at the Coates Golf Championship, continues through the Lorena Ochoa Invitational Presented by Banamex in Mexico and concludes with a points reset for the CME Group Tour Championship in Naples, Florida the week before Thanksgiving.