NAPLES, Fla. — The CME Group Tour Championship marks the final event of the 2025 LPGA Tour season, and the 60-player field is chock full of some of golf’s top talent. Two-time CME Group Tour Championship winner Lydia Ko, Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings No. 2 Nelly Korda and defending champion Jeeno Thitikul are in the field, as are eight LPGA Tour rookies, including Miyu Yamashita, who became a Rolex First-Time Winner at the AIG Women’s Open at Royal Porthcawl Golf Club and who clinched Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year honors after The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican.

Take a deeper look at just a few of the featured groups teeing it up on Thursday at the CME Group Tour Championship using data provided by KPMG Performance Insights.

Thursday, 10:40 a.m. – Ayaka Furue/Lydia Ko

A two-time LPGA Tour winner and a two-time CME Group Tour Championship comprise group 18 on Thursday at Tiburón Golf Club. Major champion Ayaka Furue is making her fourth appearance in the CME Group Tour Championship, having qualified for the season finale every year since joining the LPGA Tour in 2022. The Japan native has never finished worse than T25 in this event, doing so as a rookie in 2022, and she has one top 10 on her resume in Naples, Fla., a tie for eighth that came in 2024. This is her 25th event of the 2025 season, and in her 24 starts ahead of this week, Furue has made 19 cuts and tallied five top-10 results, most recently tying for 10th at the TOTO Japan Classic in her home country. Looking at her year-long statistics, the 25-year-old is only ranked inside the top 20 in one major strokes gained category, according to KPMG Performance Insights, currently sitting at 19th in strokes gained approach (+0.65). She is additionally sixth in driving accuracy, tied for 15th in sub-par rounds and tied for 16th in rounds in the 60s.

Lydia Ko is one of two athletes in the 2025 CME Group Tour Championship field to have collected multiple victories at Tiburón Golf Club, alongside Republic of Korea native Jin Young Ko. The 23-time LPGA Tour champion won in her debut appearance in 2014 in a playoff over Carlota Ciganda and Julieta Granada, and then triumphed again in Naples, Fla. in 2022, winning by two strokes that year over Ireland’s Leona Maguire. This is her 11th appearance in the season finale, and in addition to those two victories, Ko has recorded six other top-10 results in this tournament, the best and most recent of which is a solo third that Ko posted here last season after carding a 63 in the final round. This is her 16th event of the 2025 season, and along with picking up a victory at the HSBC Women’s World Championship in Singapore, she has earned four other top-10 results across 15 tournaments, most recently tying for ninth at the Maybank Championship. According to KPMG Performance Insights, the 28-year-old is ranked inside the top 10 of three major strokes gained categories, including strokes gained putting (3, +1.16), strokes gained approach (3, +0.48) and strokes gained total (7, +1.73). She is also leading the LPGA in one-putts per round (7.56) and putts per hole (1.59), additionally ranking inside the top three of scrambling (2), putts per round (2, 28.66) and sand save percentage (3, 60.26 percent). Ko is a three-time winner of the season-long Race to the CME Globe, earning the accolade in 2014, 2015 and 2022.

Thursday, 12 p.m. – Nelly Korda/Somi Lee

Rolex Rankings No. 2 Nelly Korda is teeing it up in her ninth CME Group Tour Championship this week and will be looking to not only claim her 16th career title at Tiburón Golf Club but win for the first time at an event that’s never seen her finish worse than T19 in 2020. This is her 19th tournament of the year, and Korda hadn’t missed a single cut across 18 events before this week, earning eight top-10 results, the most notable of which is a tie for second that she recorded at the U.S. Women’s Open presented by Ally at Erin Hills and the most recent of which is a tie for fourth that came in October at the LOTTE Championship presented by Hoakalei. Statistically, Korda leads the LPGA in strokes gained off tee (+0.93), ranks second in strokes gained total (+2.33), fourth in strokes gained tee to green (+1.68), 17th in strokes gained approach (+0.66) and 25th in strokes gained putting (+0.60). The 27-year-old is additionally second in scoring average (69.58), second in birdie or better percentage (25.87 percent), second in birdie or better average per round (4.66), fourth in greens hit from fairway percentage (83.11 percent) and tied for fourth in par-4 scoring average (3.96).

Dow Championship winner Somi Lee is making her first start in the CME Group Tour Championship this week at Tiburón Golf Club. The Republic of Korea native won at Midland Country Club alongside her fellow Korean Jin Hee Im in a playoff over Megan Khang and Lexi Thompson in Michigan, which earned what was each athlete’s first career LPGA Tour victory. Lee is making her 27th start of the 2025 LPGA Tour season, and in addition to that victory, the 26-year-old has collected six other top-10 results, most recently tying for 10th at the TOTO Japan Classic earlier this month. Statistically, Lee is ironically tied for second in bogey-free rounds this season on the LPGA Tour alongside her Dow teammate Im and is tied for third in sub-par rounds (59). According to KPMG Performance Insights, the 26-year-old is also ranked 10th in strokes gained total (+1.64), 20th in strokes gained tee to green (+0.93) and 23rd in strokes gained off the tee (+0.48).

Thursday, 12:40 p.m. – Jeeno Thitikul/Miyu Yamashita

The two athletes who are vying for Rolex Player of the Year honors are in the final group of the day on Thursday at the CME Group Tour Championship. Jeeno Thitikul has won twice already in 2025, taking home the Mizuho Americas Open title in May and capturing the Buick LPGA Shanghai title in October. In addition to those victories, which were her fifth and sixth wins since joining the LPGA in 2022, Thitikul has tallied 11 other top-10 results, most recently tying for fourth at the Maybank Championship in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Thailand native is teeing it up at Tiburón Golf Club for the fourth consecutive year and has never finished worse than T10 in Naples, Fla., winning the CME Group Tour Championship in 2024, tying for fifth in 2023 and tying for 10th as a rookie in 2022. According to KPMG Performance Insights data, over the last three years, the Thailand native is a combined 50-under par at this property, scoring six shots better than her next closest counterpart, Amy Yang, who is 44-under at Tiburón. Looking at her season-long statistics, Thitikul is top of the heap in strokes gained total (+2.96), scoring average (68.88), birdie percentage (27.09 percent), birdie or better percentage (27.69 percent), birdie or better average per round (4.98), birdie to bogey ratio (2.53) and bogey avoidance (10.94 percent). This week, the current Rolex Rankings No. 1 will be trying to become the first athlete since Lorena Ochoa across the 2006, 2007 and 2008 seasons to finish with the most birdies or better per round for a third straight year and will be looking to join Stacy Lewis (2013) and Lydia Ko (2015) as the third athlete since 2010 to lead the LPGA in both birdie or better percentage and bogey avoidance at the end of the year.

Miyu Yamashita secured Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year honors following The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican, becoming the second consecutive Japanese athlete to win the honor, alongside Mao Saigo. She will be working to add the Rolex Player of the Year award to that accolade and currently trails her first-round playing partner Thitikul by 16 points in those standings. It’s been an excellent inaugural campaign for Yamashita, who claimed her first career LPGA Tour victory at the AIG Women’s Open at Royal Porthcawl Golf Club and then won for a second time at the Maybank Championship in October, doing so in a playoff over Hye-Jin Choi and Hannah Green at Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club. The CME Group Tour Championship marks the 24-year-old’s 25th event of the 2025 LPGA Tour season, and in addition to her wins in Wales and Malaysia, Yamashita has tallied 10 additional top-10 results, most recently coming in third at the TOTO Japan Classic in her home country earlier this month. Putting has been critical to Yamashita’s success in 2025, as, according to KPMG Performance Insights, she leads the Tour in strokes gained putting per round (1, +1.35), putts made from 10 or more feet (1, 199), putts made from 15 or more feet (T1, 96) and putting from 10 to 20 feet (1, 35.8 percent), the last metric of which she is nearly 19 percent better than the LPGA Tour average. Yamashita is additionally first in bogey-free rounds (14), second in sub-par rounds (61), second in rounds in the 60s (43), third in birdies (360) and fifth in strokes gained total (+2.03).

For a full list of tee times, please click here. For more information on how to watch the CME Group Tour Championship, please click here.

Featured Groups: 2025 CME Group Tour Championship

Related Articles