Nelly Korda on Brink of LPGA Player of the Year Honor as Rival Faces Near-Impossible Catch-Up

The CME Group Tour Championship has actually long been more than simply a season-ending occasion on the LPGA Tour. In 7 of the last 10 years, the competition has actually played a definitive function in identifying who takes home the LPGA Player of the Year award. This year, the story might unfold in a different way, as Nelly Korda holds a commanding lead.

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As Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols explainedWorld No. 1 Nelly Korda may not require to raise another club for the remainder of the season and might still win the prominent honor.

The Bradenton, Florida, native presently holds a 75-point lead over Haeran Ryuwho hasn’t completed on the LPGA Tour given that the FM Championship in August. And if the South Korean wish to surpass Korda in the Player of the Year race, she has rather a mountain to climb up.

She would require to either win 3 competitions or protected 2 success, a runner-up surface, and an eighth-place surface to continue of the World No. 1. While possible, doing this with simply 5 occasions left is no less than a challenging job.

The World No. 3 will complete in the BMW Championship today on home soil and the Maybank Championship in Malaysia while Korda continues her two-month break from the LPGA Tour, avoiding the entire Asian swing. That makes things a bit simpler for Ryu.

The South Korean’s choice to avoid the TOTO Japan Classic makes her job even more challenging. And if she stops working to lower Korda’s cause 60 points or less by the time the TOTO competition concludes, the World No. 1 will mathematically clinch the LPGA Player of the Year award.

And 2 occasions will still stay after that, that include the ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican and the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship. That stated, the South Korean isn’t the only danger to Nelly Korda’s course to winning the award this year.

What does Jeeno Thitikul require to do to surpass Nelly Korda?

World No. 2 Jeeno Thitikul is likewise in contention for the award, although her course to success is significantly harder. Tracking Korda by 84 points, the Thai golf enthusiast would require to win 3 competitions to surpass the World No. 1. While that stays mathematically possible, there is a catch.

Thitikul is presently set up to contend in just the TOTO Japan Classic and the CME Group Tour Championship. If she wishes to offer herself a chance at 3 success, she needs to go into The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican before the November 3 due date.

Miyu Yamashita Stays mathematically in the race, although the Japanese golf enthusiast deals with an even steeper difficulty. Yamashita would require to win 4 competitions to go beyond Korda. For her, she is arranged to complete in all 5 staying occasions.

If none of these oppositions handle to capture Korda, the American will declare her 2nd LPGA Rolex Player of the Year award. She formerly won the honor in 2024, protecting it with 2 competitions still staying.

And if history repeats itself, Korda will move another action better to the LPGA Hall of Fame. Winning the award would make her one extra Hall of Fame point, taking her profession overall to 26. With 27 points needed for induction, the World No. 1 would then be simply one point far from signing up with golf’s most prominent club.