Seventeen-year-old Lydia Ko topped off her award-winning rookie season by winning the CME Group Tour Championship on Sunday at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Florida and added $1.5 million to her trust fund.
Ko had the LPGA Tour Rookie of the Year sewn up before the week started and set the record for prize money won by a first-year player with her win this week.
The $500,000 awarded to the winner of the CME Group Tour Championship boosted her total for the year to $2,089,033.00.
She began the week at No. 3 in the Race to the CME Globe standings behind Stacy Lewis and Inbee Park. Her win coupled with Lewis finishing T-9 and Park falling to a T-24 allowed Ko to collect the first $1 million bonus.
Michelle Wie, who began the tournament in the No. 4 spot in the Race to the CME Globe, was Ko’s nearest competitor, but she ultimately finished three strokes behind Ko for the win and a T-5 finish.
Ko, playing much older than her age, was once again was the model of consistency posting scores of 71-71-68-68.
It wasn’t easy, however, she had to survive a playoff with Paraguay’s Julieta Granada and Carlotta Ciganda from Spain. All three women finished regulation play at 10-under-par and were forced to a sudden-death playoff to decide the winner.
Granada three putted from the fringe on the second playoff hole and the bogey knocked her out of contention. She had held or shared the lead each of the first three rounds, but her one-under-par 71 was not good enough on Sunday.
Long-hitting Ciganda, who was a member of Spanish team that won the International Crown, battled Ko until her approach shot on the fourth playoff hole found a hazard and she had to take a drop. Ko’s second shot found the putting surface and she nearly holed her birdie putt leaving only a tap-in for the win.
$1.5 million for the day’s work is slightly above a normal teenager’s minimum wage for flipping burgers.
Stacy Lewis had held the lead in the Race to the CME Globe for much of the season, but a few finishes outside the top-10 over the past six weeks cost her the-million-dollar bonus.
She did earn some of the LPGA’s most valuable hardware, the Vare Trophy for the lowest average score on tour, as well as, the money title and the LPGA Tour’s Player of the Year award for the second time in three years.
She is the first American woman to ever to win all three of the LPGA Tour’s top honors in one season.
Inbee Park remains No. 1 on the Rolex Ranking, but Lewis and Ko are hot on her heels and the competition for No 1 in the world promises to be interesting next season.
This was the final event of 2014 for the LPGA Tour. The 2015 season will kick off with a new event the Coates Golf Championship in Ocala, Florida, January 28-31.