Post by tonyj500 on Nov 19, 2024 8:07:19 GMT
My field rating for this tournament is a solid 67%, up from 64% from last year.
My breakdown is 65% from the LPGA Priority List and 69% from the Rolex World Rankings.
The field rating loses some points because of lack of depth, as only 60 players qualify for this event. But make no mistake about it, this is one of the strongest fields of the year.
Every single player that is in the top 32 of the Rolex Rankings, and is an LPGA member, will be teeing it up.
The players will be competing for the largest single payout in LPGA history, with $4 million going to the winner! The runner-up will receive $1 million. Every single player in the field is guaranteed to take home $55,000.
Other stuff: Nelly Korda's victory this past weekend at the Annika Championship was her seventh victory of the year. Nelly is the first seven time winner on the LPGA tour since Yani Tseng accomplished it in 2011. Nelly is also the first American to do so since Beth Daniel won seven times in 1990. Nelly missed some time this year because of injuries and only teed it up in 15 events, giving her an incredible 46.7% winning percentage.
Nelly Korda earned her 9th LPGA Hall of Fame point of the season this weekend, giving her nineteen Hall of Fame points for her career. Twenty-seven is needed for induction. Nelly's win was the 12th by an American player this year. The Americans also won the Solheim Cup, so this is an historic season. Thailand is runner-up in victories this year with five. After a down decade, this is the 5th consecutive year that the USA has finished on top.
Jeeno Thitikul was the winner of the Aon Risk-Reward Challenge and the $1 million first prize.
Jin Hee Im's second place finish has made the Louise Suggs Rookie of the Year race a bit more interesting, though Mao Saigo is still in the driver's seat. Saigo leads in points over Im 934 to 868. There are a few possibilities for Im to take home the trophy, as is the case with Major Championships, points are doubled for the CME Group Championship. A win for Im would give her the trophy. She could still win with a high finish other than a victory, depending on where Saigo finishes.
The Vare Trophy is also still up for grabs. Although Jeeno Thitikul and Nelly Korda are currently running first and second, neither are eligible to win because they have not played enough rounds this year to qualify. Instead it will be between Haeran Ryu (currently 3rd) and Ayaka Furue (currently 4th) battling it out this week.
As is usually the case after a tournament with a strong field, there was some significant movement is the Rolex Rankings this week by LPGA players:
Nelly Korda increased her huge lead in first place. She has now held that spot for the last 35 weeks and has been number one for 72 weeks in her career. That number ranks her 6th all-time. If she keeps the number one ranking through the middle of next year (which certainly seems likely), she will pass both Inbee Park and Yani Tseng and move to 4th place all-time. Her lead right now is so large that Lilia Vu, who is in second place, is closer to the number 190th place player than she is to first place Nelly Korda.
Lilia Vu moves up from 3 to 2 switching places with Ruoning Yin.
Linn Grant advances from 29 to 26.
Jin Hee Im rises from 39 to 35.
Nanna Koerstz Madsen jumps from 89 to 84.
Bailey Tardy leaps from 103 to 91 (and into my field rating).
Wichanee Meechai vaults up from 120 to 95 (and also into my field rating).
Outside the top 100:
Wei Wei Zhang powers her way up from 124 to 104.
Minami Katsu rises up from 117 to 105.
Olivia Cowan blasts up from 161 to 139.
Hyo Joon Jang explodes from 224 to 161.
In the race to the CME Globe where last week was the last chance for players to finish in the top 100 and retain playing privilegs for the 2025 season:
Wei Wei Zhang (106 to 82) and Bianca Pagdanganan (101 to 92) were the big winners.
Polly Mack (97 to 101) and Yuri Yoshida (100 to 102) dropped out.
My breakdown is 65% from the LPGA Priority List and 69% from the Rolex World Rankings.
The field rating loses some points because of lack of depth, as only 60 players qualify for this event. But make no mistake about it, this is one of the strongest fields of the year.
Every single player that is in the top 32 of the Rolex Rankings, and is an LPGA member, will be teeing it up.
The players will be competing for the largest single payout in LPGA history, with $4 million going to the winner! The runner-up will receive $1 million. Every single player in the field is guaranteed to take home $55,000.
Other stuff: Nelly Korda's victory this past weekend at the Annika Championship was her seventh victory of the year. Nelly is the first seven time winner on the LPGA tour since Yani Tseng accomplished it in 2011. Nelly is also the first American to do so since Beth Daniel won seven times in 1990. Nelly missed some time this year because of injuries and only teed it up in 15 events, giving her an incredible 46.7% winning percentage.
Nelly Korda earned her 9th LPGA Hall of Fame point of the season this weekend, giving her nineteen Hall of Fame points for her career. Twenty-seven is needed for induction. Nelly's win was the 12th by an American player this year. The Americans also won the Solheim Cup, so this is an historic season. Thailand is runner-up in victories this year with five. After a down decade, this is the 5th consecutive year that the USA has finished on top.
Jeeno Thitikul was the winner of the Aon Risk-Reward Challenge and the $1 million first prize.
Jin Hee Im's second place finish has made the Louise Suggs Rookie of the Year race a bit more interesting, though Mao Saigo is still in the driver's seat. Saigo leads in points over Im 934 to 868. There are a few possibilities for Im to take home the trophy, as is the case with Major Championships, points are doubled for the CME Group Championship. A win for Im would give her the trophy. She could still win with a high finish other than a victory, depending on where Saigo finishes.
The Vare Trophy is also still up for grabs. Although Jeeno Thitikul and Nelly Korda are currently running first and second, neither are eligible to win because they have not played enough rounds this year to qualify. Instead it will be between Haeran Ryu (currently 3rd) and Ayaka Furue (currently 4th) battling it out this week.
As is usually the case after a tournament with a strong field, there was some significant movement is the Rolex Rankings this week by LPGA players:
Nelly Korda increased her huge lead in first place. She has now held that spot for the last 35 weeks and has been number one for 72 weeks in her career. That number ranks her 6th all-time. If she keeps the number one ranking through the middle of next year (which certainly seems likely), she will pass both Inbee Park and Yani Tseng and move to 4th place all-time. Her lead right now is so large that Lilia Vu, who is in second place, is closer to the number 190th place player than she is to first place Nelly Korda.
Lilia Vu moves up from 3 to 2 switching places with Ruoning Yin.
Linn Grant advances from 29 to 26.
Jin Hee Im rises from 39 to 35.
Nanna Koerstz Madsen jumps from 89 to 84.
Bailey Tardy leaps from 103 to 91 (and into my field rating).
Wichanee Meechai vaults up from 120 to 95 (and also into my field rating).
Outside the top 100:
Wei Wei Zhang powers her way up from 124 to 104.
Minami Katsu rises up from 117 to 105.
Olivia Cowan blasts up from 161 to 139.
Hyo Joon Jang explodes from 224 to 161.
In the race to the CME Globe where last week was the last chance for players to finish in the top 100 and retain playing privilegs for the 2025 season:
Wei Wei Zhang (106 to 82) and Bianca Pagdanganan (101 to 92) were the big winners.
Polly Mack (97 to 101) and Yuri Yoshida (100 to 102) dropped out.
Also, Dana/Marathon/Jamie Farr/Toledo is history ("that's the spirit") ... replaced by Black Desert in Utah. Oh, and the tour returns to Mexico for the umpteenth time.