by Unless you’re nocturnal or suffer from insomnia, chances are you missed most of the action on the LPGA over the past month. With the tour’s jaunt overseas wrapped up, let’s recap the Asian swing’s winners and losers.
Rio Takeda took the final title of the swing with a playoff victory over Marina Alex in the TOTO Japan Classic. With the third round canceled due to weather, the 21-year-old Japan native and veteran Alex finished 54 holes at 15-under. Takeda and Alex played well into the evening over six playoff holes before Takeda finally clinched her first LPGA title. While new to playing LPGA events, Takeda is no stranger to winning. A member of the JLPGA, she’s now rattled off eight wins on the tour this year and came into the week ranked 25th in the Rolex Rankings.
Coming up short in her effort to win for the first time in over two years, Alex has found her game just in time for the final stretch of the season. On the outside of the CME Group Tour Championship top-60 cutoff before teeing it up two weeks ago in Malaysia, her back-to-back top 10 finishes bump her from No. 61 to a projected spot at No. 32. That’s plenty of buffer to enjoy her next stop at this week’s LOTTE Championship in Hawaii now that she’s no longer on the outside looking in.
Ruoning Yin made the most of her three starts in Asia. Wins in her hometown at the Buick LPGA Shanghai and at the Maybank Championship with a combined total of 48-under showed off Yin’s incredibly high ceiling. The win in Shanghai in front of some of the biggest crowds all year was extra special for Yin. With just one opportunity all year to win in her home country, Yin blitzed the field by six.
The heaps of fans that showed up at every stop of the Asian swing missed out on some major star power. Lexi Thompson, despite her looming retirement, did not make the trek overseas. That’s not out of the ordinary for Thompson, but a strange choice to not say farewell to the sport’s most diehard fans. Nelly Korda pulled out of her planned starts in Korea and Malaysia after suffering a minor neck injury. She will be gracing the pages of Sports Illustrated’s 2025 swimsuit issue as well as wrapping up the year at The Annika in two weeks followed by the Tour Championship finale.
Fans in Japan got the short end of the stick due to what should be an avoidable scheduling conflict with the LET. Charley Hull, Carlota Ciganda, Patty Tavatanakit, Georgia Hall and others all skipped Japan for the Aramco Team Series in Riyadh. While a Hull victory would’ve had a much greater impact in Japan, at least we got this chaotic trophy presentation.
What to Watch for the Remainder of 2024
Lydia Ko and Jason Day after winning the inaugural Grant Thornton Invitational. (LPGA)
Big Bucks at the Tour Championship
The CME Group Tour Championship isn’t unique or creative with its format. It’s a limited-field, no-cut event, and there are far too many of those already in the world of pro golf. What it does offer is actual drama not only in the leadup to determining the 60-person field, but in the high stakes of the event. Unlike the PGA Tour’s finale, all 60 players start out the week at even par. No head starts. No net leaderboard. A wild concept, I know.
Given the $4 million first-place check, the largest single prize in all of women’s sports, a great week can turn the tide of an entire career. Take Amy Yang for example. Before winning last year’s Tour Championship, she was considering retiring after struggling with an elbow injury. With her winnings, she not only helped a fellow player, but took advantage of the freedom the paycheck granted her. A new lease on her career carried over into this year where after 75 tries she finally won her first major at Sahalee.
Sponsor Unknowns
While CME Group and its CEO Terry Duffy keep raising the sponsorship bar to new heights, the same can’t be said for the two other important LPGA partners. Cognizant announced it will no longer sponsor the Founder’s Cup after a short stint of just three years heading up one of the LPGA’s most important events. A major blow to the 2025 schedule will take some scrambling to figure out who (if anyone) will step up to sponsor the event and where a potential new venue fits in.
With the full schedule expected to be announced at the Tour Championship, additional stops including the Portland Classic and Ford Championship are also question marks without a committed sponsor. Portland was played without a sponsor this year and Ford signed on for just one year according to Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols. The tour has announced a new event next year, a visit to Black Desert in Utah. Expect the shake ups to leave the LPGA with yet another disjointed schedule in 2025.
Earlier this year, the LPGA was dealt another blow when Smuckers announced it was ending its 29-year sponsorship of the tour’s Child Development Center. Until a new sponsor signs on, the LPGA is covering the costs of running the center. Expecting all of your sponsors to renew year in and year out is unrealistic, but, surprisingly, it’s happening with this much frequency given there’s never been a better time to be involved in women’s sports.
Caitlin Clark Catnip
Get ready for more coverage than you ever thought was possible from a November pro-am. Caitlin Clark will tee it up with Nelly Korda on Wednesday at (deep breath) The Annika driven by Gainbridge at Pelican. Will every moment be documented, posted, and aggregated? Yes. Should the LPGA make this into a spectacle? Absolutely yes. You can count on one hand the number of times women’s golf breaks into non-sports news. Some of the time those moments don’t even occur on the golf course (Nelly’s Met Gala appearance, Charley Hull’s smoke signal while signing autographs). So even though it’s a meaningless pro-am, the LPGA needs to make this as big as it possibly can.
A No Stakes Mixed Event
Pairings for the second annual Grant Thornton Invitational were announced last week. Jason Day and Lydia Ko highlight the teams as they look to defend their title from last year. There are some intriguing teams (Rose Zhang-Sahith Theegala) and some true head scratchers (Megan Khang-Matt Kuchar), but much of this year’s edition will look the same as last year. The field is the exact same size, the event slots in at the exact same sleepy part of the calendar, and the men’s side of the draw still lacks star power. There are four top-10 women in the field. There are zero top-10 men. Regardless of barely scratching the potential this event has, it’s a must see event for one reason. This is the only time fans get to see Lydia Ko, one of the best wedge players ever, Hall of Famer, three-time Olympic medalist, and so on, compete in a team event.
This piece originally appeared in the Fried Egg Golf newsletter. Subscribe for free and receive golf news and insight every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
