The 2023 LPGA season is drawing to a close, with the penultimate event, the Toto Japan Classic, currently going on at the Taiheiyo Club Minori Course. With only one event left on the calendar, this is the time for major movements on the leaderboard for the final field of the CME Group Tour Championship.

History of the LPGA Tour’s Season-ending Event

The CME Group Tour Championship is newly established and came into existence only in 2014. It succeeded the LPGA Group Tour Championship, which went on for two seasons in 2009–2010. Before its current form, the season-ending was also known as the CME Group Titleholders from 2011–13.

In 2014, LPGA commissioner Mike Whan announced that players would now earn points for each event they played, and there would be a season-long leaderboard. The top sixty players on the leaderboard will earn a chance to play at the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship.

However, at that time, 72 players from the Race to the CME Globe earned the chance to tee off at the final event. Now the competition is even tougher, with only the top 60 LPGA players eligible to make the cut.

How does the points system work in the CME Group Tour Championship?

Similar to how PGA Tour players earn FedEx Cup points for the tournament, LPGA stars also earn points for each tournament in the tour calendar. All LPGA tournaments carry equal weight.

This year, the qualification for the CME Group Tour Championship started with the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions in Florida and will finally close with the Annika Driven by Gainbridge at the Pelican Golf Club in Florida.

The winner receives 500 points, the runner-up receives 320 points, and the third-place finisher receives 230 points. Every golfer who makes the cut earns a minimum of one point, with players who finish at 80 and above earning the lowest minimum score. However, majors carry 30% more weight than regular tournaments. So a major champion will earn an additional 650 points.

What about ties? The structure for doling out points is similar to the structure for handing out prize money. The total number of points for the tied position is averaged by the number of players who have tied for that spot.

CME Group Tour Championship: Course details

The 2023 CME Group Tour Championship will be held at the Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Florida. Since the tournament’s inception, Tiburon has been the place that has held the LPGA Tour’s season finale.

Interestingly, the course was designed by Greg Norman, the LIV Golf CEO, who has been in the thick of controversy since snatching top PGA Tour pros into this breakaway league. Moreover, Tiburon in Spanish means 'shark', a nod to the nickname of the two-time major champion, ‘Great White Shark’.

It has two courses: gold and black. The Gold Course was opened in 1998, and the Black Course opened three years later, in 2001. Tiburon will also host the Grant Thornton Invitational, a mixed-gender event, in December.

Records set at the LPGA’s season’s showdown

Last year, when Lydia Ko bagged the title and pocketed the $2 million winner’s payout, she became the highest-paid female golfer from a single event, as the US Open offered only $1.8 million at that time. The 19-time LPGA Tour winner shot a 2-under-7 and finished two strokes clear of Leona Maguire.

A year earlier, Jin Young Ko shot a 23 under 265, earning her bragging rights over her Japanese neighbor, Nasa Hataoka, to defend her title. Ko, in the process, made a record-breaking 63 straight greens in regulation as well.

Prize money and payout for the CME Group Tour Championship

The total purse for the event is $7 million, with the winner taking $2 million. Seven-figure paychecks are quite rare in women’s golf tournaments, which makes them even more interesting to watch and exciting for the LPGA Tour pros to participate in.

The U.S. Open has a total purse of $11 million, which the CME Group Tour championship fails to top. But the $2 million prize money for the winner matches the payout Allison Corpuz received at Pebble Beach in July.

Past winners of the CME Group Tour Championship

Lydia Ko

The New Zealand phenom is the most successful player in the event, winning twice in 2014 and 2022. In her first victory, she edged over Stacy Lewis of the USA just one year after turning pro. The inaugural event earned her $1 million in cash.

Lydia Ko went on to repeat the feat last year. However, this year Ko’s title defense hangs by a very thin thread. Currently languishing at 101, she might not even make it to the race unless given a sponsor invite. In her last event, the LPGA Maybank Championship, she finished in the 11th position on the leaderboard.

Jin Young Ko

Jointly with Lydia Ko, South Korean Jin Young Ko won the tournament twice in 2020 and 2021. The then-world no. 1 did so in style in 2021, posting all her rounds under 60. Moreover, she also smashed a Tiger Woods record in the process. She hit 63 consecutive shots in green. For Woods, in his best season, the GIR streak was 29.

The South Korean pro won two events this year: the HSBC Women’s World Championship and the Cognizant Founders Cup. In her last outing at the Maybanks LPGA Championship, she finished in the 5th position on the season-long leaderboard.

Lexi Thompson

Thompson won the CME Group Tour Championship in 2018, one year after coming in a close second. This year, thanks to her dismal outings before the Solheim Cup, the 11-time LPGA Tour winner is languishing in the 88th position on the Race to CME Globe standings. With only two top-ten finishes this season, both of which came recently, and an eight- and fifth-position finish at the NW Arkansas Championship and the Ascendant LPGA Tour, the 28-year-old golfer can still make it to the final field if she can notch a win in the last event.

The British LPGA Pro Charley Hull, US star Cristie Kerr, South Korean Sei Young Kim, and Thai sensation Ariya Jutanugarn all won here once in their careers. Except for Cristie Kerr, who stands at 185 Race to CME Globe with only 5.800 points to her name, everyone has a chance to slide into the top sixty before the season-ending championship tees off later this month.

Other past champions of the LPGA’s ultimate seasonal finale are:

CME Group Tour Championship: Tee times

The CME Group Tour Championship will kick off on November 16 at the Tiburon Golf Club. The first three rounds will tee off around 7:35 a.m., according to the LPGA’s website. Whereas, the final round on Sunday will tee off at 8:57 a.m.