What’s happening in golf’s ‘offseason’ — Must-click women’s golf links
By Addie Parker
The IX: Golf Wednesday with Addie Parker, Nov. 29, 2023
Welcome back to Golf Thursday (just a day early)! During our mini hiatus, I hope you all had a happy and safe Thanksgiving — but let’s dive back into what’s circulating around women’s golf.
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(Editor’s note: Due to the nature of the events being covered, Golf Thursday and Basketball Wednesday have swapped places this week.)
I left you all at the CME Group Tour Championship, where Amy Yang snagged the $2 million prize and her first LPGA title on U.S. soil. The 16-year LPGA Tour veteran won the Honda LPGA Thailand in 2015, 2017, and 2019 and captured the 2013 LPGA KEB-HanaBank Championship in the Republic of Korea.
It took 95 starts and 1,729 days between her last victory in 2019 and her win at Tiburón Golf Club, where she set the new 72-hole scoring record at the CME Group Tour Championship, shattering the previous record of 23-under by four shots.
As if Yang’s performance wasn’t impressive enough, she also became the oldest champion of the 2023 season at 34 years, three months and 22 days.
The conclusion of the tour championship also told us who would be taking home the Player of the Year and Vare trophies.
After Solheim, it was fairly obvious that the POTY race was between Celine Boutier and Lilia Vu, but capturing two out of five major titles is what gave Vu the edge, and it was extremely well deserved.
The Vare Trophy is awarded to the player with the lowest scoring average for the season. Atthaya “Jeeno” Thitikul has remained nothing but consistent during her sophomore season, despite back-to-back missed cuts at KPMG and the U.S. Open.
She regrouped and focused on her golf, saying, “You know, golf is pretty hard when you lose your confidence. … But you have to enjoy and love the consistency, the journey, love everything. And yeah, [I] feel pretty bad at the same time, but trying to not get down, it’s more important. Because golf, it’s like ups and down, ups and down. I think confidence, it’s more important, really important in golf.”
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The stars of the LPGA and PGA tours will be back in Naples next week for the inaugural Grant Thornton Invitational at Tiburon Golf Club — more on that in the coming days.
But tomorrow begins golf’s gantlet — six rounds over six days. The Q Series is here. Q Series typically would take place over two weekends, with a couple of days of rest in between. This is the first time the tournament takes place over consecutive days.
104 players will compete over 108 holes of stroke-play competition with a cut after the fourth round. The purse is $150,000, paid to the top 45 and ties. The top 20 and ties will earn 2024 LPGA status for 2024 in Category 14. Players finishing 21 to 45 will earn LPGA status in Category 15 and Epson Tour status in Category C. Categories are essentially the ranking of priority of players. Click here to see the player priority list for the 2023 season.
Sending good vibes and well wishes to all the players, and I’m excited to see who will be teeing it up in 2024.
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The last thing on the docket is the top of the LPGA-LET merger.
A vote was meant to take place last week but has been postponed. The LPGA released this official statement: “The LPGA Board is supportive of this decision and remains enthusiastic about the opportunity to bring our two organizations together.”
Another developing story to keep tabs on as this year closes out.
Cheers to a fabulous 2023 season, as we look ahead to 2024 — which will include 35 events (33 official events, two unofficial team events) with the world’s best golfers competing for a total prize fund of more than $118 million, with $116.55 million in official money, the highest in Tour history.
Season highlights will include the inaugural FM Global Championship at TPC Boston, the 2024 Olympics in Paris and the 2024 Solheim Cup at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club outside Washington, D.C. More tournaments will feature network television coverage, up from 10 in 2023, and ESPN+ will add featured-group coverage to four events.
It’s a lot … but when is golf ever just “chill”? It keeps life interesting.
This week in women’s golf
If you have links you wish to share for Golf Thursday, sources for golf news or want to talk about anything at all, you can email me at addieparker25@theixsports.com ! Discussion of any kind is always welcome .. .I mean it … MESSAGE ME!
LPGA News
Here are 10 LPGA stat leaders from 2023
LET News
Epson Tour News
Becca Huffer looking for redemption at LPGA Q-Series
Epson Tour extends partnership with ANNIKA Women’s All Pro Tour
Epson Tour graduates excel on the LPGA Tour in 2023
NCAA/Amateur News
Rising amateurs secure their places at the Chevron Championship 2024
Other News
Read my latest from Golf Digest
Five at The IX: Epson Tour Player Hannah Gregg takes on PGA Tour short game challenge
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