Five Australasians make LPGA Tour’s season finale
Lydia Ko with one of her two CME Group Tour Championship trophies – can she make it three? Image Getty / LPGA
This week’s CME Tour Championship at the Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Florida, brings to a close the 2025 LPGA Tour season, the leading 60 in the Race to the CME Globe year-long standings being eligible to compete for the US$11 million up for grabs.
Amongst those 60 competitors are five Australasians. Minjee Lee, Lydia Ko, Grace Kim, Hannah Green and Stephanie Kyricaou, have all recorded a good season but now have the possibility of finishing it in style with a strong week.
Lydia Ko is, by some way, the best performed of the group in this particular event, having won twice and finished inside the top five on three other occasions, including when 3rd last year.
Ko won early in 2025, but her form during much of the year has been below that we have come to know from her, and she currently stands 26th in the Race to the CME Globe standings.
Minjee Lee has had yet another fine year on the LPGA Tour, but this event is not one she has had a lot of success in, with just three top tens in ten starts to date and a best of 5th in 2021. Lee is, however, in outstanding form this season with a win in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and three other top 3 finishes, leaving her in 3rd place in the Race to the CME standings.
This might be the year in which Lee records her best finish in the event, and with US$4 million to the winner, what a time to do so.
Grace Kim stands in 29th position in the Race to the Globe standings, but her season has been highlighted by her breakthrough major victory at the Evian Championship, although her form since has been well below that level. She did lead early in last week’s Annika event before finishing 9th, so perhaps she might be on the bounce back after such an historic win.
Kim has had two starts in the event with a best of 25th in 2024.
Hannah Green recorded a disappointing run of form through the middle of the season, at one stage missing four cuts in succession, but she has played well in recent weeks with two top-five finishes in Asia and a 15th-place finish in Florida last week.
Green gets to play this event for the 8th occasion, her best effort when runner-up in 2020.
Stephanie Kyriacou is currently in 45th place in the Race to the CME Globe standings and will play this event for the second occasion, having finished 57th in 2023 and not made the field last year.
Kyriacou has five top tens to her name this season, finishing 5th on two occasions.
While these five ladies have done well to make it to the lucrative season finale, another four Australasians have finished inside the top 100 in the Race to the CME Globe and will retain their playing privileges for next season.
Cassie Porter, Robyn Choi, Gabi Ruffels and Karis Davidson might not have the opportunity to play for the riches this week, but they will be back on the LPGA Tour next season, although Perth’s Hira Naveed finished outside the top 100 and will need to attend the Tour School’s final stage next month.
Race to the CME Globe standings ahead of the CME Tour Championship.
