Lydia Ko, Inbee Park go head to head with so much on the line at LPGA Tour
NAPLES, Fla -- Lydia Ko and Inbee Park have been joined at the hip at the top of the LPGA tour’s world this year.
They’re both looking for separation in the season finale this week.
With a mano-a-mano feel, the two will have at it in the CME Group Tour Championship with a bunch of high-level awards on the line. Ko will be the Rolex Player of the Year — unless Park is. Ko will win the money title and the Vare Trophy for lowest scoring average — unless Park does. And Ko will remain the No.1 player in the world — unless Park overtakes her.
Further, they are 1-2 in the Race to the CME Globe and its $1million bonus — the biggest cash prize in women’s golf.
“The scary thing about Lydia is she’s so similar to me,” Park said Tuesday at Tiburon Golf Club.
There’s no debating that. Statistically the two are nearly identical: They each have won five times this year; Ko won her first major while Park added two more to reach seven, and the two racked up 12 other top-10s. Park has a stroke average of 69.433; Ko’s is 69.449.
Both are consistent, calm, collected and seemingly impervious to pressure. They don’t hit the ball far, but they sure can chip and roll the rock. This is as polite a rivalry as you can think of, so don’t expect the two to be at each other’s throats come Sunday despite so much on the line.
“With us being paired quite a bit because of the rankings and all that, I think that’s where I’ve really got to know her a little bit,” Ko said. “But she’s so nice, you know, on and off the course. I’m not a huge fist-pumper or whatever, don’t do any crazy dances or anything, apart from on Instagram. And I feel like she’s less than me. She’s got that perfect poker face. ... She’s obviously very competitive, but at the same time just a very down-to-earth person.”
Although Ko is five months from her 19th birthday, she already has won 10 LPGA tour titles and was the youngest to surpass $1million and then $2million in earnings. She’ll have good mojo this week; she earned $1.5 million here last year when she won the tournament and the $1 million bonus.
“It’s great to come back, and the best part was I pulled out my yardage book from last year and I had to kind of rip the pages apart because of the champagne, the pages stuck together,” said Ko, who is from New Zealand. “So that’s not a bad thing to happen. It’s great to come back and you go, ‘Hey, I made a putt from here before, or I was there and then I managed to make a good bogey.’
“I’m going to just try and concentrate on my game, and I think that’s what Inbee is going to do.”
Park is on a roll coming into Thursday’s first round, having won last week’s Lorena Ochoa Invitational. The win was her 17th tour title and moved her within one point of earning a spot in the LPGA Hall of Fame despite being just 27. She has three opportunities to earn a point this week: earning a victory, winning Player of the Year or winning the Vare Trophy. Getting into the Hall of Fame has been her career goal. Winning the last tournament of the year is her goal this week.
“I’ve got a lot of confidence from last week, and obviously coming into the last tournament and also the very important tournament, it’s good to have good momentum, and obviously good confidence coming into this week,” said Park, who’s from South Korea. “It’s always good to play for something than nothing.
“Not everyone gets an opportunity to play for everything at the end-of-the-year events. I can’t make Lydia play bad or good. I’ve got to do well and then just see what happens.”