LPGA creates lucrative Points race

Pic Courtesy: lpga.com

January 10, 2013: The US LPGA Tour has introduced a points race this year, offering US$1 million to the winner of the new “Race to the CME Globe”.

Instead of the US PGA Tour’s model of four tournaments with gradually reduced fields leading to the Tour Championship, the women will earn points for 31 events going into the CME Group Tour Championship.

The points will be reset giving weight to whoever had the best year. The winner will earn a US$1 million bonus.

[highlight] It should make for an exciting 2014, LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan said [/highlight]

“It should make for an exciting 2014,” LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan said. “It’s the bow on the present we really wanted to get done.”

The race will be the “bow on the present” of the women’s tour’s strongest schedule in years.

It has added events in Michigan and San Francisco, and created an Olympics-styled event called the International Crown aimed at determining the best nation of golfers.

Whan hinted at a season points race when the tour wrapped up its season in November, saying he liked the idea of two trophies presented at the end of the year.

The FedEx Cup on the men’s tour began in 2007 and went through three years of changes to cut through the confusion.

The European Tour followed shortly after with its “Race to Dubai” that was tweaked this year to culminate with four big events at the end.

Jon Podany, the chief marketing officer for the US LPGA Tour, said the top 72 players in the Race to the CME Globe would qualify for the Tour Championship.

The reset will be structured in such a way that only the top three in the standings can guarantee the US$1 million bonus by winning the tournament, while only the top nine in the standings will have a mathematical chance to win the bonus and a crystal globe.

All tournaments, starting with the Pure Silk Bahamas Classic on Jan. 23-26, will offer the same amount of points (500 to the winner). The five majors will have an additional 25 per cent value (625 points). Players will have to make the cut to earn points, but points will only be awarded to the top 40 in events with no cut, and the top 20 for the Lorena Ochoa Invitational, which has a smaller field.