Ji Ji-hee Lee, 37, the eldest of the South Korean players on the U.S. Women’s Professional Golf (LPGA) Tour, is making a last-ditch effort to secure a spot in the season finale.
The veteran, who has six career victories since making her LPGA Tour debut in 2007, including the 2009 U.S. Women’s Open and last year’s Bank of Hope LPGA Match Play (May), tied for fourth at this year’s Mizuho Americas Open (June) but hasn’t posted a top-10 finish since.
Ji-hee will need to step up her game if she is to reap the rewards of the “beauty of the species” this season. She will need to defend her current 60th-place ranking in the CME Group Tour Order of Merit to qualify for the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Florida, starting next month. The Tour Championship, which carries a $7 million purse and a $2 million first-place prize, is open only to players in the top 60 of the CME points standings based on season results.
Ji-hee Kim missed the cutoff by one spot in the CME Globe Rankings at No. 59 after finishing tied for 54th out of 78 players at the BMW Ladies Championship last week. “With ‘magic number’ hanging over her head, she’ll play back-to-back events in Malaysia and Japan,” said USA Today, citing Ji-hee as one of the major players hovering on or near the cut line for the Tour Championship. Ji-hee will need top-10 finishes at the Maybank Championship, which begins on Sept. 26, and the Toto Japan Classic next week to stabilize her ranking. 스포츠토토
Kim Hyo-joo, Ko Jin-young, Hae-ran Hae, Shin Ji-eun, Choi Hye-jin, Kim Arim, Yang Hee-young, and Kim Se-young are the other Korean players to have qualified for the final round, while Lee Im-hyang (No. 64) and An Na-lin (No. 66) will look to improve their rankings in Malaysia this week. Jeon Ji-in (73rd) and Lee Jung-six (86th) did not qualify for the Asian Swing Remnant and will have one last chance at The Annika (formerly the Pelican Women’s Championship) in the United States in the first week of November.
Outside of the top 60 on the CME Globe, star players such as Hinako Shibuno (79th-Japan), Lexi Thompson (87th-USA) and Lydia Ko (101st-NZL) stand out. Thompson, who is coming off strong performances at the Solheim Cup and Men’s PGA Championship, will skip the Asian Swing for one last shot at De Anica, while last year’s CME Tour Championship winner Lydia Ko will be an invitee to the Maybank Championship and will be looking to build on her gains from last week (3rd).