A Dive Into the History of the CME Group Tour Championship: Past Winners, Record Holders, and More

The sporting world has always been able to witness a lot of exceptional golfers on the course. This has been especially true in the case of the LPGA Tour, which boasts a number of events over the years. However, similar to how the men’s circuit has a season-ending tournament, the women’s tour also has a final event to crown the top golfer.

The 2023 season saw itself begin at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions and would soon end with the CME Group Tour Championship, set to take place in Florida. However, curiosity naturally arises about the final competition of the circuit, which stands as an equivalent to none other than the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup!

The history of the CME Group Tour Championship

The season-ending event was initially known as the LPGA Tour Championship. After a small stint for two years in 2009 and 2010, it was renamed CME Group Titleholders in 2011. However, in 2014, the women’s circuit introduced a new initiative known as the Race to CME Globe, a season-long points contest.

Moreover, the tournament was again renamed the CME Group Tour Championship. This led to the golfers on the LPGA duking it out with each other during the various tournaments of the tour in a bid to rake in points for participating in the final event. The FedEx Cup equivalent, after 2010, has witnessed a lot of top athletes claiming the crown for themselves, proving themselves to be the best on the Tour.

Past winners of the championship

From 2019, the championship saw itself restricted to just the top 60 players, as opposed to the top 72 in 2014–18 on the Race to CME Globe points list. Moreover, the upcoming event in 2023 would witness a prize of $7 million as the golfers battle it out for the winner’s cut of $2 million in the 2022 72-hole, no-cut competition at the Tiburon Golf Club in Naples.

The first edition of the tournament in 2011 saw Hee Young Park lift the trophy for the first time after registering a score of 9-under, 279 to top the leaderboard. Following her, a lot of golfers have managed to emerge victorious at the season-ending event, with two of them managing the feat two times each.

Jin Young Ko, the current No. 4 in the Rolex Rankings, clinched the win for the first time in 2020. She managed to defend her title of champion, in a first of sorts in the history of the event, in 2021, scoring 23-under 265.

But in 2022, Lydia Ko managed to win it back from the South Korean professional by putting up numbers of 271 (-17). The former had emerged victorious in 2014, back when it was called the CME Group Titleholders, by registering 10-under-par 278.

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The other winners of the event include the likes of top golfers such as Choi Na-Yeon (2012), Shanshan Feng (2013), Cristie Kerr (2015), Charley Hull (2016), Ariya Jutanugarn (2017), Lexi Thompson (2018), and Sei-Young Kim (2019). A total of nine professionals have come out on top of the event since 2011, which saw CME Group take over as title sponsors.

The sponsors for the season-ending tournament

In 2011, the tournament saw itself change its moniker a total of twice as a result of the LPGA signing a partnership agreement with CME Group. Initially, the deal was for three years to sponsor the event. However, they extended the same in 2014, owing to which it got renamed for the second time to the CME Group Tour Championship.

CME Group Inc. is a company that focuses on the management of risk and the improvement of performance in the finance sector. The organization is headquartered in Chicago and has often partnered up with the LPGA to host many Pro-Am tournaments. In addition to the title sponsorship, the group is also in cooperation with Brittany Lincicome and Mo Martin, two prominent players on the LPGA circuit.

With the amount of hype that has been built up in the golf world, it does not come as a surprise that a lot of heads turn toward the tournament as it takes place as the final event of the long season. Who do you think would win it this time around?

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