The season-ending CME Group Tour Championship kickstarts the LPGA Tour’s award season. Among the most prestigious awards, the Vare Trophy recognizes the player with the lowest scoring average in a season. It is named after Glenna Collett Vare, one of the greatest amateur golfers. Vare won the US Women’s Championship a record six times between 1922 and 1935. 

The LPGA Tour first started this award in 1953. Patty Berg took home the inaugural edition, with a scoring average of 75.00. Interestingly, Berg was a runner-up to Collet Vare in the 1930 US women’s amateur. Notably, the Vare Trophy also comes with one LPGA Hall of Fame point. 

Annika Sorenstam was the first LPGA pro to break the scoring average of 70 in 1998 (69.987). The Swedish pro is also the second-highest winner of the Trophy. Only Kathy Whitworth’s seven are better than Sorenstam’s six.

As of now, the lowest scoring average belongs to Annika Sorenstam. The 10-time major winner posted a scoring average of 68.697 in 2002, the year she matched the LPGA single-season record of winning 11 tournaments. Interestingly, Sorenstam also posted the same average two years later. However, she failed to meet the criteria for the Vare Trophy.

According to the LPGA Tour’s erstwhile rules, players should have competed in at least 70 rounds. Sorenstam couldn’t match that benchmark, so he slipped on the Vare Trophy despite being almost 1.29 strokes ahead of Grace Park. The LPGA Tour has since then changed the rule. But to little effect. 

Now players have to tick at least one of these two boxes. A) They have to tee off in at least 60 rounds or 60% of the official rounds played with an individual score, whichever is less. B) If they played in the Olympics, they have to tee off in 70 rounds, or 70% of the official rounds with individual scores, whichever is less. That hasn’t solved the problem, however. 

The Vare Trophy winner this year won’t be the lowest scorer

If you look at the Vare Trophy leaderboard, Jeeno Thitikul (who went by the name Athaya Thitikul till last year) is at the top. The 2024 Dow Championship winner carded an impressive 69.54 this season with four rounds left to be played at the CME Group Tour Championship. 

Thitikul, last year’s Vare Trophy winner, has teed off in 16 tournaments, making the cut in 14 and winning one. In her last six starts, the Thai pro hasn’t finished outside the top eight. Thitikul has teed off in 58 rounds, having been sidelined by injury for the first few months of the year. But four of them came at the team event, the Dow Championship, which won’t be considered for the Vare Trophy. So, the 21-year-old won’t compete for the prestigious award despite posting 30 rounds in the 60s. 

The case is similar to world no. 1 Nelly Korda. The 15-time LPGA Tour winner has notched an average of 69.66. Korda has teed off in 56 rounds in total, but three of them were in the T-Mobile Match Play. So, the 26-year-old, despite winning seven tournaments, won’t win the Vare Trophy even if she surpasses Thitikul by this Sunday.

Interestingly, it was Korda’s snub in 2021 that forced the LPGA Tour to come up with these new rules. The world no. 1 had the lowest-scoring average that year. Yet, she came up short of meeting the minimum 70-round criteria. As was the second-placed Jin Young Ko and third-placed Inbee Park. Lydia Ko went on to hold the prestigious trophy that year. 

Interestingly, Korda wasn’t aware of the rule. Neither was her sister, Jessica. Asked if it needed a change, the elder Korda replied, “One hundred percent.” LPGA Tour changed the criteria next year to add the minimum 60-round rule. 

Comparably, the PGA Tour checks only 50 rounds to decide the Byron Nelson Award for the lowest adjusted scoring average. This time, the battle is between the third-placed Haeran Ryu (69.98) and fourth-placed Ayaka Furue (70.05).