Jin Young Ko and Nelly Korda are in a Crazy-Close Race for LPGA Player of the Year

These two LPGA players have both had off-the-charts good years, writes Morning Read's Mike Purkey, and the final two tournaments will determine which one is the LPGA Player of the Year.

Ko and Korda. Korda and Ko.

Jin Young Ko and Nelly Korda are the two best players on the LPGA Tour in 2021 and they are narrowly separated by three letters of the alphabet, a handful of points and a few infinitesimal decimal places.

We are down to the final two events on the LPGA Tour schedule and what happens this week and next will determine who is the tour’s player of the year. The women are in Florida for the final run, this week at the Pelican Women’s Championship and then to Naples for the CME Group Tour Championship.

A look at the numbers illustrates how close things are in the home stretch. The two are so close in the Rolex Rankings they are locked in a virtual tie. Korda is officially the No. 1 player in but you’d need to extend the decimal points a few places to find the difference between the two.

Ko leads the Rolex Player of the Year race by 15 points over Korda, 176 to 161. The award is based on points, which are awarded for top-10 finishes, with 30 points for a victory, 12 for a runner-up, down to one point for 10th. If Ko wins this week, Korda cannot catch her next week, no matter where she finishes at the Pelican Women’s Championship. If Korda wins this week, she would narrowly lead the points going into the CME Group Tour Championship, no matter where Ko finishes. If neither player wins this week or next, then it’s down to where — and whether — they post top-10 finishes.

Patty Tavatanakit, who is third with 121 points, is the only other player with a mathematical chance to win player of the year. She would have to win this week and next to surpass Korda and Ko. And that would depend on whether Korda and Ko finished in the top 10 of both events.

Korda leads Ko in scoring average by 69.074 to 69.186. But Korda isn’t eligible for the Vare Trophy, the LPGA Tour’s scoring average title because she won’t reach the minimum of 70 rounds to qualify. Each player has won four times this year, if you count Korda’s gold medal at the Women’s Olympic Golf event. Korda’s total includes her first major title, the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.

Ko leads the Race to the CME Globe by 480 points over Korda by virtue of being the hottest player in women’s golf over the last two months. Since the middle of September, Ko has three wins, a runner-up and a T6 in her last five starts.

“I just care about how my swing and my putting feels,” Ko said. “I don't think about how many I play in. I don't want to think about numbers.”

Korda, on the other hand, has played little since the Olympics. She didn’t play a tour event from the Solheim Cup in early September to the Cognizant Founders Cup a month later. In fact, she was shocked to find out she was still No. 1 in the Rolex Rankings.

“I had someone come up to me on 18 when I was finishing up my practice round and told me that I am back at world No. 1,” she said Tuesday at the Pelican Women’s Championship. “I was like, ‘No, you're joking. How is that possible?’”

While Korda dominated the summer, the 26-year-old Ko is the talk of the fall season.

“It's honestly been really super exciting to watch,” Korda said of Ko’s run of form. “You're never going to be world No. 1 forever. You're going to jump people; they're going to jump you. It's been super cool to see how dominant and well she's been playing.

“Because if you're out here and you're playing week in and week out, you appreciate how good she is playing. She's been on a run, and it's going to take some really, really good golf to catch her. But it's been super cool and special to see what she's been doing.”

Although this is a two-player sprint, neither Ko nor Korda will dwell on the race between them for the next two weeks. Each will focus on her own immediate field of vision.

“Honestly, I think I've always said good golf kind of solves it all in a sense,” Korda said. "I'm not going to worry about anything, no trophies, nothing, until I tee up that first shot and hopefully sink that last putt on the 72nd hole."

LPGA Players of the Year from 1966 to today

2020 — Sei Young Kim

2019 — Jin Young Ko

2018 — Ariya Jutanugarn

2017 — So Yeon Ryu, Sung Hyun Park

2016 — Ariya Jutanugarn

2015 — Lydia Ko

2014 — Stacy Lewis

2013 — Inbee Park

2012 Stacy Lewis

2011, Yani Tseng

2010, Yani Tseng

2009 — Lorena Ochoa

2008 — Lorena Ochoa

2007 — Lorena Ochoa

2006 — Lorena Ochoa

2005 — Annika Sorenstam

2004 — Annika Sorenstam

2003 — Annika Sorenstam

2002 — Annika Sorenstam

2001 — Annika Sorenstam

2000 — Karrie Webb

1999 — Karrie Webb

1998 — Annika Sorenstam

1997 — Annika Sorenstam

1996 — Laura Davies

1995 — Annika Sorenstam

1994 — Beth Daniel

1993 — Betsy King

1992 — Dottie (Pepper) Mochrie

1991 — Pat Bradley

1990 — Beth Daniel

1989 — Betsy King

1988 — Nancy Lopez

1987 — Ayako Okamoto

1986 — Pat Bradley

1985 — Nancy Lopez

1984 — Betsy King

1983 — Patty Sheehan

1982 — JoAnne Carner

1981 — JoAnne Carner

1980 — Beth Daniel

1979 — Nancy Lopez

1978 — Nancy Lopez

1977 — Judy Rankin

1976 — Judy Rankin

1975 — Sandra Palmer

1974 — JoAnne Carner

1973 — Kathy Whitworth

1972 — Kathy Whitworth

1971 — Kathy Whitworth

1970 — Sandra Haynie

1968 — Kathy Whitworth

1969 — Kathy Whitworth

1967 — Kathy Whitworth

1966 — Kathy Whitworth