"I think I we deserve that" - Lydia Ko lauds CME CEO for $11 million prize purse
Lydia Ko has praised CME CEO Terrance A. Duffy for the increase in the prize money at the season-concluding CME Group Tour Championship. The Kiwi golfer is playing at this week's LPGA Tour event and after three rounds, she was tied for 12th place on the leaderboard.
During a press conference on November 23, Ko was asked about the huge purse of the tournament. The Paris Olympics golf medalist lauded praise to CME CEO for the "unbelievable" support for women’s golf events and for "elevating and increasing the purses." She said (via ASAP Sports),
"Terry has just been an unbelievable supporter, and I think because of him, like our major championships and other domestic events have just kept elevating and increasing the purses.
"To see that and the growth in the 11 years that I've played, it's been really, really cool. You know, I get to play alongside the best female golfers every week and I think we deserve it. They deserve it. So thanks to CME, AIG, Chevron, all the partners for just believing in to us."
Notably, this week's CME Group Tour Championship has a purse of $11 million, with the winner receiving a check of $4 million.
Here is the prize distribution for the 2024 CME Group Tour Championship:
- Win: $4 million
- 2: $1 million
- 3: $550,000
- 4: $350,000
- 5: $260,000
- 6: $195,000
- 7: $155,000
- 8: $136,000
- 9: $120,000
- 10: $113,500
- 11: $107,000
- 12: $101,000
- 13: $96,000
- 14: $91,000
- 15: $88,000
- 16: $86,000
- 17: $84,500
- 18: $83,000
- 19: $81,500
- 20: $80,000
- 21: $79,000
- 22: $78,000
- 23: $77,000
- 24: $76,000
- 25: $75,000
- 26: $74,000
- 27: $73,000
- 28: $72,000
- 29: $71,000
- 30: $70,000
- 31: $69,250
- 32: $68,500
- 33: $67,750
- 34: $67,000
- 35: $66,250
- 36: $65,500
- 37: $64,750
- 38: $64,000
- 39: $63,250
- 40: $62,500
- 41: $62,000
- 42: $61,500
- 43: $61,000
- 44: $60,500
- 45: $60,000
- 46: $59,500
- 47: $59,000
- 48: $58,500
- 49: $58,000
- 50: $57,500
- 51: $57,250
- 52: $57,000
- 53: $56,750
- 54: $56,500
- 55: $56,250
- 56: $56,000
- 57: $55,750
- 58: $55,500
- 59: $55,250
- 60: $55,000
"I'm just going to focus on my game" - Lydia Ko shares her strategy for the final round of the 2024 CME Group Tour Championship.
The final round of this week's LPGA Tour event is scheduled to take place on Sunday, November 24 in Naples, Florida. Ko has been having a decent outing at the event so far.
She shared her strategies for the final round in the press conference on Saturday. She said (via ASAP Sports):
"I'm just going to focus on my game and stick to the strategy that I've been -- that I placed earlier in the week. I feel like that's been pretty good. The ball striking has been pretty consistent so far, so just kind of maintain that.
"Just give myself a lot of good looks for birdies. I think if it's hard for one person I think it just means it's hard for multiple people, because I came off the course yesterday and so many people were like, oh, I had five bogeys in a row. I had three three-putts in a row. I'm like, I was on the same boat as them."
Jeeno Thitikul and Angel Yin have taken the lead in the game on Saturday and are in contention to clinch the trophy and $4 million in prize money this week. Both are tied for the lead at 15-under. They will start the final round three strokes ahead of Ruoning Yin, who is in third place on the leaderboard. Charley Hull and Narin An are tied for fourth place.