Rory Secures Top Spot Without a Shot

Good morning. Coming back after a long weekend (at least for some of us), we have the results from one of the last fall PGA championships!

The biggest news comes from the 3 PGA championships that ended yesterday, where each winner had a unique story.

Read on to find out more. And have a great week ahead!

PGA TOUR
3 Fantastic Winning Stories

Camilo Villegas wins Butterfield Bermuda Championship in late daughter’s memory. Villegas’ daughter Mia died in July 2020 after a four-month fight against tumors on her brain and spine. She was just 22 months old. This is Villegas’ first win since 2014, securing his PGA TOUR exempt status through 2025.

Nine years – and one tragic loss – since his last TOUR title.

Lilia Vu’s magical LPGA season continues, notches 4th win at The ANNIKA. Vu is once again the Rolex World No 1 player after returning to the winner’s circle for the fourth time this season.

The 26-year-old won in her first start at The Annika driven by Gainbridge at the Pelican Golf Club with a final score of 19-under. Vu defeated runner-ups Alison Lee and Azahara Munoz by three shots.

After tying the LPGA 54-hole record, Emily Kristine Pedersen struggled Sunday, carding a 4-over 74 to finish T5.

Steven Alker finished his day with nine straight par saves and won the Charles Schwab Cup Championship by one stroke to close out the PGA Tour Champions season on Sunday in Phoenix.

Alker's 2-foot par putt at the par-5 18th had more than $1 million riding on it. By saving par for a one-stroke victory, the New Zealand native won both the $528,000 first prize for the tournament and a $500,000 bonus for taking second place in the season-long Charles Schwab Cup points race.

Ernie Els, who opened the tournament red-hot with a 63, moved from fifth to third in the Schwab Cup race.

TOP STORY
Rory Secures Top Spot Without a Shot

Rory McIlroy sealed top place in the DP World Tour rankings on Sunday without hitting a shot as none of his closest challengers can now catch him after the end of the penultimate event of the season at Sun City.

Northern Irishman McIlroy, with 5,164.5 points going into the DP World Tour Championship at Dubai this week, has now finished top of the formerly named European Tour money list five times, first in 2012 and again in 2014, 2015 and last year.

McIlroy, who made $7.48 million in prize money in nine tour events this year, is 2,083 points ahead of second-placed Jon Rahm, the Masters champion, with Adrian Meronk third.

Poland’s Meronk played in this weekend’s Nedbank Challenge at Sun City where he added 94.5 points after finishing 15th.

The tournament in South Africa was won by American Max Homa, who finished four shots ahead of Denmark’s Nicolai Hojgaard.

MAKING NEWS
Lydia Ko Won't Be At CME

The woman who swept the postseason awards last year at the CME Group Tour Championship won’t be in the field to defend her title in Naples, Florida.

Winless on the LPGA this season, Ko finished 101st on the CME points list. While the top 100 keep their fulls cards for next year, Ko can use her winner’s status to get into plenty of events next year.

A 16-year-old Ko said at the start of her LPGA career that she wouldn’t play past the age of 30. Now a decade into a career that’s yielded 19 LPGA titles, including two majors, and more than 100 weeks at No. 1, Ko knows she’s deep into the back nine of her career.

The two-time Olympic medalist (silver and bronze) wants to play for gold next summer in Paris. She also wants to qualify for the LPGA Hall of Fame. She’s two points shy of the 27 needed, which means two regular-season wins or one major title would get her there.

IN FOCUS
5 LIV Golfers are Out of Contract

Five players have been offered contract extensions thanks to their places in the top 24 of the individual standings (the Lock Zone). However, five more out-of-contract players who finished between 25th and 44th (the Open Zone) will not have the luxury of an automatic contract extension.

That means they will need to either persuade their existing teams that they are worthy of retention, negotiate with another team with an open slot in its roster, or, failing that, strive for a top-three finish in December’s LIV Golf Promotions event.

Here are the five out-of-contract LIV Golf players who battling for a place in the 2024 season:

1. Pat Perez

2. David Puig

3. Matt Jones

4. Bernd Wiesberger

5. Graeme McDowell

Read the full article here.

DRIVING RANGE
How Tour Players Practice Putting

In this video, we look at how the best players in the world practice their putting ahead of a big tournament.

PRO SHOP
Today’s Deals On Amazon

Check out all the ‘deals of the day’ on Amazon for everything golf.

PAR FOR THE COURSE
This Day In History

On this date in 1977, Silvia Bertolaccini won the LPGA Colgate Far East Golf Open in Singapore, by one shot over Kathy Whitworth, Pat Bradley, and Donna Caponi.