+++ The world’s best women tee off at the BMW Ladies Championship (19th to 23rd November) at Oak Valley Country Club +++ World number one Jin Young Ko defends the title at her home tournament +++ Biggest prize purse in women’s golf outside the USA +++
Munich/Wonju. The LPGA Tour enters the business end of the season on Thursday morning. The final four tournaments of the season await the world’s top female golfers over the next five weeks. The first of these is the BMW Ladies Championship in Wonju, South Korea. 70,000 spectators are expected at Oak Valley Country Club this week, when the world-class field battles it out for a share of two million US dollars – the most prize money on offer at any LPGA Tour event outside the USA. The BMW Ladies Championship made its debut in 2019 and is just one of the outstanding tournaments that form part the BMW Group’s involvement in international golf, including the BMW Championship (PGA TOUR), the BMW PGA Championship and the BMW International Open (DP World Tour), as well as other national events.
The defending champion is world number one Jin Young Ko from South Korea, who is playing her first tournament since injuring her wrist in August. The return from a long break is not the only challenge facing Ko at her home tournament, as the BMW Ladies Championship also features an excellent field. The 78 starters include seven of the top ten players in the world rankings.
There is no cut at the BMW Ladies Championship, meaning all the players will receive prize money and thus points towards the LPGA’s end-of-season rankings, the ‘Race to the CME Globe’. These points are particularly valuable in this crucial phase of the season, as the players look to secure one of the 60 places at the season finale and play themselves into a promising position going into the final event.
The “Race to the CME Globe” is currently led by Lydia Ko from New Zealand, followed by Australian Minjee Lee and Thailand’s Atthaya Thitikul, who will all tee off at Oak Valley Country Club. The only German in the field is Esther Henseleit who, in 84th place in the rankings, needs a good result to keep her hopes of qualifying for the finale alive.
Eight wild cards have been issued for the BMW Ladies Championship. Four of these were used to allow the crowds to watch home-grown golfing legends like former world number ones Sung Hyun Park and So Yeon Ryu, as well as major winners In Kyung Kim and Na Yeon Choi. The week promises to be particularly emotional for Choi. The 2012 U.S. Women’s Open winner announced at the start of October that she would be leaving the LPGA Tour, making this her last professional tournament in her native South Korea.