Telfer's Thoughs 25.11.25

For some years now, Lydia Ko, currently 28 years of age, has been at pains to point out she doesn’t intend to be playing professional golf beyond the age of 30. That being the case, we can’t expect to be seeing Lydia hitting that little white ball for any more than another 18 months.

Her last appearance this year on the USLPGA Tour was the CME Globe last week - the traditional season-ending finale on the LPGA Tour. It offers what the Head of CME Globe said at the prize giving - the biggest winner’s cheque in women’s sport - US$4million.

It was won this year for the second year in a row by the 22-year-old Thai golfer, Jeeno Thitikul. That’s the equivalent of just over NZ$14million for 8 rounds of golf.

Finally prize money in women’s golf, although not comparable yet to what their male counterparts can earn, at least now no longer trails embarrassingly behind what men are able to earn.

Lydia Ko’s share of that huge US$11million purse at the CME Globe in Florida last week was just US$67,000. Lydia could only manage to finish in 41st place in the field of 50 starters.

Only the top 50 points scorers from across the year were eligible to compete in this rich end-of-season event. At least from Lydia’s point of view she qualified for this championship final, something she wasn’t able to do last year.

When Lydia looks back on her golfing year in 2025 she’ll do so with some satisfaction. She did after all post yet another win on the world’s leading women’s golf tour, the USLPGA. Lydia now has 23 wins on this Tour, including three Majors.

However I suspect there will also be more than just a twinge of disappointment. She began the year very positively, with three top ten finishes in her first four starts, including a win in the World Championship back in February, but since then Lydia has posted only two top tens in her final 10 events, along with two missed cuts.

In Florida it looked at the halfway stage of the CME Globe that Lydia might be on target for a very high finish. It should be said though that Thitikul, even after 36 holes, held a commanding lead over the field and went on, not surprisingly, to win it comfortably by 4 strokes.

Lydia opened with a 3 under 69 and then followed that up with a 4 under 68 to be handily placed at the halfway stage inside the top 10.

The weekend unfortunately was a different story, seeing her post 73 on Saturday and a 1 over par 72 on the last day. Her putter ran hot and cold. She needed just 25 putts on Day One. But over Rounds 2 and 3 Lydia, arguably the best putter on the women’s tour, needed a total of 63 putts for those 36 holes, painful stuff. Also plaguing her was the trouble she ran into on the last hole on both of the last two days, leading her to post a double bogey 6 there on Saturday and a triple bogey 7 on this par 4 on Sunday. If she had just parred those two holes, she would have finished inside the top 20.

All up Lydia remains one of the world’s best female golfers. Her official ranking stands at 6th in the world. Thitikul, not surprisingly, is Number One, followed by American Nelly Korda at Two. Lydia still has unfinished business in golf, anxious to add to her tally of 3 Majors. So she’ll be back next year in what might be her final chance to add to that tally. Her game is good enough for her to be eminently capable of posting another Major to that tally.

Our top male golfer, Ryan Fox, after a long layoff back home here in NZ, is back in action this week and next across the ditch, competing in two DP World Tour events to kick off this Tour’s new season. This week he lines up in the Australian PGA Championship at the Royal Queensland Club, followed by the Australian Open the following week at Royal Melbourne.