Here are all the key details you need to know about what happened in the 2023 CME Group Tour Championship, including how Amy Yang won and insights about the course.
Location
Tiburon Golf Club, Naples, Fla.
Yardage
6,556; par 72
Tournament Record
261 – Amy Yang (2023)
Purse
$2 million
Tournament Insight
The CME Group Tour Championship, which has been held since 2014, is the season-ending event on the LPGA Tour and the culmination of the Race to the CME Globe. The top 60 on the season-long points list qualify for the event, with the winner of the tournament declared the CME Globe champion. The tournament is also the final event in determining the Player of the Year Award, which is based on a season-long points list, and the Vare Trophy for scoring average. The event is played annually at Tiburon Golf Club.
Course Insight
Tiburon Golf Club has two courses, the Gold and the Black, which opened in 1998 and 2001, respectively. Both were designed by Greg Norman (Australia’s “Great White Shark”); Tiburon is Spanish for shark. The semi-private club features the Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort hotel on the property. The CME Group Tour Championship is played on the Gold Course. The layout features waste areas and native grasses but no conventional rough. There are water hazards on nearly every hole, with trees on many holes and stacked-sod bunkers guarding the greens adding to the challenge. The fourth and fifth holes wrap around a lake, the fifth a par 3 with a peninsula green jutting into the water. The 18th is a long par 4 with a deep fairway bunker to the right and water to the left making it a demanding driving hole. The Gold Course also hosts the Grant Thornton Challenge, a new mixed-team event with PGA TOUR and LPGA pros, and the Black Course hosts the Chubb Classic on PGA TOUR Champions.
How Amy Yang won in 2023
Amy Yang holed an 80-yard shot for an eagle on the par-4 13th hole of the final round to dramatically move from one behind to one ahead, then finished with birdies on 17 and 18 to win by three strokes. South Korea’s Yang began the final round tied for first with Nasa Hataoka of Japan. Hataoka jumped to a three-stroke lead through five holes before Yang rallied. After Yang’s eagle, Hataoka birdied the 14th to get back into a tie but bogeyed 16 before Yang’s strong finish gave her a closing 66. Alison Lee had a 66 to tie Hataoka for second. Yang shot middle rounds of 63-64 to move into her share of the lead. The victory was the fifth LPGA title of her career, but the first in five years for the 34-year-old.
- Yang’s victory was her first in the U.S. She previously won three LPGA events in Thailand and one in South Korea.
- Yang’s winning total of 27-under 261 was a tournament record, breaking the mark of 23-under 265 set by Jin-Young Ko in 2021.
- Hataoka shared the lead after each of the first three rounds, ultimately finishing as runner-up at the event for the second time in three years.
- Lilia Vu finished fourth in the tournament and claimed the Player of the Year Award after a season that included four victories, two of them in majors. Vu was the first U.S. player to win the award since Stacy Lewis in 2014.
- Thailand’s Atthaya Thitikul captured the Vare Trophy for the lowest scoring average during the season at 69.533, despite not winning a tournament during the year. She entered the CME Group Tour Championship just .013 ahead of Hyo Joo Kim and stayed ahead by finishing fifth while Kim was T13.
This was first published in Essential Golf – you can read the complete magazine here.