5 Big Names Who Will Miss The LPGA's CME Group Tour Championship

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published 13 November 2023

The LPGA Tour season will reach its conclusion this coming weekend at the CME Group Tour Championship in Naples, Florida – and a number of big names won’t be teeing it up, including defending champion Lydia Ko.

Here are five players who didn't manage to secure a top-60 place for the season finale.

Lexi Thompson

This will be the first time that the 2014 Chevron Championship winner will not being participating in the season finale since its inception 12 years ago. The American gave herself too much to do after a poor start to the season. On the positive side, the 28-year-old did not finish outside the top 10 in her last three LPGA Tour events, which suggests that she could make up for what has been a pretty average campaign next season.

Emily Pedersen

If there’s one positive that Danish star Pedersen can take away from this season – and this is a pretty big one – it’s her performance in the Solheim Cup in Spain, where she won two-and-a-half points for Team Europe. The season came to a disappointing end when she lost her lead going into the final round of The Annika and then double-bogeyed the last hole to miss out on the top 60.

Lydia Ko

What a difference a year makes. In 2022, the New Zealander filled her trophy cabinet with silverware and awards, including Player of the Year and the Vare Trophy for the lowest scoring average. The 26-year-old even won the CME Group Tour Championship and banked a $2 million winner’s check. This year, however, Ko has been rather up and down and, bar her third-place finish at the BMW Ladies Championship, has rarely threatened to add to her 19 LPGA Tour victories.

Jeongeun Lee6

A year ago, Lee finished tied fourth at the Tour Championship. A string of missed cuts early on in the 2023 season saw the 2019 US Women’s Open champion fall well off the pace, and there have been few signs of a return to form at any stage. Better times surely lie ahead for the 2019 LPGA Rookie of the Year.

In Gee Chun

Chun is another player to have suffered a dip after the high of Major glory. Last year, she won her third Major title at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Congressional. Twelve months on and she will be looking back on what has been a fairly ordinary campaign, one in which she has recorded just one top-10 finish.

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Michael has been with Golf Monthly since 2008. As a multimedia journalist, he has also worked for The Football Association, where he created content to support the men's European Championships, The FA Cup, London 2012, and FA Women's Super League. As content editor at Foremost Golf, Michael worked closely with golf's biggest equipment manufacturers, and has developed an in-depth knowledge of this side of the industry. He's a regular contributor, covering instruction, equipment and feature content. Michael has interviewed many of the game's biggest stars, including seven World No.1s, and has attended and reported on many Major Championships and Ryder Cups around the world. He's a member of Formby Golf Club in Merseyside, UK.