10 LPGA players to watch on the CME bubble, including Lexi Thompson and ’22 champ Lydia Ko
Only three events remain on the LPGA schedule before the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship, and there are some big-name players sitting on the outside. The top 60 players on the Race to CME Globe points list will qualify for the season finale in Naples, Florida, Nov. 16-19, where anyone in the field can win the top prize in women’s golf of $2 million.
This week’s Maybank Championship in Malaysia has a field of 78 players with no cut. A victory is worth 500 points, and a 10th-place finish garners 75. The Toto Japan Classic in early November is another no-cut event, which means that like the Maybank, every LPGA player in the field will earn CME points, should she complete all four rounds.
The Annika driven by Gainbridge at Pelican is the final event before the CME points list is finalized on Nov. 12.
Here are 10 players on the bubble heading down the final stretch:
60. Eun-Hee Ji
South Korea’s Ji, a six-time LPGA winner, sits on the magic number, 60th, heading into the final stretch. Ji is in the field in both Malaysia and Japan.
61. Ryann O'Toole
O’Toole, who has one top-10 finish this season in Northern Ireland, is in the field in Malaysia. She missed five straight cuts in the middle of the season.
65. Lauren Coughlin
Coughlin is making a strong year-end push to qualify for her first CME. She took a share of 10th last week in South Korea and tied for 21st in Shanghai. Coughlin will play four in a row in Asia.
70. Gemma Dryburgh
The 2022 Toto champion and recent Solheim Cupper has her work cut out to jump 10 spots. The 30-year-old had several bright spots for Europe in Spain but hasn’t fared well on the LPGA since an eighth-place finish at Amundi Evian.
77. Mel Reid
After a rousing start to the KPMG Women’s PGA, Reid slumped a bit over the summer before finishing T-5 at the Kroger Queen City in Cincinnati. Reid is not in the field for the remaining Asian events.
78. Maria Fassi
Fassi needed a top-six finish at the Pelican last year to qualify for the CME but bogeyed the last two holes to finish 65th on the points list. Can she flip the script this year? Fassi will play in both remaining Asian events.
79. Hinako Shibuno
Only one top-10 finish thus far for the player known as the Smiling Cinderella. Shibuno hasn’t cracked the top 20 since August. She will play in the next two events in Asia. Shibuno finished 36th last year on the CME points list.
80. Stacy Lewis
A struggling Lewis hasn’t made a cut since July. The 2023 and 2024 U.S. Solheim Cup captain took off the entire Asian swing. Lewis has played in every CME since 2019.
87. Lexi Thompson
After struggling for most of the 2023 season, Thompson turned her game around in time for the Solheim Cup and has been going from strength to strength ever since, making an inspiring run at playing the weekend at a PGA Tour event. Thompson won’t compete in Asia, which means she’ll have one more chance to make her move. She won the CME in 2018.
101. Lydia Ko
One year after sweeping the LPGA’s postseason, including the CME title, Lydia Ko might not even make it back in 2023. Ko, who is playing this week on a sponsor exemption in Malaysia, is coming off a bright spot after finishing third at the BMW Ladies Championship last week. Ko played the South Korean event on a sponsor invite as well. The comeback, it turns out, was short-lived.
