The LPGA handed out several awards during its annual banquet Monday night at The Ritz-Carlton in Naples, Florida.
Japan’s Miyu Yamashita was presented as the Louise Suggs Rookie of the Year after the prolific JLPGA winner captured two LPGA titles, including the AIG Women’s Open. Yamashita is the third Japanese player to win the honor, joining Mao Saigo and Hiromi Kobayashi.
Speaking of majors, Australia’s Minjee Lee received the Rolex Annika Major Award for her major performances, which didn’t include a single finish outside the top 25 in her five starts.
Lindy Duncan won the Heather Farr Perseverance Award while Stacy Lewis was the recipient of the Founders Award. And Jennifer Kupcho locked up the Aon Risk-Reward Challenge and that honor’s $1 million check.
However, there is still some hardware left to be decided at this week’s CME Group Tour Championship at Tiburon Golf Club.
Yamashita is chasing World No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul for Rolex Player of the Year, though Yamashita’s only chance of overtaking Thitikul, last year’s CME finale winner and 16 points clear of Yamashita in this season’s POY race, is to win. If she does win POY, Yamashita would join Nancy Lopez as just the second player in LPGA history win POY and ROY in the same season.
Thitikul is also comfortably leading the Vare Trophy race with a scoring average of 68.88 this season. Nelly Korda is second at 69.58.