The end of the season arrives at the LPGA. This weekend, the CME Group Tour Championship takes place in Naples, Florida, the final stop of the Race to CME Globe. The top sixty players of the year are present at the last event of the 2024 calendar.
The favourite for the title at Tiburon Golf Club is none other than the World Number One, Nelly Korda, who is coming off her seventh win of the season at the ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican.
Among the sixty golfers, the tournament will feature Spanish representation as Carlota Ciganda qualified in extremis for the Californian event. She arrived at the ANNIKA outside the cut and made it exactly in the 60th position. The last available spot has gone to the player from Ulzama.
With her qualification, Carlota extends the streak to twelve consecutive years playing the final tournament of the year on the LPGA. No player has been as consistent as the Spaniard, and she is the only one who can say she hasn’t missed the event since 2013.
The grand finale of the LPGA Tour as such began in 2009 with the LPGA Tour Championship. In 2011, it was renamed CME Group Titleholders, and since 2014 it has been called CME Group Championship. That is to say, with the current name, only Carlota will have played, when the tournament starts this week, all the editions.
Carlota’s first participation was in 2013, and precisely since that season, the tournament has been played at the aforementioned Tiburon Golf Club. On the eve of the tournament’s start, we review some interesting facts about the relationship between Carlota, the tournament, and the course:
– The best result for the Spaniard was ten years ago (2014) when she came close to the title. She went to a playoff with Lydia Ko and Julieta Granada and ended up losing to the New Zealander on the fourth playoff hole.
– In the eleven previous editions, Carlota has accumulated three top-10s and five top-25s. She has more than proven that she can achieve great things, although it may not be the setting that suits her best.
– Since debuting in 2013, the Navarrese has played a total of 44 rounds at Tiburon Golf Club with an average score of 70.22. Close to an average of two under par. In the total of those rounds, she has played 25 of them under the course par, 57% of the total. She has tied the course five times and has fallen short on 14 occasions.
– Her nemesis is undoubtedly the 2nd hole of Tiburon Golf Course. A total of +12 over these eleven years and only one birdie, which came precisely in the last edition. More than ten years to achieve a coveted birdie on the mentioned hole. It took the Spaniard 43 attempts.
– Alongside the 17th hole in her nightmares is also the 15th. In the last six editions, she has a total of +11 with a triple bogey in 2023, the only one she has committed in these eleven years, and two double bogeys.
– On the other side of the coin is the 17th hole, where she has a total of 26 birdies, an eagle, and no mishaps in all her appearances. A total of 27 under par. The other hole where she doesn’t know what it’s like to make a bogey is the par 3 of the 16th hole. Eight bogeys without error in the 44 rounds.
– The sixth hole is also one of her favourites with a total of 20 under par over more than a decade.
– A total of 21 double bogeys or worse appear on the Spaniard’s tournament scorecards. The 4th hole, precisely with four mishaps, is the flag that has seen her commit these errors the most.
– The best round of her career in this tournament was just a year ago. On Saturday of the third round, she delivered a scorecard of 63 strokes, nine under par. However, to find her worst record, one must go back to 2020 when she signed, also on Saturday, a round of 77 strokes.
– In terms of cumulative results, the last two years have been contrasting. Just twelve months ago, she delivered the best cumulative score of her career on the Californian course with a total of 17 under par, finishing in the top ten of the tournament. Two years earlier, she finished in 54th place with a total of six over par, her highest cumulative score.
Carlota has already shown what she is capable of in this tournament. That second place, although it dates back to 2014, clearly shows what the Navarrese can achieve in a tournament of this nature. The Spaniard has been the last to arrive at the season’s final event, but who knows if in her twelfth participation, it will be the charm, and she will also become the first Spaniard in history to conquer the CME Group Tour Championship.
