It was a good Sunday for Jin Young Kim.
The world’s No. 1-ranked player won the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship, the largest check on the LPGA Tour ($1.1 million) and the money title (in just four starts).
Ko shot 6-under 66 in the final round at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Florida, to defeat overnight leader Sei Young Kim (72) and Hannah Green (67) by five shots, at 18 under par.
Kim began the day with a one-shot lead over Ko, but the two were tied at the turn. That’s when Ko took control.
After a Kim bogey at the 11th, Ko went two up with a birdie at No. 12.
Ko then matched Kim’s birdie at the par-4 13th.
Ko made it three birdies in a row at the par-5 14th and upped her advantage to four strokes with another birdie at No. 16.
And, for good measure, she holed the final shot of the 2020 LPGA season for birdie and victory.
The 25-year-old South Korean spent most of the year in her homeland and playing the LPGA of Korea Tour because of the COVID-19 pandemic. She returned to America ahead of the U.S. Women's Open and only qualified for this event thanks to a couple of late birdies in Monday's final round at Champions Golf Club.
In Sunday's final round at Tiburon, Ko shot 5-under 31 – to Kim's even-par 36 – on the back nine, en route to her seventh career LPGA win.