Lydia, Oh Lydia

Wise beyond her years and preternaturally calm, girlfriend Lydia Ko becomes the wealthiest seventeen year-old in New Zealand:

New Zealand teenager Lydia Ko ended her rookie year on the LPGA Tour with the

The trophies are no more impressive than those for 2nd place at The Ridge.

biggest payoff in women's golf. 

Ko won the $1 million bonus from the inaugural "Race to CME Globe" on Sunday by getting into a three-way playoff. Then, the 17-year-old added an extra $500,000 when she defeated Carlota Ciganda of Spain on the fourth extra hole at Tiburon Golf Club to win the CME Group Tour Championship. 

Ko made par all five times she played the 18th hole on Sunday, and the last one paid handsomely. 

"It's been an awesome week, and a week that I'll never forget," Ko said. "When I saw that $1 million in the box, I was like, 'Wow, I wonder who the winner of that will be?' It's amazing. I've never seen that much cash in one place before."

The LPGA had a great year by any measure, though the finish seemed quite anti-climactic to this viewer.  It quite predictably suffered from many of the same defects as the FedEx Cup, not surprising given that they copied liberally from Commissioner Ratched's playbook.  

Does the PayPal generation know how to use cash?

The threshold problem occurs when you can't decide what you want your year-end event to be.  Interestingly, the Euro season-long Race to Dubai finished on the same weekend and illuminates the choices to be made.  In Dubai the Race was effectively decided weeks before the coda, allowing Rory the luxury of spending some quality time with his barristers... But at least the winner is deserving, and the tournament stands on its own as a big-money event with a reasonably strong field.

In the LPGA's case, the season-long winner was no better than the third best player of the year, though she did end up winning the event.  But the presence of Julieta Granada reminds of the other alternative, last utilized in 2006 when the young Paraguayan with Mom on the bag won the cool mil in an unapologetic shootout.  

A couple of other random thoughts...  Unfortunately for the ladies, much as they repeat it ad infinitum, but doesn't the million (or even the $1.5 million) seem quaintly retro?  I guess if slaves could be counted as 1/3 of a white man in the U.S., women can be considered 1/10 of a man?  I think we've clearly said farewell to our last women reader.... hopefully Elsie, the Scottish housewife, is too busy traveling to New York to be reading the blog.

Secondly, the Tiburon course on which they played the event seems fine, at least given the geographic limitations of late November.  But could you find a worse playoff hole to play over and over again?  There were like four birdies there all week and that's with a fairway as wide as the State of Florida...can you say BORING?  You'd think Mike Whan and the Tour would want to show his players at their best, making birdies... Instead, we got to wake up each fifteen minutes to see if any of the girls missed a four-footer.  Oh, the excitement!

Unfortunately for the Tour, it became increasingly painful to watch Carlota Ciganda fight her putting stroke down the stretch, a problem for which there is no remedy.  She's quite the young talent and will hopefully benefit from the experience, but also highlights how bad the commentary was.  All Judy Rankin and her consorts could talk about was how important a win could be for the non-Lydias, thereby advantage to the Kiwi.  But guys, it was a long difficult Par-4 for the gals...did you happen to notice that Ciganda was hitting 7 and 8-irons in, while the other two were debating which of seven head covers to remove?  Kind of an advantage, no?  And she did finally stuff one, but then the putting stroke failed her.

But I do want to comment on the scenes of Ciganda's Spanish teammates behind the 18th green, living and dying with each twist and turn.  We need more of that in golf...  Same with Michelle Wie on the 18th green last week to congratulate her bestie Christina Kim.  I'm just an old sap for that kind of stuff...  

As for Granada, she drives it on average 220-something yards...Amazing that she can compete out there.  Lastly, are we allowed to note that all three girls in the playoff had names ending in a vowel?  I'm sure that's somehow racist, which makes it all the more important to highlight.