Kerr wins LPGA’s season-ending championship

Cristie Kerr was the player of the week. Lydia Ko was the player of the year and pocketed another $1 million bonus. Inbee Park will be among the players of all-time.

One tournament, three women celebrating.

And just as the LPGA Tour intended, the season finale was dramatic until the end.

Kerr won the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship on Sunday in Naples, Florida, taking the lead for good with a 12-foot eagle putt on the par-5 17th and soon wrapping up her 18th career victory. Her $500,000 first prize, which pushed her career earnings past $17 million, almost seemed ancillary given the stakes that Ko and Park were playing for this week.

Kerr is 38, and says she doesn’t plan on slowing down anytime soon. Ko is still just 18, and became the fourth player to go from rookie of the year one year to player of the year the next. The others on that list: Nancy Lopez, Beth Daniel and Annika Sorenstam.

Greats all, and Ko is well on her way to that same status.

Ko won the $1 million bonus for winning the Race to the CME Globe, just as she did last year. And Park wrapped up a trip to the LPGA Hall of Fame by winning the scoring title, meaning the only step that now remains between her and induction is completing her 10th season on tour next year.

Kerr shot a 4-under 68 and finished at 17-under 271, one shot better than Gerina Piller and Ha Na Jang. Lexi Thompson was fourth at 14 under.

Park was alone in sixth, good enough to beat Ko by three shots over the course of the entire season for the Vare Trophy and the 27th point she needed for her trip to the LPGA Hall.

PGA Tour

Kevin Kisner ended a year marked by second-place finishes with his first PGA Tour victory in the RSM Classic at Sea Island on St. Simons Island, Georgia.

Staked to a three-shot lead going into the final round of the final tournament of the year, Kisner ran with it. He doubled the size of his lead at the turn by going out in 30, and he breezed home with a 6-under 64 to win by six shots over Kevin Chappell.

Kisner became the sixth first-time winner in the fall start to the new season, though this was hardly a surprise. The 31-year-old from South Carolina played so well this year that he rose to No. 25 in the world. He just didn’t win. He lost in playoffs at Hilton Head, Sawgrass and the Greenbrier, and he was a runner-up for the fourth time in a World Golf Championship two weeks ago in Shanghai.

This one wasn’t even close.

Kisner rolled in a 6-foot birdie putt on the second hole, and no one got closer than four shots the rest of the way. He tapped in for par on the 18th hole to shatter the tournament record with a 22-under 60. Better yet was seeing year-old daughter Kate running toward him.

PEBBLE BEACH INVITATIONAL

Web.com Tour player Jeff Gove won the Pebble Beach Invitational on the Northern California coast, birdieing the final two holes for a 6-under 66 and a two-shot victory over Champions Tour players Kevin Sutherland and Duffy Waldorf.

Gove had seven birdies and a bogey at Pebble Beach to finish at 15-under 273 total.

“I felt in the moment all day,” Gove said. “I love this. I love the pressure of having a chance to win.”

Sutherland and Waldorf shot 67. Sutherland won in 2000 and finished third last year.

Gove broke a tie with Sutherland on the par-3 17th, hitting to 3 feet to set up a birdie. Gove hit his second shot on the par-5 18th to the back fringe, chipped to 7 feet and made the birdie putt.

“He hit an incredible shot on the 17th and I hit to about 4 feet, but the putt was so fast, I just kind of moved right a little bit,” Sutherland said. “I didn’t play the last hole that well. I would have had to make eagle, but I hit a bad tee shot.”

With a one-shot lead at the par-5 18th tee, Gove considered playing conservatively but didn’t.

“When I birdied 17, I said ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve got a one-shot lead going to 18 at Pebble Beach, which is what I’ve thought about all my life,’” Gove aid. “I thought about laying up, but I said, ‘No, we’re going for this.’”

Natalie Gulbis had a 74 and was the leading female finisher at even-par 288. First-round leader Kim Welch disqualified herself after informing tournament officials she posted an incorrect second-round score.

Gove earned $60,000 in the $300,000 event.

World Tour Championship

Rory McIlroy won the season-ending DP World Tour Championship and the Race to Dubai for a $3,208,300 payday in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

The third-ranked Northern Irishman shot a 6-under 66 for a one-stroke victory over England’s Any Sullivan. McIlroy finished at 21-under 267 at Jumeirah for his third European Tour victory of the season.

McIlroy earned $1,333,300 for the tournament victory, and $1,875,000 for the Race to Dubai title – $1.25 million for topping the list and a $625,000 bonus for playing three of the four Finals Series. He also won the Race to Dubai in 2012 and 2014.

Australian Masters

Peter Senior won his third Australian Masters title at a record age of 56, closing with a 3-under 68 for a two-stroke victory in Melbourne.

The Champions Tour regular became the oldest player to win the Masters, three years after becoming the oldest Australian Open winner. He also won the Australian PGA, the third major Down Under, at 51.

Senior finished at 8-under 276 at Huntingdale. He also in 1991 and 1995 at Huntingdale.

American amateur Bryson DeChambeau, the former SMU player who the NCAA and U.S. Amateur titles this year, shot a 67 to tie for second with Australians John Senden (70) and Andrew Evans (71). Australian star Adam Scott was fifth at 4 under after a 69.