THOMPSON WINS TECH CHAMPIONSHIP

THOMPSON WINS INAUGURAL INDY WOMEN IN TECH CHAMPIONSHIP

Since 1956, every winner of the Indianapolis 500 has taken a swig of ice-cold milk in Victory Lane, one of the most venerated traditions in sports.

Today, the first female athlete joined that tradition. And to Lexi Thompson, milk has never tasted so good.

With a lights-out 19-under 197 at Brickyard Crossing Golf Course, Thompson captured the inaugural Indy Women in Tech Championship presented by Guggenheim by four strokes over Lydia Ko and became the first LPGA player to enjoy the milk tradition of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

“I’m very happy that it was me,” said Thompson, who also gave the traditional kiss to the yard of bricks that lines the track’s finish line. “It was such a great week overall and it was a huge honor to be here in Indiana to be able to kiss those bricks. Definitely a memory that I’ll never forget.”

Thompson spent most of Saturday’s final round in cruise control, draining six birdies to two bogeys in her 4-under 68. She carried a four-stroke lead over Ko to No. 16, where her wayward drive found the water and temporarily put a stop to Thompson’s momentum.

But even that bogey was not enough to stop the 22-year-old from South Florida. With the Red Bull logo on her hat matching the logo on the Speedway’s Corvette Stingray pace car, Thompson birdied the reachable par-4 18th to capture her ninth career LPGA victory and don the champion’s wreath bestowed upon all winners at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

To read Christina Lance’s full recap of Saturday’s final round at the Indy Women in Tech Championship presented by Guggenheim, click here: http://www.lpga.com/news/2017-indy-women-in-tech-championship-final-round-recap

IT’S ALL DOWN TO THE PUTTER FOR KO

Former World No. 1 Lydia Ko showed flashes of her well-known brilliance at Brickyard Golf Course, finishing second for her best finish since April’s LOTTE Championship presented by Hershey. But while the New Zealand native can certainly take many positives from her play this week, it just wasn’t enough to match Thompson’s dominant performance.

Ko pointed to putting as the key difference, as she needed 85 putts to make her way around the golf course to Thompson’s 77.

“Lexi played great, especially down the stretch,” said Ko, who has now gone 28 tournaments without a victory, the longest such stretch of her LPGA career. “She had some 3-, 4-footers for par and bogey and she was able to knock them all in, so it just shows the confidence that she was playing with. But yeah, I had a great time being in this position.”

KO SETS NEW LPGA RECORD – FASTEST TO $8 MILLION IN EARNINGS

While she may not have won, Lydia Ko added her name yet again to the LPGA Record Books. In her 93rd start as a professional and with the $186,096 runner-up check, Ko became the fastest player in LPGA history to cross $8 million in career earnings at $8,021,004. The previous mark was held by Yani Tseng, who crossed that threshold in her 98th event.

Next up – the $9 million mark, currently held by Lorena Ochoa. She crossed $9 million in her 119th career event as an LPGA professional.

KRISTINSDOTTIR TABS BEST CAREER FINISH

Iceland native and 2017 LPGA rookie Olafia Kristinsdottir (-13) notched the first top-10 finish of her LPGA career with her fourth-place result this week.

“It’s really exciting,” said Kristinsdottir, who is aiming to finish the season strong and keep her LPGA card in 2018. “I have goals and this will get me closer to those goals, so that’s really good for me.”

The 24-year-old’s final-round 68 was punctuated by a chip-in eagle on her finishing hole.

“I hit a good tee shot with driver and then I had a 60-degree,” she said. “I just had a really good practice swing and then the shot was just exactly the same as my practice swing. I visualized it and it was perfect.”

THE FINAL STRETCH IN THE RACE TO THE CME GLOBE

This week’s Indy Women in Tech Championship presented by Guggenheim is the 25th event in the season-long Race to the CME Globe. Thanks to her win, World No. 2 Lexi Thompson extends her lead in the Race with 3,192 points, with World No. 1 So Yeon Ryu (2,652 points) and World No. 3 Sung Hyun Park (2,563 points) close behind.

In 2017, the reset points for the Race to the CME Globe will be modified slightly. As a result of these modifications:

The top five finishers entering Naples will control their own destiny at the CME Group Tour Championship

If a player in the top five wins in Naples, she will also win the $1M CME Globe

The top 12 finishers entering Naples will have a mathematical chance to win the $1M CME Globe

Please note that previously, the top three controlled their destiny and top nine had a mathematical chance

CME GROUP CARES WEEKENDS EAGLES UPDATE

CME Group Cares Weekend is a season-long charitable giving program that turns eagles into donations.  For each eagle recorded during weekend play (Saturday and Sunday) throughout the 2017 LPGA Tour season, CME Group donates $1,000 to the program’s total donation count. The money raised will go towards a charitable pool and be split evenly between Wounded Warrior Project® and Bright Pink®.

Players scored four eagles over the weekend at the 2017 Indy Women in Tech Championship presented by Guggenheim, raising another $4,000 for charity. This brings the total to 238 eagles on the year, which translates to $238,000 raised.

QUICK HITS

The Indy Women in Tech Championship presented by Guggenheim is the last of three 54-hole LPGA events in 2017 and featured the lowest winning score of the three at -19; the other two were the ShopRite LPGA Classic presented by Acer (-11, In-Kyung Kim) and the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship presented by P&G (-18, So Yeon Ryu).

Lexi Thompson is the first American with multiple wins in a LPGA season since she and Cristie Kerr both notched two wins in 2015.

With her second win of the season, Thompson joins In-Kyung Kim (three victories), Sung Hyun Park (two victories) and So Yeon Ryu (two victories) as the only multiple winners of the 2017 LPGA season.

Thompson is one of five American players to win in 2017.

Minjee Lee earned her eighth top-eight finish of 2017; the three-time winner won twice last season but is still searching for her first win of the year.