B16 | REPORTONBUSINESS OTHEGLOBEANDMAIL | MONDAY,NOVEMBER25,2019
Sei-young Kim hit the putt of her life, a
25-foot birdie on the final hole of the
CME Group Tour Championship to win
US$1.5-million, the richest prize in the
history of women’s golf.
Kim closed with a two-under 70 to
beat an unlikely foe Sunday at Tiburon
Golf Club.
Charley Hull of England birdied her
last three holes for a 66, the last one a
12-footer that gave her a tie for the lead.
Kim, who looked shaky in missing three
straight birdie chances from 12 feet,
tugged her approach to the top of a
crown at the back of the green. The win-
ning putt – the money putt – was hit
with perfect pace and broke sharply to
the right as Kim pumped her fists in dis-
belief.
She finished a wire-to-wire victory for
her third LPGA Tour title of the year and
10th of her career.
This was memorable for the finish
and the reward.
Instead of a US$500,000 first-place
cheque and a US$1-million bonus to a
season points race, CME Globe wanted
to award US$1.5-million in official mon-
ey to any of the 60 players who qualified
for the season finale. That’s US$500,000
more than the previous record prize,
US$1-million at the U.S. Women’s Open.
Kim, who never trailed during the fi-
nal round, was feeling the heat coming
down the stretch as Danielle Kang and
then Hull took aim.
Brooke Henderson of Smiths Falls,
Ont., shot 67 and finished alone in fifth
to win $US$176,570.
Kang, who made five birdies on the
front nine, went quiet on the back until
making a 30-foot eagle putt on the 17th.
She hit 4-iron into 15 feet on the final
hole, and her birdie attempt to tie for
the lead was short. She closed with a 65.
Hull birdied five of her last seven, and
when she saw the leaderboard on the
15th, she figured she would have to bird-
ie everything coming. From short of the
green on the par-five 17th, she hit putter
up the slope to tap-in range to get with-
in one shot of Kim. And on the 18th, she
walked in the birdie putt.
Kim thought her biggest threat was
Nelly Korda, who started one shot be-
hind. Korda stalled with two hooked tee
shots, the second one hurting her
chances at a birdie on the 17th.
Walking up the 18th, Kim realized
Hull had tied her.
“I didn’t know Charley finished at 17
[under],” Kim said at the trophy pre-
sentation. “What if I couldn’t make it? I
could go to a playoff. It’s not good for
me. It was really nervous when walking
through hole 18. I was like: ‘Okay, not a
big deal. Try to play like a practice
round.’ Even then, I was really nervous.”
She set nerves aside and made theonly putt that mattered. The US$1.5-mil-
lion was more than she had made all
year.
Kim finished at 18-under 270 and fin-
ished No. 2 on the LPGA money list be-
hind Jin-young Ko, who tied for 11th and
still had no complaints about her sea-
son. Ko won LPGA player of the year, the
money title and the Vare Trophy for the
lowest scoring average.
Ko won four times this year, includ-
ing two majors.
Hull was an example of how the for-
mat change turned the Tour Champion-
ship into a free-for-all. She had only one
top 10 this year and was No. 51 in the
Race to CME Globe. A year ago, she
wouldn’t have been eligible for the
US$1-million bonus.
“I gave it my best shot,” said Hull,
who won US$480,000 for being runner-
up. She made US$405,961 in her previ-
ous 21 events this year.THEASSOCIATEDPRESSKimhits25-footputttotake
LPGAfinale,$1.5-million
Canada’sHendersonfinishes
fifthatCMEGroupTour
ChampionshipinFlorida
Canada’sBrookeHendersonplaysashotonthefirstholeduringthefinalroundofthe
CMEGroupTourChampionshipinNaples,Fla.,onSunday.Sei-youngKimledwireto
wiretowintheevent.MICHAELREAVES/GETTYIMAGESDOUGFERGUSONNAPLES,FLA.
MANUNITEDDRAWS
WITHSHEFFIELDUNITEDSHEFFIELD,ENGLANDManchester United
conceded a 90th-minute equalizer after
recovering from a two-goal deficit to
draw 3-3 with Sheffield United in a wild
Premier League match on Sunday. Oli
McBurnie’s goal required a review by vid-
eo-assistant referee for a possible hand-
ball, but it was awarded – to loud roars by
the home fans at Bramall Lane – to stop
Man United climbing to fifth place in the
standings. Having fallen 2-0 down after
52 minutes, Man United scored three
goals in a seven-minute span from the
72nd to go ahead in dramatic fashion. All
of those goals were scored by academy
graduates, with 19-year-old Brandon Wil-
liams and 18-year-old Mason Greenwood
netting for the first time in the league be-
fore Marcus Rashford completed the re-
markable comeback. Still, the visitors
could not hold out and stayed behind
promoted Sheffield United in the table.
THEASSOCIATEDPRESSRAHMLANDSUS$5-MILLIONPRIZEDUBAIJon Rahm is US$5-million richer
after winning both the season-ending
World Tour Championship and the Race
to Dubai title on Sunday. The world No. 5
got up and down from a greenside bun-
ker for a birdie at the 18th hole to win the
tournament by a stroke from Tommy
Fleetwood, who also would have become
European No. 1 with a win on the Earth
Course. Rahm, who was 19 under over all,
earned US$3-million for winning the
event and a bonus of US$2-million for
winning the Race to Dubai. Rahm is only
the second Spaniard to finish a season as
the European Tour’s No. 1 player.
THEASSOCIATEDPRESSDUNCANRALLIESTOTAKE
PGATOUR’SRSMCLASSICST. SIMONS ISLAND, GA.Tyler Duncan
made a 12-foot putt on the second hole of
a playoff with Webb Simpson on Sunday
in the RSM Classic for his first PGA Tour
title. Sebastian Munoz was a stroke back
after a 68. Brendon Todd, seeking his
third straight PGA Tour victory, was
fourth at 16 under. Canada’s David Hearn
tied for 30th.
THEASSOCIATEDPRESSBLONDINWINSSILVERATISU
WORLDCUPSPEEDSKATINGEVENTTOMASZOWMAZOWIECKI,POLANDCana-
da’s Ivanie Blondin won a silver medal
on Sunday in the women’s mass start at
an ISU Speed Skating World Cup event.
Blondin’s podium finish was one of two
that day for Canada. Laurent Dubreuil
won bronze in the men’s 500 metres.
Blondin, from Ottawa, narrowly missed
out on a second consecutive gold in the
mass start, leading for most of the race
before losing the sprint to the finish line.
Irene Schouten of the Netherlands won
gold. Japan’s Nana Takagi was third. Du-
breuil finished behind Japanese team-
mates Tatsuya Shinhama and Yuma Mu-
rakami, respectively.
THECANADIANPRESSKRISTOFFERSENBEATSNOELFOR
FIRSTSLALOMWININ22MONTHSLEVI, FINLAND Henrik Kristoffersen
edged first-run leader Clement Noël to
win the first men’s World Cup slalom of
the season on Sunday. It was the Norwe-
gian’s 16th career victory in slalom, but
the first since winning in Kitzbuehel in
January, 2018. Competing in foggy condi-
tions and snowfall, Kristoffersen trailed
Noël by 0.68 seconds after the opening
run, but beat his French rival by 0.09.
THEASSOCIATEDPRESSSIAKAM,VANVLEETHELP
RAPTORSHOLDOFFHAWKSATLANTAPascal Siakam scored 34 points
and Fred VanVleet had 25, helping the
Toronto Raptors beat Trae Young and
the Atlanta Hawks 119-116 on Saturday
night. Siakam, at 6-foot-9 and 230
pounds, turned in another impressive
performance, hurting the Hawks with
mid-range jumpers and threes. He has
scored at least 30 in six games, one more
than he had the past season. Norman Po-
well added 20 points for Toronto, which
earned its third straight win. The Raptors
play host to Philadelphia on Monday.
THEASSOCIATEDPRESSMOORE-TOWERS,MARINAROTAKE
SILVERINPAIRSATNHKTROPHYSAPPORO, JAPANCanada reached the
medal podium twice on Saturday at the
NHK Trophy, with Kirsten Moore-Towers
and Michael Marinaro taking silver in
pairs, and Roman Sadovsky adding a sur-
prise bronze in men’s competition. The
event is the last competition before the
Grand Prix Final from Dec. 5 to 8 in Turin,
Italy.
THECANADIANPRESSSportsinbrief
But if you haven’t excelled for your
country, it doesn’t mean much. What
you accomplish under the flag defines
your career.
Recently, Canada has done a poor job
upholding this standard. Few of our best
basketball players bothered showing up
at Olympic qualifying this summer. The
country’s NHLers have conceded their
union’s position that the only sort of in-
ternational competition that matters is
one in which you stand to make a lot of
money.
That’s their business, one supposes –
quite literally. But it’s not the sort of
thing that endears you to your fellow ci-
tizens. Making oodles of cash is not go-
ing to get you on a stamp one day.
One hopes those NBA and NHL play-
ers – were they bothering to watch – felt
a twinge of regret over the past few days.
This is what it looks like when Canada’s
best put themselves through the athlet-
ic ringer and do so without much hope
of winning, but a great deal of pride in
trying.
That Pospisil & Co. surpassed expec-
tations is not the point. That they cared
enough to have expectations is. This
team reminded the rest of us how won-
derful it feels to be represented so well
on the world stage.
“As sad as it is losing today, it’s also a
little bit of a celebration for us,” Cana-
da’s coach, Frank Dancevic, said after-
ward.
It feels as though Canada’s spent the
whole year celebrating tennis.
From Auger-Alias-
sime’s breakthrough on
the ATP circuit to the mo-
ment Bianca Andreescu
taught the country that it
didn’t always have to just
be good at things, it could
also occasionally win
them, tennis has provided
our signature sports mo-
ments of 2019.
The Davis Cup run was
not the unlikeliest of
these things or the most
impressive (Andreescu
wins on both counts), but
it may have been the most
fun.
The Davis Cup used to be a plodding,
endless affair that was hard to keep
track of. It was streamlined this year.
One week rather than several of them
broken up over months. Best-of-three
matches rather than five. First man to
two sets, rather than three.
The electric pace suited the modernattention span. On Thursday, you were
thinking, “The Davis Cup Finals is on?”
By Saturday, you were thinking, “We’re
going to win the Davis Cup.”
We didn’t, but we certainly may soon.
Spain pushed out two top veterans.
Canada pushed out two kids who, were
they not sportsmen, might
be living together in a uni-
versity dorm. Auger-Alias-
sime is 19; Shapovalov is- When all three compet-
itors appear together, Pos-
pisil comes off like their fa-
ther and he’s only 29.
In short order, barring
calamity, this will be the
best one-two punch in
men’s tennis. Canada is
Davis Cup favourites for
years to come.
But what moves you
most about this team and
these individual players
isn’t how good they can be.
This country has always punched well
above its global weight in producing top
athletes.
It is that the Pospisils, Shapovalovs,
Auger-Aliassimes and the rest show up
when they don’t have to, only in order
to make the rest of us feel some mea-
sure of pride.
CanadiansFrankDancevic(theteamcaptain),DenisShapovalovandFélixAuger-Aliassimedisplaytheirtrophiesafterlosingthe
DavisCupfinalinMadridonSunday.SERGIOPEREZ/REUTERS
Kelly:Pospisil,ShapovalovandAuger-Aliassimearelikely
tomakepresenceknowninDavisCupforyearstocome
FROMB11ThatPospisil
&Co.surpassed
expectationsisnot
thepoint.Thatthey
caredenoughto
haveexpectationsis.
Thisteamreminded
therestofushow
wonderfulitfeels
toberepresented
sowellon
theworldstage.