Kerr wins LPGA Tour finale, Ko earns player of the year

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 greatest players of all-time.

One tournament, three women celebrating.

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

Kerr won the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship on Sunday, taking the lead for good with a 12-foot eagle putt on the par-five 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 four-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.

Kisner gets first PGA Tour win at RSM Classic

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

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 six-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.

Senior becomes oldest to win Australian Masters at 56

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

The Champions Tour regular became the oldest player to win the Australian 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.