Im Jin-hee narrows Rookie of the Year race with second place at The Annika

Korean rookie Im Jin-hee tied for second at The Annika driven by Gainbridge at Pelican on Sunday, finishing at 11-under, 269, to tighten the race for the 2024 LPGA Rookie of the Year award with just one tournament left to go.

Im Jin-hee prepares to play her shot from the 17th tee during the final round of The Annika driven by Gainbridge at Pelican 2024 at Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Florida on Sunday. [AFP/YONHAP]

Korean rookie Im Jin-hee tied for second at The Annika driven by Gainbridge at Pelican on Sunday, finishing at 11-under, 269, to tighten the race for the 2024 LPGA Rookie of the Year award with just one tournament left to go.

Im tied with Zhang Weiwei of China and Charley Hull of England in second, three strokes behind Nelly Korda of the United States. Im rode a two-under, 68, into second place on Sunday in Belleair, Florida.

Korda dominated throughout the tournament, stringing together a 66, 66, 67, 67 week to take The Annika title for the third time in her career. With the tournament only having been introduced in 2020, Korda has now won more than half of the available title.

Kim Sei-young remains the only Korean winner, lifting the inaugural trophy in 2020.

The second-place finish was Im’s best of the season and her sixth top-10 finish, her most recent coming when she tied for eighth at the BMW Ladies Championship last month.

The win also earns her $229,909 in prize money and gives her 80 points on the Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year award table, significantly narrowing the gap with Mao Saigo of Japan.

Going into The Annika, Im was on 788 points, 146 points behind Saigo’s 934 points. That meant that a win at The Annika would have guaranteed Saigo the Rookie of the Year title, and placing anywhere within the top 40 could have tipped her over the edge, depending on Im’s performance.

Im Jin-hee prepares to hits her tee shot during the final round of The Annika driven by Gainbridge at Pelican 2024 at Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Florida on Sunday. [AP/YONHAP]

But Saigo narrowly missed the cut on Saturday, dropping out of the competition two days early and taking no ranking points. Im, meanwhile, climbed to second to take 80 points, lifting her balance to 868, just 66 points behind Saigo.

With Im crawling up the table, the Rookie of the Year award will now be decided at this week’s season-ending CME Group Tour Championship, scheduled to tee off Thursday.

The CME Group Tour Championship is not a major, so the rookie points remain the same as regular competition: 150 for first place, 80 for second place, 75 for third and so on, down to 10 for 40th. Anybody that finishes 41st or below but makes the cut receives five points.

With 66 points separating the two rookies, Im will need to finish within the top four at the CME Group Tour Championship to take the crown, but it all depends on Saigo’s performance. There is no clear cut route to victory for the Korean rookie — even if she wins, Saigo needs to finish below fourth place for Im to be named Rookie of the Year.

Hall of Famer Pak Se-ri was the first Korean to win the LPGA Rookie of the Year prize in 1998. Since then, the honor has been picked up by 13 Korean golfers, with six of those coming in the past decade: Kim Sei-young in 2015, Chun In-gee in 2016, Park Sung-hyun in 2017, Ko Jin-young in 2018, Kee Jeong-eun6 in 2019 and Ryu Hae-ran last year.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]