LPGA tour, Epson tour and LPGA qualifying tournaments Somis Sports
Points Rankings
Final 2024 Season
Points calculation -
Note: The Points shown below are based on a Somis Sports calculation and are connected neither to the CME points, nor LPGA/Epson earnings.  Points are merely the amount by which a golfer scores better (positive) or worse (negative) than a standard with the standard being roughly equal to the expected score of a mid-level professional golfer at the specific tournament/round.
For example, during the week ended June 9, Linnea Strom won the three round LPGA Shoprite tournament by shooting a 14 under 199.  Per the calculation below, by shooting 14 under (199), she scored 17.57 points as the three round standard (mid-level pro) is 3.57 over par or 216.57.
Meanwhile, on the same weekend, Cassie Porter won the three round Epson FireKeepers Casino Hotel tournament by shooting six under which equated to 10.50 points.  Comparing the two tournaments, the LPGA winner scored 7.07 points more than the Epson winner which is not surprising because, on the average, the LPGA vs. Epson variance is about 2.35 stokes per round - 7.05 strokes over three rounds. Z
Individual points -
Below are the year-to-date points of the top 20 golfers (based on points):
Last year's top five are as follows: Nasa Hataoka (396 points), Ayaka Furue (379), Hyo Joo Kim (369), Jeeno Thitikul (368) and Celine Boutier (363).  In CY22, Jeeno Thitikul (440) and Lydia Ko (430) finished first and second, respectively.
Geographic points totals -
The above point calculation becomes more interesting when points are accumulated by region.  The calculation below classifies the non-U.S. golfers into  eleven regional groups and then for each group accumulates the points of the six highest scoring golfers.
As an example, the South Korean 2023 points total below (1909) consists of the following:  Hyo Joo Kim (369), Haeran Ryu (340), Hye-Jin Choi (329), Jin Young Ko (308), Jenny Shin (295) and a sixth place tie between Amy Yang  and A Lim Kim (268).
Regional rankings (based on the top 6 golfers per region) -
This season (2024)   2023 Season   2022 Season  
1 South Korea 1929 South Korea 1909 South Korea 1893
2 Japan 1695 Japan 1766 Thailand 1607
3 Thailand 1561 Thailand 1561 Independents 1388
4 Independents 1384 Australia 1509 Great Britain 1373
6 Australia 1360 Sweden 1485 Japan 1312
5 Northern Europe 1355 Great Britain 1484 Northern Europe 1256
7 Sweeden 1207 China 1373 Australia 1218
8 China 1169 Mediterranean 1361 Sweden 1105
9 Mediterranean 1001 Northern Europe 1351 Americas 1102
10 Americas 954 Independents 1229 Mediterranean 1079
11 Great Britain 902 Americas 1139 China 995
Geographic classification:
1. Australia, China, Great Britain, Japan, South Korea, Sweden and Thailand are self-explanatory.
2. Americas is all countries and territories in the American region except for the U.S.
3. Mediterranean is all countries on the Mediterranean Sea plus Portugal.
4. Northern Europe includes Ireland and all non-Mediterranean countries in the Schengen area.
5. Independents includes all other countries (e.g. New Zealand, India, Taiwan, etc.).
6. United States golfers are not classified above but could be sub-classified by residence state (California, Florida, West of the Mississippi and East of the Mississippi) or some other methodology.
Potential for a LPGA match-play international tournament.  
The LPGA does have geographic competitions but it could consider a larger geographic
tournament.  Also, based on the player's positive reaction to match play tournaments (Dow,
Hanwha and Solheim), the tournament should probably be match play.  
Tournament idea:
1. Schedule the tournament after the final Asian tournament but before the last two Florida
tournaments (late October or early November).
2. Rotate the location annually between California and Florida (see #4).
3. Invite sixteen eight player teams.  The sixteen teams consist of the 11 non-U.S. regions
(listed above), four U.S. regions and a 16th team consisting of the top Epson golfers
who just received an LPGA card for the next year.
4. Player selection is based on LPGA/Epson performance (e.g. the points calculation above).
5. If an Epson golfer also qualifies for a team, then she plays for the geographic team (e.g.
based on the July 14 rankings, Yahui Zhang would play for China not Epson).
6. Classify the teams into two divisions:
Atlantic  Pacific
Florida California
East of the Mississippi West of the Mississippi
Great Britain Australia
Mediterranean China
Northern Europe Japan
Sweden South Korea
Independents Thailand
Americas Epson
Note: In the above classification, the U.S. golfers are classified into four groups based on
current residence (Florida, California, East of the Mississippi, West of the Mississippi).
7. Each of the eight player teams forms four two player match teams.  Each match team
plays one match on each of the first two days making eight team matches over two days.
8. Each team's eight match schedule consists of the seven other teams in its division and
one team in the other division.
9. Each match is scored as a win (2 points), loss (no points or tie (1 point to each team).
10. The top three teams from each division plus two wild-cards advance to the Saturday
quarter-finals.  The tie breaker methodology should be similar to typical tie breakers (e.g.
head to head competition) but it could also include most under par winning holes.
11. The eight advancing teams play quarter final and semi-final matches on Saturday
and then a championship match on Sunday.  Obviously, the team tie-breaker would have to
be determined but it could be that, if the teams are tied, then the last foursome, based on
tee-off time, would play the tie breaker.  Also, the championship round could be eight one 
player matches as opposed to four two player matches.