Nelly Korda’s playoff victory at the Pelican Women’s Championship last week put her back in front of the race for the Rolex Player of the Year honor. As the LPGA heads into the CME Group Tour Championship, the final tournament of the 2021 season running from Thursday to Sunday, Korda will have to fend off No. 2 Jin Young Ko to add another trophy to an already historic season.

Korda versus Ko is the most obvious storyline of the season finale, but there’s even more on the line in Naples, Fla. this weekend. Here are five things to watch at the last tour event until 2022.

1. A fight to the finish

The 2021 season will be remembered for the back-and-forth battle between Ko and Korda for supremacy of the LPGA world rankings. Two weeks after Ko won the BMW Ladies Championship to resume her position at the top of the rankings and the Player of the Year race, Korda countered with her fourth victory on tour. The difference in their rankings average was in the thousandths before Korda won the Pelican Women’s Championship on Sunday. Now, the American has a little bit of breathing room, with a 0.95 edge over Ko in average world rankings points.

Korda has a more comfortable lead in the Player of the Year race, currently holding a 10-point advantage over Ko after her victory Sunday earned her 30 points and a total of 191 on the year. A win this weekend guarantees Korda the award, worth a coveted LPGA Hall of Fame point.

If Ko finishes in second place, worth 12 points, she needs Korda to finish 10th or lower to win outright. In that same scenario, a ninth-place finish by Korda would mean they share the Player of the Year award. The last time two golfers split the award was in 2017, when So Yeon Ryu and Sung Hyun Park finished the year tied at 162 points. If Ko wins the award, it would be her second such honor in the last three years.

If Ko finishes third or worse, Korda will be named Player of the Year and cap a stellar 2021 campaign. Each player has four wins on the LPGA Tour this season. Korda’s Olympic gold medal did not factor into the race since it was not a tour event.

Korda and Ko are the heavy favorites entering the Tour Championship, which begins Thursday with Round 1. Since the tournament moved to Tiburón Golf Club in 2013, Charley Hull is the only golfer who’s won the event without ever having been ranked top two in the world. The other champions, and their best-career rankings, have been: Shanshan Feng (No. 1) Lydia Ko (No. 1), Cristie Kerr (No. 1), Ariya Jutanugarn (No. 1), Lexi Thompson (No. 2), Sei Young Kim (No. 2) and Jin Young Ko (No. 1).

2. Vare Trophy controversy strikes the LPGA — again

The Vare Trophy honors the golfer with the lowest scoring average on tour in a given season. The golfer must compete in a minimum of 70 rounds or 70 percent of all rounds that season to be considered for the award.

Five LPGA events were canceled this year due to COVID-19, leaving the tour with 110 available rounds. As a result, the top three in scoring average missed out on qualifying for the Vare Trophy.

Nelly Korda (68.845) will finish the year with 62 rounds and Jin Young Ko (69.032) with 67. Yuka Saso (69.103), who joined the tour after her victory in the U.S. Women’s Open in June, has played just 29 rounds this season. Lydia Ko (69.391), in fourth, planned to skip the Pelican Women’s Championship last week but changed her mind when her team realized she could qualify if she played both of the final two events on the LPGA calendar. Ko will finish with 73 rounds at the conclusion of the CME Group Tour Championship.

Last week, the Korda sisters did not hide their displeasure with the fact that neither Korda nor Ko can qualify for the trophy this year due to the minimum rounds requirement.

“I was like, ‘Oh, OK, cool. That sucks.’ That’s pretty much what I said in our group chat,” Nelly Korda said ahead of the Pelican Women’s Championship when asked how she reacted to the news.

“Jin Young has had an amazing past couple events,” Korda added. “If she was to win it, she deserves to win it. I would say the same for me. It kind of sucks that that’s just how it is.”

Jessica Korda, currently ranked 20th on tour, shared a similar opinion.

“It’s just that the person who’s now in the running, is it considered an asterisk or — I don’t know. It’s just such a weird rule when your No. 1 and 2 player in the world … and three players — is it one, two and three aren’t eligible? So it’s just weird.”

Further compounding this is Korda’s chance to make history. If she were eligible for the honor, she’d be threatening the all-time Vare Trophy scoring record. Only Annika Sorenstam has scored below 69 to win the trophy, when she averaged 68.7 in 2002. Korda needs to shoot 22-under at the CME Group Tour Championship to match Sorenstam’s average and record the second-best average in history, behind Jin Young Ko’s 69.062 in 2019.

In 2020, Sei Young Kim (68.686) led the tour in scoring average, but Danielle Kang (70.082 and fourth place on the average scoring list) won the award after completing 49 rounds during the shortened season.

3. The magic number

The winning score of the last three CME Group Tour championships has been 18-under par, achieved by Lexi Thompson in 2018, Sei Young Kim in 2019 and Jin Young Ko last year.

Since the tournament moved to Tiburón Golf Club in 2013, the average winning score has been 16 1/4-under par. Discarding Lydia Ko’s outlier of a 10-under victory in 2014, the average winning score is 17-under par.

4. Last rodeo for the stars

World No. 4 Sei Young Kim and No. 13 Lexi Thompson missed out on their first tour victories of 2021 when they lost in a playoff at the Pelican Women’s Championship last week. They’re not the only top-ranked golfers and recent major champions who will be looking to hoist their first trophies of the season this weekend.

Kang has recorded eight top-10 finishes since losing to Jessica Korda in a playoff at the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions in January. Jeongeun Lee6, the 2019 U.S. Women’s Open champion, had a five-shot lead going into the final round of the Evian Championship in July before losing to Minjee Lee. Aon Risk Reward Challenge winner Hannah Green is searching for her first victory on tour since the 2019 Cambia Portland Classic.

If Kim doesn’t find the winner’s circle this weekend, her six-year streak of winning every year on tour — the longest active streak in the LPGA — will come to an end. As a result, Jin Young Ko would surpass her as the longest active annual champion, having won every year since 2017.

5. The last chance to be world No. 1

Whoever sits at the top of the world rankings after the CME Group Tour Championship will get at least six uncontested weeks as the No. 1 player in the world. The LPGA has not yet announced its 2022 schedule, but in the last three years, the tour has started with the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions in late January.

Korda has spent 19 weeks as the world No. 1, which ties her for 12th on the all-time rankings. If she wins this weekend, she can leap to T-7 by the beginning of 2022 for having held onto the top spot for 25 weeks alongside Stacy Lewis and Jiyai Shin. One week later, she’d move into sixth place behind Annika Sorenstam, the first world No. 1 in the history of the rankings who’s held it for 61 weeks.

Ko is alone in second place with 114 weeks atop the world rankings. If she surpasses Korda this weekend, she would surge to 120 weeks by 2022 and be 38 weeks behind Lorena Ochoa for the most spent at No. 1 since the rankings were created in 2006.

Kent Paisley is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports covering golf and the LPGA. He also contributes to Golf Digest. Follow him on Twitter @KentPaisley.

UCLA-bound high school senior Sienna Betts led the West team to a decisive 104-82 victory over the East in the McDonald's All-American Girls Game held last night at New York's Barclays Center.

The 6'4" forward contributed 16 points, seven rebounds, and two assists, earning MVP honors for her performance. ​

Betts is currently the class of 2025's No. 2 overall recruit. Only Texas-based point guard Aaliyah Chavez, who recently committed to the Oklahoma Sooners, ranks above her.

Betts to join sister Lauren Betts at UCLA next year

Betts's performance is a good indicator of her potential impact at UCLA next year. There, she'll join forces with her sister Lauren Betts, the senior currently leading the Bruins to this season's NCAA Final Four after transferring in from Stanford.

The Betts sisters' arrival is highly anticipated, with Lauren opting to forgo the 2025 WNBA Draft in order to play out her final year of college eligibility alongside her little sister.

“For me, it [committing to UCLA] was a lot about how the coaches care about you off the court, and the coaches at UCLA, they really care about your mental health,” Betts told The Flagler College Gargoyle after committing last year. “Every team that I’ve ever been on, we’ve been a family… So, they really cared about that part of basketball for me, and they showed me that on my visits and when I called to talk to them.”

Betts in good company as McDonald's All-American Game MVP

In Brooklyn, Betts showcased her ability among the sport's best high school talent. Recent McDonald's All-American MVPs have all gone onto fuel prominent NCAA programs, including top-ranked recruits UConn's Sarah Strong, South Carolina's Joyce Edwards, USC's JuJu Watkins, Notre Dame's Hannah Hidalgo, and UCLA's own Kiki Rice and Gabriela Jaquez.

The McDonald's All-American Game has a storied history of highlighting promising players, with past MVPs subsequently laying the foundation for future superstars.

Less than a day after Notre Dame’s Olivia Miles shocked the women’s basketball world by opting to enter the transfer portal rather than declare for the 2025 WNBA Draft, the Irish’s transfer fall-out has continued.

Sophomore guard Emma Risch and freshman forward Kate Koval have also entered the portal, with Koval — who started in 10 games this season — leading the Irish in blocks.

Between transfer moves and graduating seniors, sophomore guard Hannah Hidalgo remains Notre Dame’s only returning starter — a sharp turn for an Irish squad ranked No. 1 in the country just six weeks ago.

Other top NCAA programs see transfer portal movement

Notre Dame isn’t the only top-tier program experiencing a roster shakeup after exiting the 2025 NCAA tournament.

LSU sophomore forward Sa'myah Smith entered the transfer portal after the Tigers’ season ended in Sunday’s Elite Eight. USC sophomore guard Aaliyah Gayles subsequently followed suit after the Trojans fell to UConn on Monday.

Schools like TCU have become national contenders via the transfer portal, with the Horned Frogs recruiting both Hailey Van Lith and Sedona Prince ahead of their first-ever Elite Eight run. Former Kentucky center Clara Silva is the latest transfer to commit to TCU, as the team comes off their best tournament finish in school history.

The modern era of NCAA roster-building is upon us, with top players taking the reigns as ambitious teams scramble to fill offseason gaps.

The NWSL is looking to sign a new Sunday night TV deal, according to a Sports Business Journal report published this week.

The league is targeting a two-year deal starting in 2026, with both new and existing TV partners interested in picking up additional NWSL games.

NWSL looks to build on multimillion dollar TV deal

The NWSL is currently two years into a four-year, $240 million TV partnership with ESPN, Prime, ION, and CBS Sports. However, the current contract doesn’t cover the entire schedule. And with league expansion planned for 2026, even more inventory is on the way.

SBJ notes that the market for this season’s lineup has been strong. In fact, all four media partners have already sold out all their 2025 advertising slots.

“You cannot find a place to spend right now,” IMG’s Hillary Mandel said at a recent Business of Soccer event hosted by SBJ. “We know what’s motivating interest is the fact that there’s no place to invest. That’s a phenomenal story in such a short period of time."

ESPN spotlighted for TV network-owned Sunday lineup

ESPN could be a prime candidate for a Sunday package, with the network set to move on from Sunday Night Baseball after the 2025 MLB season.

The NWSL has traditionally leaned into network-owned nights, with Prime airing Friday night matchups and ION running Saturday double-headers.

The NWSL’s most recent contract subsequently added serious value to the league. And the returns have networks coming back for more, setting up a potential bidding war and easing growing pains as new teams join the fold.

UCLA will hit the court for their first-ever NCAA Final Four on Friday, but as they extend the most successful season in program history, the Bruins have looked anything but green.

“We said talent was going to be our floor,” UCLA head coach Cori Close said after Sunday’s Elite Eight win over LSU. “Our character, our chemistry, our habits were going to be our ceiling.”

With just two losses on the season, UCLA’s status as a first-rate NCAA title contender has actually been years in the making.

Roster-building paves the way to the Final Four

In 2022, the Bruins signed the No. 1 recruiting class in the country, stacking their roster with top high school standouts Gabriela Jaquez, Kiki Rice, and Londynn Jones.

UCLA then upped their game even further last year, when 2022 No. 1 overall recruit Lauren Betts transferred in from Stanford — a move that fueled the Bruins all the way to the Sweet 16 with the promise of even greater success.

“Everyone came to UCLA for this reason: to do something we haven't done in a really long time,” Jaquez said on Sunday. “[I’m] just really proud of my teammates, the staff, the coaches, just continuing to get better every day and grow from each season prior.

With Lauren Betts at center, UCLA leans on depth

As one of the most dominant post players in college basketball, Betts is at the literal center of every UCLA performance. But that doesn’t mean the Bruins lack the depth it takes to handle a team like Final Four opponent UConn.

“When we have a deep team, I don’t have to be in the game at all times,” Betts said. “I have a team full of players who are just amazing and talented in their own right, and they put in the work.”

All in all, UCLA is coming into their own after developing much of its squad from the ground-up. Now it's time to make the case that patient roster-building can pay off on NCAA basketball’s biggest stage.