Colorado native Jennifer Kupcho falls short of tournament win, but between $1 million payday for season-long Risk-Reward Challenge title and runner-up finish at The Annika, she earned more than $1.3 million on Sunday
By Gary Baines – 11/16/2025
All in all, it wasn’t a bad consolation prize for Jennifer Kupcho on Sunday at the LPGA Tour’s The Annika driven by Gainbridge in Belleair, Fla.
The Colorado native — and Colorado Golf Hall of Famer — had a good opportunity to notch her second LPGA victory of the season, and fifth of her career, as she sat just a stroke out of the lead going into the final round.
And though Kupcho shared the lead after a birdie on No. 1 on Sunday, Linn Grant of Sweden pulled away to win the tournament hosted by fellow Swede Annika Sorenstam. But Kupcho by no means left empty-handed from the penultimate tournament of the 2025 LPGA Tour season.
Besides taking home $303,994 for finishing second, the 28-year-old earned more than triple that amount for winning a season-long competition. Specifically, the three-time CGA Women’s Player of the Year banked $1 million for prevailing in the Aon Risk Reward Challenge.
The competition is limited to the most strategically challenging holes on tour, according to the LPGA. Players count their best two scores from each Aon Risk Reward Challenge hole, with the winner having the best average score, relative to par, at the end of the regular season.
Kupcho came into The Annika fourth in the Aon Risk Reward Challenge, but the top two in the standings — Minjee Lee and Jeeno Thitikul — didn’t enter the tournament in Belleair. And when third-place A Lim Kim failed to eagle the 14th hole — the Risk Reward Challenge hole this week — on Sunday, Kupcho officially claimed the season-long title. Going birdie-eagle on No. 14 on Thursday and Friday, respectively, vaulted her to the top.
“I think I was stressing about it really all like the last three weeks,” Kupcho said Sunday of the Risk Reward competition. “I was really stressed about it obviously this week. But to be able to make an eagle, that was insane on Friday and pretty cool.
“Obviously it wasn’t just that one round, one hole, it was the whole year. To be able to say I’m a winner of Aon Risk Reward is pretty cool. I’ve been pretty close the last couple years. To finally get it done is awesome.”
While Kupcho has earned a substantial amount of official money in her 6 1/2-year LPGA Tour career — with close to $6.5 million in earnings — $1 million is anything but chump change. Indeed, it almost doubles the $1,110,606 she earned in official money for the entire 2025 LPGA Tour regular season. (Kupcho will tee it up starting Thursday in the CME Group Tour Championship, which features an $11 million purse for a 60-player field.)
On Thursday, Kupcho fully acknowledged the Risk Reward Challenge was on her radar.
“Obviously it’s in the back of (our mind for) all of us that are at the top,’” the Jefferson Academy graduate said. “… I would be lying if I wasn’t trying to go after that hole a little bit this week.”
(Golf Channel graphic)
Kupcho joins Hannah Green (2021), Lee (2022), Angel Yin (2023), and Thitikul (2024) as Aon Risk Reward Challenge champions.
As for the tournament overall this week, Kupcho was trying to become just the third player to win more than once this year on the LPGA Tour as she prevailed at the ShopRidge LPGA Classic in June, when she notched career victory No. 4, a total which includes a major.
Kupcho was in the thick of the title hunt through eight holes on Sunday as she stood one back of Grant at that point. But Grant birdied the par-3 ninth, while Kupcho three-putted for bogey for a two-shot swing, which put Grant up by three. Kupcho would get no closer the rest of the way even though she went bogey-free on the back nine.
“I think I played really well this week,” she said. “I guess I don’t know for sure, but I feel like in the past years that score (16 under par) would’ve won. Linn just played amazing. She hit so many good shots this weekend. I played with her both days (of the weekend). Unbelievable golf by her. So there is nothing you can really do when you’re playing against someone that’s playing really well. I felt like I played really well, putted really well. I’m really just excited for next week.”
Speaking of bogey-free streaks, Grant didn’t leave many doors open as she went 52 holes without making a bogey, until recording one via a three-putt on No. 18 on Sunday.
Kupcho went 66-66-65-67 for her 16-under-total, which left her three strokes behind Grant. The Colorado native jumped into 20th place in the season-long CME points standings.
Sunday marked the sixth career runner-up finish on the LPGA Tour for Kupcho. In 2024, she’s notched four top-10 showings and six top-11s.
For all the scores from The Annika, CLICK HERE.
— Meanwhile, at the national Assistant PGA Professional Championship that concluded on Sunday in Port St. Lucie, Fla., 2025 Colorado PGA Professional Champion Geoff Keffer of Lakewood tied for 21st out of a 132-player field.
Keffer, a 10-time Colorado PGA overall player of the year, posted rounds of 73-74-76-71 to end up 14 strokes behind winner Sandra Changkija of Kissimmee, Fla.
Also making the 36-hole cut was Justin Carlock of Greeley, who tied for 59th (75-78-74-79).
For all the scores from the Assistant PGA Professional Championship, CLICK HERE.
About the Writer: Gary Baines has covered golf in Colorado continuously since 1983. He was a sports writer at the Daily Camera newspaper in Boulder, then the sports editor there, and has written regularly for ColoradoGolf.org since 2009. The University of Colorado Evans Scholar alum was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 2022. He owns and operates ColoradoGolfJournal.com