SAINT QUENTIN-EN-YVLENES, France (AP) — One win away from an Olympic medal and one win away from being inducted into the Women’s Professional Golf Association Hall of Fame, Lydia Ko thought about how it would feel to win both tournaments at the same time. “It would be a great way to do it,” she said when she arrived.
What the 27-year-old Kiwi didn’t share was her decision to Paris games This will be her last Olympics. And the goal she has set for herself in Saturday’s women’s golf tournament has never been clearer.
“I knew the next 18 holes were going to be some of the most important 18 holes of my life,” Ko said. “I knew being in this position was a once-in-a-lifetime thing.”
She scored a stunning victory at the Le Golf National, shooting a two-under-par 71. The win brought her career total to 27 points in the LPGA Hall of Fame, one of the most stringent criteria for any hall.
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The final act saw Ko take a five-stroke lead, then cut it to one in the final hour, then put in a steady routine of shots until she finally hit a seven-foot putt to finish on 278 under par.
Germany’s Esther Henslett double-birdied the final hole to make a 66, forcing Ko to work hard. Henslett took the silver medal. China’s Xiu Lin birdied the final hole to make a 69, taking the bronze.
“I kept telling myself, ‘I’m going to write my own ending.’ I wanted to be the one who would control my own destiny,” Ko said. “For the story to end this way, it’s really a dream come true.”
Ko won the silver medal in Rio de JaneiroShe won the bronze medal in the TokyoThe missing piece turned out to be worth more than its weight in gold.
For Nelly Korda, Rose Chang, Morgan Metraux, and many others, it was a day no one would forget. All were in the firing line early on. And all fell because of mistakes that paved the way for Ko.
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This is the latest award in a remarkable career for Ko, who has won Her first LPGA title as a 15-year-old amateur. She first rose to world No. 1 at the age of 17. She started the year with a win in Florida, which moved her one point behind the Hall of Fame, and she had a period this summer when she doubted she would win the final title.
Ko becomes the 35th player to be inducted into the LPGA Hall of Fame, and the second youngest after Australian great Karrie Webb to earn the required 27 points — two for each of her two major championships, one for her other 18 LPGA victories, and one for winning the LPGA Player of the Year award (twice) and the Vari Award for Best Scoring Average (twice).
And a big point for Olympic gold.
Ko only needed two short strikes to win, and when the strike landed, she stepped away with her hand over her mouth and it wasn’t long before she started crying.
The final round was tougher than it should have been. Ko was leading a closely contested group when she suddenly collapsed, shocking everyone but herself.
China’s Ruoning Yin, who had closed to within one shot of the lead, made two errors on three holes after turning on the hole. Hannah Green was two shots behind until her first putt landed left in the water on the 10th hole for a double fault, spoiling her bold comeback after shooting 77 in the opening round.
Miyu Yamashita and Rose Zhang played tennis on the ninth hole, hitting short putts from one side of the hole to the other, back and forth, until they double-faulted.
With that, Ko moved five clear of the rest of the field, and the only drama seemed to be a tight race for the other two medals. At one point, 12 players were separated by two strokes in what amounted to the second set.
If only it were that simple for you.
She was going at a steady pace, looking to make a positive mark on every hole, until she hit the water on the 13th hole and double-faulted. That cut her lead to three strokes, and she remained safe until Hinslett Coe forced her best shot in the final stretch.
Hinslett watched from a red couch in the clubhouse as Coe played the last few holes, never thinking about going to the practice range in the event of a playoff.
“There are some players who you know are not going to make a mistake on the last two holes, and she is definitely one of them,” said Hinslett, the first European woman to win an Olympic golf medal. “I was happy sitting there enjoying my silver medal.”
Lin is only the second Chinese woman to win a medal — Shanshan Feng won bronze in Rio — and somehow avoided a playoff with the number of women taking part.
The diminutive Yamashita was playing well, two shots off the lead, until she fell into the water on the par-3 16th hole and double-faulted. She had a chance to force a bronze-medal playoff until she missed an eagle putt from 35 feet on the 18th hole.
Yamashita finished third, one stroke off the podium with 73 points, alongside Green (69), Bianca Pagdanganan of the Philippines (68) and LPGA Championship winner Amy Young (69).
Korda, the top-ranked women’s golfer and a gold medalist in Tokyo, led until the final round. This time, she hit the ball into the water on the 15th hole for a treble. She finished with a 75. Over the week, Korda made a treble on the 15th hole, a four-putt on the 16th hole and a two-putt on the 17th hole.
“I played well until the last two holes. Again, I feel like that was the story of my week. Other than that, I played some good golf,” she said.
Chang finished with a 74, scoring two birdies on the last three holes. Metraux, who tied for the lead with Ko before the final day, only scored one birdie on the 15th hole, scoring a 79.
In the end, the stage, the platform—and the shrine—were all Ko’s.
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AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games