WONJU, South Korea– The Korean-born Kiwi Lydia Ko captured her 18th career LPGA Tour title in South Korea on Sunday, rallying from a one-stroke deficit with some methodical golf down the stretch.
Ko shot a seven-under 65 on Sunday to take the BMW Ladies Championship by four shots over Andrea Lee of the United States at 21-under 267 at Oak Valley Country Club. Ko recorded eight birdies against one bogey at the par-72, 6,608-yard track in the mountains in Wonju, some 85 kilometers east of Seoul, and bagged US$300,000. This is Ko’s first victory in South Korea, where she was born and lived before moving to New Zealand at age four.
“I feel so proud to be born in Korea, and I think because of that, I really wanted to win here,” Ko said. “A lot of my family is here this week, and I wanted to win it for them as well.”
Choi Hye-jin and Kim Hyo-joo were the top South Korean players, as they tied for third with Lilia Vu of the United States at 16-under. Both Choi and Kim shot 68s in the final round.
Ko, world No. 5, became the fifth LPGA player this season to earn multiple victories, with her first title having come in January at Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio. This is her first multiple-win campaign since 2016.
She started the final round one shot behind the 54-hole leader, Atthaya Thitikul of Thailand, at 14-under. But Thitikul, world No. 2, stumbled to a round of 74 to finish sixth, also missing out on a chance to become the new world No. 1 in the process.
Thitikul would have overtaken South Korean Ko Jin-young at the top of the world rankings had she finished alone in fourth place or higher. Ko had withdrawn after shooting 80-79 in the first two rounds following a two-month injury layoff.
Lydia Ko’s victory extended South Korean players’ LPGA title drought to 13 tournaments. There are three tournaments left this season, which will wrap up with the CME Group Tour Championship on Nov. 20 in Naples, Florida.
The last half-dozen players to tee off occupied the top six spots on the leaderboard early, with Thitikul slipping a bit and Ko capitalizing on that opening.
Thitikul, Ko and Lee all birdied the second hole, and Ko pulled into a tie for the lead at 16-under with a birdie at the fourth.
Thitikul fell to second place with a bogey at the fifth, and a three-putt bogey at the par-three seventh pulled her down to 14-under.
Ko also bogeyed the seventh but made birdie at the eighth to grab a two-shot advantage over Thitikul, who bogeyed the ninth to drop three behind the leader.
This was Thitikul’s third bogey of the final round, and she would go on to make two more Sunday. She had only two bogeys in total over her first three rounds.
Andrea Lee of the United States, who had been tied with Ko at 14-under through 54 holes, held steady with seven straight pars to close out the front nine, though she pulled a makeable birdie attempt on the ninth green that would have given her a share of the lead with Ko.
In the group ahead, Wonju native Kim Hyo-joo entered the mix with five birdies and two bogeys on the front nine. She made the turn at 15-under.
Choi also started making some noise with birdies at the seventh and eighth to reach 14-under.
A birdie at the 10th put Choi one shot behind Ko, while Kim bogeyed the same hole to drop two back of the leader.
With other contenders unable to make much of a push, Ko kept making shot after shot and putt after putt.
She made a difficult birdie from off the green at the 10th to open up a two-shot lead over Choi and Lee. Choi couldn’t keep pace after missing a relatively short birdie putt on the 11th green.
Ko’s lead grew to three strokes at 18-under, following a short birdie putt at the 11th set up by an excellent second shot.
Choi birdied the 14th to get to within two of Ko at 16-under and had another birdie at the easy par-five 15th to momentarily cut the deficit to one shot. But Ko also birdied that hole to go up by two shots again at 19-under, and two straight birdies that followed, coupled with Choi’s bogey at the 17th, essentially sealed the deal.
Lee mostly stayed in the background with her string of pars, and her birdies at the 15th and the 18th proved too little, too late.
Ko pushed her tee shot into a bunker at the 18th hole but had no trouble closing out her easy victory with a par.
Among other South Koreans, the 16-year-old amateur Kim Min-sol, playing on a special invitation, shot a 10-under 278 to tie for 10th following a 73, with LPGA rookie Hong Yae-eun joining her there. The other Korean amateur, Yoo Hyun-jo, shot a 77 on Sunday to finish tied for 68th at five-over.
Source: Yonhap News Agency