Lydia Ko finally did what she had been trying to do in her last 10 appearances at the HSBC Women’s World Championship when she won the championship by four shots on her 11th attempt at the Sentosa Golf Club on Sunday.
Ko signed off with a final round three-under-par 69 to clinch her 23rd LPGA title with a winning total of 13-under-par 275. Thailand’s Jeeno Thitikul and Japan’s Ayaka Furue shared second place after posting rounds of 70 and 68 respectively while England’s Charley Hull, who started the round one shot behind Ko, posted a 74 to finish in a share of fourth place with Mexico’s Gaby Lopez and South Korea’s Im Jin-hee.
Ko, who led by one after the penultimate round, went to sleep dreaming of victory. The LPGA Hall of Famer then returned to the starting tee with a game plan, making five straight pars before extending her lead with three consecutive birdies from the par-four sixth.
“I just wanted to play steady. I started off really consistently. I hit a lot of greens, and I think that was going to be the big key. I knew that Jeeno and Charley hit it much further than me.
“The distance wasn't going to be to my advantage, but as long as I played steady golf and just give myself good looks for birdies, I felt like some of them were going to drop,” said Ko.
Ko, the Olympic champion and three-time major winner, dropped a shot on 11 but recovered with birdies on 13 and 15. A bogey on 17 did little to threaten her title bid, as she still held a four-shot cushion. A closing par on 18 sealed the victory, making her dream a reality.
“I dreamt last night that I won but then I woke up, and I was like, it's not real yet. So, I just wanted to focus on my game as it was a pretty tight leaderboard.
“I felt a lot better coming into this event than a few weeks ago. I didn’t know if I would win. But to win here in Singapore and get all the love, not only this year but for the years that I've come, it means a lot. It's also exciting to add Asia's Major to my major collection,” said Ko.
Despite falling short of a win in the Lion City, it was still a memorable week for Jeeno, who secured her 10th consecutive top-10 finish on the LPGA Tour while Ayaka had her best finish in her last four LPGA starts.
“I was frustrated with my play in the first two rounds, so this result exceeded my expectations, to be honest,” said the 22-year-old Thai.
Ayaka was also pleased with her efforts after finishing inside the top 10 for the first time this season.
“I'm very happy with this outcome because I hadn't been playing well this year until this tournament,” said the 24-year-old.
Shannon Tan, meanwhile, signed off with a 74 to finish tied-34th, which was also the best result by a Singaporean in the history of the HSBC Women’s World Championship.
“I was in the top 20 yesterday, which shows that my level is close, but there are still things to improve on,” said Tan.
The 20-year-old hopes her performance will continue to inspire more Singaporeans to play the sport even as the standard of the golf gets higher.
“It (her result) means a lot for Singapore golf. I would say in the last few years the standard of Singapore golf has gotten better.
Hiroshi will be teeing up at the Masters next month. And I guess, also, as a whole, you get to see a lot more junior golfers out there picking up the game. This week it was just me versus the golf course.”
