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BOCA RATON, Fla. — Lydia Ko looked down at her ball, honed in on the pin, and repeated the process two more times. She then stepped back, lifted the face of her club and pulled out a tee to clean the grooves.
The biggest shot of the Gainbridge LPGA was coming and she was standing in a greenside bunker on the 18th hole at Boca Rio. But having successfully gotten up and down twice before from a bunker, she was confident with what was coming.
“Because of that, I think that made that shot a lot easier,” Ko said.
The ball landed softly on the green and rolled to within about two feet of the cup. After Danielle Kang’s long putt rolled just left of the cup, the outcome was inevitable. Ko made her tap-in for a final-round 69 which put her at 14-under 274 for the tournament, one shot better than Kang, who shot 68 Sunday.
Ko’s resume includes 17 LPGA titles, including two majors, and two Olympic medals, a silver in 2016 and bronze last summer in Tokyo. Not bad for someone who is three months shy of her 25th birthday.
Lydia Ko and Danielle Kang hug on the 18th green after Ko defeated Kang by one stroke to win the 2022 Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio Golf Club on January 30, 2022 in Boca Raton, Florida. (Photo by Douglas P. DeFelice/Getty Images)
But her story is one of a child prodigy whose rise was meteoric, fall was almost as fast and now is using all of those experiences to regain that lofty status.
Ko won her first LPGA event as an amateur at 15 years and four months, surpassing the record set by Lexi Thompson, who was the previous youngest champion after winning at 16 years and seven months. The winner’s share of $300,000 was rewarded to the runner-up who was three strokes back.
Then, she did it again the next year, defending her title once again as an amateur. This time the winning share of $300,000 went to the runner-up who was five shots back.
Finally, later that year, she turned pro and started having those winnings’ checks made out in her name….
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Source : yahoo
