After profitable gold on the Olympics and incomes Corridor of Fame standing, Lydia Ko was requested by a staff member, “What’s your purpose now?”
After some temporary thought, Ko responded, “Win a significant championship earlier than I’m performed competitively taking part in.”
Two weeks later, it’s time for a brand new purpose. Ko captured the AIG Girls’s Open on Sunday for her third profession main title and her first since 2016. Not solely did she win one other main, she did so on the Previous Course at St. Andrews.
Ko birdied the par-4 18th to shoot 3-under 69 and publish 7 beneath par, breaking out of a three-way share of the lead. She completed two away from the sector as Nelly Korda (72) bogeyed the seventeenth and Lilia Vu (73) bogeyed the 18th. They completed as a part of a four-way tie for second with Jiyai Shin (74) and Ruoning Yin (70).
Right here’s how the ultimate stretch performed out in Scotland:
Lydia Ko is the AIG Girls’s Open champion
Vu leaves her birdie putt to power a playoff effectively brief. Ko wins her first main championship since 2016 and her third total — and she or he does it on the Previous Course. Ko has now received an Olympic gold medal, gained entry into the Corridor of Fame and received a significant at St. Andrews within the final three weeks.
Lilia Vu could have 15 ft to power a playoff
Perhaps Vu was too near the inexperienced. Her brief strategy flies previous the flag and settles 15 ft from the opening. She should make that to power a playoff with Lydia Ko.
Lilia Vu with massive putt, massive bounce
Vu saves par on the seventeenth to stay one again of Lydia Ko after which hits an amazing drive on the par-4 18th which catapults ahead off the crossroad and nearer the inexperienced. She wants birdie to power a playoff — or an eagle will win it.
One other massive quantity ruins Nelly Korda’s probability at Previous Course win
Korda was main by two when she made a horrible double bogey from close to the inexperienced on the par-5 14th. After profitable the season’s first main, the Chevron Championship, Korda has had some tough moments in massive occasions:
- U.S. Girls’s Open: Makes a ten on her second gap of the championship en path to a gap 80 and a missed minimize.
- KPMG Girls’s PGA: After opening in 69, shoots 81 in Spherical 2 to overlook the minimize.
- Olympic competitors: With a shot at a medal, Korda performs the again 9 in 40, together with a triple bogey on the par-4 fifteenth, to tie for twenty sixth.
Nelly Korda is not going to win her second main in 2024
Needing to gap her wedge shot on the par-4 18th to catch Lydia Ko, Korda flew her strategy effectively lengthy of the flag and now has 30 ft for birdie.
Nelly Korda bogeys the seventeenth, falls two again
And similar to that, Korda goes from co-leader to 2 off the tempo with one to play. Simply after Lydia Ko birdied the 18th, Korda missed a 10-footer for par on the seventeenth. Korda now must eagle the par-4 18th to have an opportunity at a playoff.
Lydia Ko birdies the 18th at St. Andrews!
Ko hits a superb strategy shot into the par-4 18th after which makes the 6-foot slider to take the solo lead at 7 beneath.
Korda offers her an opportunity for par on the seventeenth
After hitting her strategy shot into the Highway Gap bunker, she performs a deft shot to 10 ft.
We now have three tied on the high
Jiyai Shin bogeys the fifteenth to drop to five beneath. It’s now Nelly Korda, Lydia Ko and Lilia Vu tied for the lead at 6 beneath.
Nelly Korda and Lilia Vu narrowly miss birdies
Korda, making an attempt to bounce again from a brutal double bogey on the par-5 14th, which resulted in a logjam on the high, had 10 ft for birdie on the sixteenth however missed. She stays at 6 beneath.
Vu, the defending champion, lipped out a 25-foot birdie putt on the fifteenth and stays at 6 beneath, too.
Lydia Ko pars the Highway Gap
After a stunning strategy shot to the brutal par-4 seventeenth, Ko two-putts for par to stay at 6 beneath.
The rain is coming down
It’s the worst climate of the day with the ultimate group on the fifteenth gap.
