Lydia Ko clinches Olympic gold medal, LPGA Corridor of Fame in Paris

In a surprising efficiency on the 2024 Paris Olympics, Lydia Ko claimed the gold medal with a final-round rating of 71, two photographs forward of Germany’s Esther Henseleit and three photographs forward of China’s Xiyu Lin, who gained the silver and bronze, respectively.

With the victory, Ko turns into the primary golfer within the trendy period to assert three medals in three Olympics. The gold joins her bronze medal from the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, and her silver from golf’s return to the Olympics in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The gold medal additionally gave Ko the ultimate level she wanted for entry into the LPGA’s most unique membership: the Corridor of Fame.

To earn a spot within the LPGA Corridor, gamers should accumulate at the very least 27 factors. Below the present qualification format, one level is earned for every LPGA official match win, an Olympic medal (as of final yr), a Vare Trophy win or a Participant of the 12 months award, and a serious is value two factors. A participant should additionally win at the very least one Vare Trophy, Participant of the 12 months or main championship.

After claiming her twentieth profession LPGA victory on the Hilton Grand Holidays Event of Champions in January, Ko wanted only one remaining level to cement her place within the Corridor. She had an opportunity to do it the very subsequent week, on the LPGA Drive On Championship, however completed second.

Now, along with her gold medal in hand, Ko, 27, turns into the thirty fifth LPGA Corridor of Fame inductee, the youngest beneath the newest standards, the primary to enter the Corridor since Lorena Ochoa in 2022, and the primary energetic participant to cement her standing since Inbee Park in 2016. She’s additionally the primary member of the Corridor from New Zealand.

After 54 holes on the Paris Olympics, Ko was tied for the lead with Switzerland’s Morgane Metraux at 9 beneath par. Rose Zhang and Japan’s Miyu Yamashita have been tied for third at seven beneath.

However the drama began early within the remaining spherical, with Metraux fading to five-over by way of her opening 5 holes. Ko bogeyed her opening gap too, however bounced again with birdies on Nos. 3 and seven to succeed in 10 beneath and take a two-shot lead.

One other birdie on No. 9 gave Ko and unimaginable four-shot cushion with 9 holes to play — an eerily comparable state of affairs to Jon Rahm finally week’s males’s competitors.

Ko’s lead prolonged to 5 photographs after she parred the eleventh, however a water ball on her strategy to the thirteenth inexperienced led to a double-bogey that reduce her result in three photographs forward of a charging Henseleit.

Henseleit, enjoying a number of teams forward of Ko, then birdied the seventeenth and 18th to climb to inside one shot of Ko’s lead.

Ko remained regular, parring her solution to the 18th tee to keep up her one-shot benefit.

Ko’s drive on the par-5 remaining gap discovered the center of the golf green. She performed conservatively, laying up with an iron to arrange a short-iron strategy, needing solely a regulation par to assert gold.

Ko hit her third shot to makeable birdie size, all however sealing the gold. She acquired a rousing ovation as she approached the inexperienced, and drained the birdie for good measure, securing the victory by two photographs.

Individuals Zhang, Nelly Korda and Lilia Vu completed T8, T22, and T36, respectively.

Golf.com Editor

As a four-year member of Columbia’s inaugural class of feminine varsity golfers, Jessica can out-birdie everybody on the masthead. She will be able to out-hustle them within the workplace, too, the place she’s primarily answerable for producing each print and on-line options, and overseeing main particular tasks, reminiscent of GOLF’s inaugural Type Is­sue, which debuted in February 2018. Her origi­nal interview collection, “A Spherical With,” debuted in November of 2015, and appeared in each within the journal and in video type on GOLF.com.