History for Ko
It was a record week for South Korea’s Jin Young Ko in Australia, as the first-year LPGA Tour member led wire-to-wire to capture her second career LPGA Tour title, but first as a member, at the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open.
Ko, who won last year’s LPGA KEB-Hana Bank Championship in October as a non-member, became the first golfer since 1951 – and just the second all-time – to win in her first start as an LPGA Tour member.
Ko admitted Sunday she didn’t want to know about the historical implications when she teed off for the final round as it made her more nervous. But, she tried not to think about it and it worked out in her favor as she shot a fourth-round 69. At 14-under par she won by three shots.
She only missed four fairways all week while averaging more than 250 yards off the tee. She also hit 85 percent of the greens in regulation for the week.
The 22-year-old received some sage advice from a friend Saturday night that helped her focus on the task at hand Sunday.
“I finished yesterday with a four-stroke lead, but my friend said to me, ‘if you (have a) 10-stroke lead, it’s the same feeling, so don’t be nervous and then just relax. Tomorrow is tomorrow,’” she said. “So, thanks to my friend.”
Ko will be in the field this week at the Honda LPGA Thailand, looking to go for two-in-a-row.
Rookie of the Year race underway
Just two tournaments in, and the Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year race is heating up.
Jin Young Ko’s victory puts her in the lead position, but she was chased by a handful of rookies last week at the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open. If the opening two weeks of the LPGA Tour season are any indication, it should make for a photo finish by the time the CME Group Tour Championship rolls around in November.
Four rookie golfers finished in the top-15 of the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open last week, including Ko, who topped them all.
Australian Hannah Green was alone in third at 10-under par, just four shots back of Ko’s winning total.
American Emma Talley rallied from a 4-over-par 76 on Saturday where she played in the final group with a 3-under-par 69 on Sunday to get to 6-under par for the week, and tied for 7th.
England’s Georgia Hall fired a 5-under-par 67 on Sunday to climb into a tie for 13th.
“I played really good golf today, well pretty faultless,” she said of her final round.
Hall would go on to say that winning the Rookie of the Year title is a goal of hers in 2018.
Changes, changes
Some of the biggest names in women’s golf made some big changes for the week in Australia.
Lydia Ko confirmed to LPGA.com early in the week that she had started the 2018 season with a new caddie and coach.
The 2015 winner of the ISPS Women’s Australian Open (and 2016 runner-up) would go on to finish tied for 19th last week at 3-under par. She opened the tournament with a 4-under-par 68 and said it was nice to get a good result out of the way early and ‘quiet down’ everything else that was going on away from the golf course.
“I’m going to stay as confident as I can. I know that it was a really good off-season with relaxing time off I had, and then also the time that I trained for my season. I know that when I’m out on the golf course I’ve just got to be as positive as I can and just have a lot of fun,” she said.
Meanwhile, another former world no.1, So Yeon Ryu, announced her and her longtime caddie – who had been with her since her career began – had split. She used Karrie Webb’s former caddie this week (who she was paired with for the first two rounds) before he moved on to caddie for Suzann Pettersen. Ryu said she’ll have a different caddie for the ANA Inspiration.=
“I just really carefully am going to pick who is going to be my long-term caddie,” she said.
The reason for the change, she said, was because her former caddie was finding it tough to travel the world, and he wanted to settle down at home.
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