All victories are celebrated but there’s something special about those where the champion doesn’t have her best week but somehow manages to dig some semblance of a game out of the dirt and scramble her way to victory in the final round, all the while holding off a pack of competitors who have their games clicking on all cylinders.
Do those wins mean more? Jin Young Ko’s win in Singapore certainly hit a different chord with the otherwise stoic Korean, who had tears streaming down her face on the 72nd hole where she shared a long hug with her caddie, Dave Brooker, after clinching a two-stroke victory ahead of Nelly Korda.
It was the first time anyone had successfully defended their HSBC Women’s World Championship title.
Ko said she didn't have her best game in Singapore after a prolonged off-season in which she continued to deal with a left wrist injury. She had also made changes to her swing and retooled her mental game by adding meditation to her daily routine.
“I played well here. I think I need more time to work with my new swing,” Ko said after her win on Sunday, in which she found just eight fairways and needed 31 putts. “So it's going well. It's going very well but I think I need more time to play with pressure.”
Jon Rahm has emerged as the dominant force this season on the PGA Tour with five victories in his last 10 starts. And after his most recent win at the Genesis Invitational he recounted asking 82-time PGA Tour winner Tiger Woods how often he had his A-game during all four rounds of a tournament. “‘Three times, at best,’” Rahm said Woods told him.
“There’s weeks where you think, ‘Oh, this part of my game is great, this other part was amazing,’” Rahm added. “But for every part of your game to be 100 percent all four days, yeah, that’s nearly impossible to happen.”
While Ko says she didn’t perform to her standards in her second start of the season, she acknowledged feeling more like she did back in 2019, a season when she dominated the LPGA Tour. That year, Ko won four times, including two major championships, and swept the season’s biggest honors in addition to being named Rolex Player of the Year.
But the win that has meant the most? The one on Sunday in Singapore.
“It’s the most important,” Ko said after her 14th career LPGA Tour win. “I had a tough year last year, and I fought with, like, injury and not a good game and mentally tough and everything, and then I won this week. It's going to be more important to me and it's going to be big momentum for me in my life.”
Ko will have two weeks to celebrate her successful title defense before the LPGA Tour begins a five-month stretch of events in the United States. The LPGA Drive On Championship kicks-off the U.S. portion of the schedule which will see the tournament move from Florida to Arizona and to Superstition Mountain Golf and Country Club. Leona Maguire will seek to defend her maiden title on tour when she fought her way to the winner’s circle after bearing the heavy weight of high expectations following a record stint as the top-ranked women’s amateur.
“It's been a long time coming and I suppose you don't know it's going to happen until it actually does,” Maguire said after her win last season.
There’s something unique about each and every victory. But some wins take on a special meaning for the champions who have fought through changes, challenges, and injury to return to the winner’s circle. Just ask Ko, Rahm, or Woods, who have found a way to win even without their very best.
And those victories? Well, they just mean a little bit more.
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