New Zealand’s Lydia Ko fired a final round of 69 to win the Women’s Open by two shots after a wet and windy week at the Old Course at St Andrews.
It is a third major championship for Ko, who won the 2015 Evian Championship and 2016 Chevron Championship, and the first time a New Zealander has ever won the Women’s Open.
The 27-year-old rounds off an excellent month at St Andrews having already won the gold medal at the Paris Olympic Games which saw her earn enough points to be inducted into the LPGA Hall of Fame.
“It’s been a crazy past few weeks,” said Ko. “Something that was too good to be true happened, and I honestly didn’t think it could be any better and here I am as the Women’s Open Champion this week.
“Being here at the Old Course at St Andrews makes it so much more special. I just loved being out there this week. I had a lot of family members here with me. I played here when I was 16 in 2013.
“I don’t think I got to really enjoy and realise what an amazing place this is, and now that I’m a little older and hopefully a little wiser, I just got to realise what an historic and special place this golf course is, and it’s honestly been such a fairy tale. I’m on cloud nine.”
WET & WINDY CONDITIONS
It was a difficult final day with players battling the wet and windy conditions as Ko began the day four shots behind 54-hole leader Jiyai Shin.
The Olympic champion rolled in her first birdie of the day on the fourth hole before adding more on 10 and 14. She dropped a shot on 15, but finished in style, making a birdie at the last to the applause of the crowd to set the clubhouse lead of seven-under-par which ended up being the winning total.
“On 16 was when I first knew that I was tied,” explained Ko. “Then my goal was to make par on 17 and then make birdie on 18, something I hadn’t done all week”.
“I accomplished and did all the small goals, and I think that made me a little bit more focused on what was right in front of me instead whether I was going to win or not.”
Four players ended the week in a share of second place with Jiyai Shin, Lilia Vu and Nelly Korda, and Ruoning Yin all on five-under-par.
Korda has a two-shot lead standing on the 14th, but a costly double-bogey seven on that hole, after being no more than 60 yards from the hole in two, proved costly, as did a bogey ar the 17th where she found the Road Hole bunker with her second shot and made bogey.
Not too much lower on the leaderboard, in a tie for 10th place, the world No.1 amateur Lottie Woad underlined that status with a final round of 73 with which she eased to a four-shot victory over Spain’s Julia Lopez Ramirez in the race for the Smyth Salver award for the leading amateur.
Even more impressively, the 20-year old from Farnham shot 287, one under par, to be the leading European – amateur or professional – alongside Sweden’s Linn Grant and Nanna Koerstz Madsen of Denmark.
First round leader Charley Hull fell away tamely over the weekend with successive rounds of 75 to finish in a tie for 20th, while fellow Solheim Cup star Georgia Hall was one shot further back on +2 in a tie for 22nd after closing with a 71 to add to Saturday’s four-over 76.