Lydia Ko finally gets her Olympic gold. It puts her into the LPGA Hall of Fame

SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France (AP) — One gold in need of the Olympic medal assortment, one win away from the LPGA Corridor of Fame, Lydia Ko contemplated what it might be wish to knock out each on the identical time and stated when she arrived, “It might be a hell of a option to do it.”

What the 27-year-old Kiwi didn’t share was her determination that the Paris Video games can be her final Olympics. The purpose Saturday within the ladies’s golf competitors was by no means extra clear.

“I knew the subsequent 18 holes have been going to be a few of the most necessary 18 holes of my life,” Ko stated. “I knew being on this place was as soon as in a lifetime.”

She delivered a dream end at Le Golf Nationwide with a 1-under 71 for a two-shot victory. The win pushed her profession whole to 27 factors for the LPGA Corridor of Fame, one of many strictest standards for any shrine.

Ko watched the documentary of gymnastics nice Simone Biles, “Rising,” and was so impressed by one quote from Biles that she wrote it in her yardage e book: “I get to jot down my very own ending.”

This last chapter featured Ko constructing a five-shot lead, watching it minimize to 1 over the ultimate hour after which delivering a gradual food regimen of pars till she made a 7-foot birdie putt on the finish to complete at 10-under 278.

Esther Henseleit of Germany completed birdie-birdie for a 66 to make Ko work for it. Henseleit wound up with the silver. Xiyu Lin of China birdied the ultimate gap for a 69 to take the bronze.

“I stored telling myself, ‘I get to jot down my very own ending.’ I wished to be the one which was going to manage my very own destiny,” Ko stated. “To have it finish this fashion, it’s truthfully a dream come true.”

Ko gained the silver medal in Rio de Janeiro. She gained the bronze in Tokyo. The lacking one turned out to be extra useful than its weight in gold.

For Nelly Korda, Rose Zhang, Morgane Metraux and so many others, it was a day to overlook. All of them have been in vary early. All of them fell again with errors that paved the way in which for Ko.

That is the newest prize in a outstanding profession for Ko, who gained her first LPGA title as a 15-year-old beginner and rose to No. 1 on this planet for the primary time at 17. She started this yr with a victory in Florida, leaving her one level in need of the Corridor, and had a spell this summer season when she doubted she would get the final one.

Ko turns into the thirty fifth participant to qualify for the LPGA Corridor of Fame, and the second-youngest behind Australian nice Karrie Webb to earn the required 27 factors — two factors for every of her two majors, one level for her different 18 LPGA victories, one level for successful LPGA Participant of the Yr (twice) and for the Vare Trophy for lowest scoring common (twice).

And one massive level for Olympic gold.

Ko wanted solely two putts from brief vary to win, and when the putt fell, she stepped away along with her hand over her mouth and it wasn’t lengthy earlier than she started to sob.

The ultimate spherical was tougher than it wanted to be. Ko was forward of a decent chasing pack when it out of the blue, shockingly, got here undone for everybody however her.

Ruoning Yin of China, who obtained to inside one shot of the lead, bogeyed two of three holes after she made the flip. Hannah Inexperienced was two behind till her tee shot went left into the water on the tenth for a double bogey, ruining her daring comeback from a 77 within the opening spherical.

Miyu Yamashita and Rose Zhang every performed tennis on the ninth inexperienced, chipping from one aspect of the inexperienced to the opposite, backwards and forwards, till each made double bogey.

And identical to that, Ko was 5 away from the sphere and the one drama gave the impression to be a wild race for the opposite two medals. At one level, 12 gamers have been separated by two pictures in what amounted to the B-Flight.

If solely it have been that straightforward for Ko.

She was cruising alongside, birdie appears on each gap, till she discovered the water on the thirteenth for a double bogey. That minimize her result in three pictures, nonetheless lots secure till Henseleit made Ko play her greatest down the stretch.

Henseleit watched from a pink couch within the clubhouse as Ko performed the ultimate few holes, by no means contemplating going to the observe vary in case of a playoff.

“There’s just a few gamers you understand they’re not going to mess up coming down the final two holes, and she or he’s undoubtedly one in every of them,” stated Henseleit, the primary European lady to earn an Olympic medal in golf. “I used to be pleased sitting there having fun with my silver medal.”

Lin is the second participant from China to win a medal — Shanshan Feng gained the bronze in Rio — and she or he in some way prevented a playoff with the variety of gamers within the combine.

The pint-sized Yamashita confirmed an enormous sport, two off the lead, till she hit into the water on the par-3 sixteenth and made double bogey. She had an opportunity to pressure a playoff for the bronze till lacking a 35-foot eagle putt on the 18th.

Yamashita completed one shot out of the rostrum with a 73, together with Inexperienced (69), Bianca Pagdanganan of the Philippines (68) and Girls’s PGA championship winner Amy Yang (69).

Korda, the No. 1 participant in ladies’s golf and the gold medalist on the Tokyo Video games, was proper there within the combine till the closing stretch obtained her once more. This time, she hit wedge within the water on the fifteenth for a triple bogey. She closed with a 75. For the week, Korda had a triple bogey on the fifteenth, a quadruple bogey on the sixteenth and a pair of three-putts bogeys on the seventeenth.

“I performed fairly strong till the final couple holes,” she stated. “Once more, I really feel like that was the story of my week. Aside from that I performed some strong golf.”

Zhang closed with a 74 with two birdies on the final three holes. Metraux, who shared the lead with Ko going into the ultimate day, didn’t make birdie till the fifteenth gap and shot 79.

On the finish, the stage, the rostrum — and the shrine — all belonged to Ko.

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AP Summer time Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games