Lydia Ko carded a final-round 65 marred by a single bogey at the par-3 7th to reach 21-under and win the 18th title of her LPGA Tour career at the BMW Ladies Championship by four shots.
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“I was able to feed off good momentum. I had a couple of stretches where I made consecutive birdies. For me, the big turnaround was my birdie on 10. To be honest, if it didn’t go in, I had a pretty hefty par putt coming back. I was able to feed off that. I normally don’t do first pumps, and I did a couple of first pumps on my back nine because I knew how much every single of those putts would count,” said the New Zealander. “I feel so proud to be born in Korea. Because of that I really wanted to win here. It’s not only just a place that I’m born, but a lot of my family is still here. This week my relatives are here, my direct family is here and I wanted to win it for them as well. To be able to do that this year in front of a lot of them, it means a lot.”
Ko is the fifth player to earn two or more wins on Tour this season, joining Atthaya Thitikul (2), Brooke Henderson (2), Minjee Lee (2) and Jennifer Kupcho (3).This year is her first with multiple wins since 2016. She moves her ahead of In Gee Chun to second on the Official Money List with $2,647,062 earned this year, but she’ll remain in seventh on the Career Money List with $14,678,016.
“I think this is probably the best I’ve played, the most consistently I’ve played. When I was No. 1, I just had more wins in that season. I don’t think I’ve had as many top tens,” said Ko who had finished in the top five in 8 of her last 11 starts. “I wanted to finish my season off strong, including this one, with only three events to go. To be able to win this one means a lot, and I think it gives me good motivation for my last couple of events in Florida.”
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American Andrea Lee birdied the par-5, 18th to finish second at 17-under earning her her fourth top five of the season. It’s the second time since Lee became a Rolex First-Time Winner at the AmazingCre Portland Classic in September that she’s finished in the top 10.
“I would love to maybe win one more to close out the year. That was the goal today, but, you know, it wasn’t meant to be,” said Lee. “Huge congrats to Lydia (Ko). She’s such a legend, and we all look up to her, and she’s such a great human, great golfer. Just a huge congratulations to her.”
Rookie Hye-Jin Choi (68) and fellow South Korean Hyo Joo Kim (68) tied for third at 16-under alongside American Lilia Vu (69).
“This is the first LPGA event held in my hometown, and although I didn’t win, I think I did very well,”Kim said. “So I’m pleased, and I’m especially pleased that I was able to show the other players and the world my hometown.”
