Eight and half years is a long wait between drinks. That was the exasperating length of time Lydia Ko has had to endure between Major Championship victories. The drought ended appropriately for this seminal player in the women’s game at the very home, the very altar of golf, St Andrews, which also turned on for the last round one of its brutal weather specials - howling winds and driving rain. Through it all the slight figure of Ko remained somehow unbuffered and unperturbed. Remarkably, given the conditions, Lydia recorded only one bogey on her way to her lowest round of the tournament - a three under par 69. It was vintage Lydia, the tougher things got, the better she played.
Two shots in particular over the closing holes reminded us once again why this phenomenal golfer had locked up two Major Championship titles while still a teenager. On the notorious Road Hole, the 17th measuring 446 yards, she confidently drew her drive over the edge of the grounds of the neighboring hotel into the middle of the fairway. From there into the face of driving rain she hit a 3 wood some 200 yards with everything she had to within 20 feet of the pin. Here she’d displayed the confidence and audacity to thread the ball incredibly down a thin narrow corridor between a massive greenside bunker and the pin. A few minutes later her nearest rival, Nellie Korda, the world’s Number One ranked golfer, attempted a similar shot from a similar position only to see it roll in to that greenside bunker and make a bogey five.
Lydia knew however there was still to work to be done on 18 before claiming the big prize. So with a wedge in her hand and around 90 yards from the pin she calmly landed the ball just behind the hole and saw it screw back to within a couple of feet of the cup. History now was just a formality. In the end her winning margin was 2 shots. Yet for much of the back nine Ko and Korda were part of a bunch of 4 past or present world Number Ones tied at 6 under with just a couple of holes left.
For those of us who have followed Lydia from her earliest days this was like a journey back in time as she revealed her incomparable array of golfing skills which inexplicably seemed to have deserted her for long periods over the past decade. The past fortnight however has seen Lydia return to her peerless best. Nellie Korda quite rightly still ranks as the world’s Number One female golfer. She must - she’s had 6 wins this year including a Major Championship title. But in this year of 2024 only Lydia Ko can claim ownership of the Olympic Games gold medal and a Major Championship title.
She will now aways be regarded as one of the true legends of the women’s game. She’s had to fight her way back to the top in what undoubtedly has been an unparalleled era of expanding depth and quality in women’s golf.
Who knows, there might even be one more unthinkable accolade within Lydia’s reach in 2024, the Halberg Supreme Sports award. Could she really pip three-time Paris gold medalist Lisa Carrington for the top Halberg prize in 2024?
Ah! Let the debate begin.
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