TELFER’S THOUGHTS 30.6.26

When Lydia Ko steps aside from her playing days, as she has indicated could happen within the next year or two, she will take with her a veritable basement full of memories, especially those around her three Major championship wins.

She might have also tucked away memories from last week in her latest Major appearance, the Women’s PGA Championship at Hazeltine Golf Club in Minnesota, one of America’s top courses.

Lydia began in the worst possible way with a 4 over 76. Her putter seemed stone cold. All up she needed 32 putts to complete that opening round, a most unlike-Ko statistic.

They say in golf you can’t win a tournament on Day 1, but you can lose it with a very poor opening round.

So at the end of that first round Lydia was a whopping 10 shots behind the leader. Realistically her chances of winning were virtually zero. She was 121st in the field going into Day 2. At least here her putter started working, which was just as well. With 5 less putts on Round 2 she carded a 3 under 69 which saw her squeak into the weekend, making the cut by 1 stroke. From 121st at the start of the round, Lydia was now in a tie for 55th place.

Another strong showing on Day 3 with another 3 under 69 pushed her up to around 40th place.

On Day 4, with the course playing at its toughest with fast bumpy greens and tight pin placement, Lydia still managed another sub-par round, finishing with a 2 under par 70. For a short while she had pulled herself up into the top 10, but a late bogey saw her slip back into a tie for 15th place overall.

So it was quite a week for Lydia, but in a totally understated way she revealed her real qualities and her mettle. Never any sign of just going through the motions after that unfortunate first round as many a golfer might do. Very few golfers, male or female, could lift themselves in a Major against the world’s top 144 golfers from 121st to 15th .

Lydia still has two Majors left this year to add to her three Majors and they happen to be titles she has won before - the Evian in France and the 5th and final women’s Major, the Open Championship.

Meanwhile across the other side of the Atlantic, another very consistent and solid week of golf from Kazuma Kobori at the Italian Open on the DP World Tour. Four sub-par rounds saw the young Kiwi pro finish in a tie for 19th place and another handy pay cheque which lifted his earnings this year to around $NZ500,000.

Not such a fortunate week for Daniel Hillier who missed the cut, albeit by 1 shot and has seen his all-important ranking slip from 11th to 13th . If he finishes the DP World Tour in the top 10 at year’s end, he gets automatic entry into the USPGA Tour for 2027. Our other top golfer, Ryan Fox, didn’t have a good week playing in the $20million Travelers Championship in Connecticut, finishing in a tie for 66th place, near the bottom of the restricted field. His worst round was a 1 over 71 and he finished with a

3 under 67, while for many in the field it was a birdie feast on this course. In the end Victor Hovland from Norway picked up his 8th PGA Tour win, beating Scottie Scheffler no less in a sudden death playoff.