SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France — With just one gold medal for the Olympics and just one win for the LPGA Hall of Fame, New Zealand golfer Lydia Ko was thinking about what it would be like to do both at the same time, and when she got there, she said, “That would be an insane way to do it.”
What the 27-year-old New Zealander did not reveal was her decision that the Paris Games would be her last Olympic Games.
The goal of the women’s golf competition on Saturday has never been clearer.
“I knew the next 18 holes would be some of the most important 18 holes of my life,” Ko said. “I knew I could only be in this position once in my life.”
She shot a dream finish at Golf National with a 1-under-par 71 to win by two strokes, earning her a total of 27 points for the LPGA Hall of Fame, one of the strictest criteria for induction into a hall of fame.
Ko watched the documentary “Rising” about American gymnast Simone Biles and was so inspired by a quote from her fellow Olympic athlete that she wrote it in her yardage book: “I get to write my own ending.”
In this final chapter, Ko built a five-stroke lead, saw it narrowed to one in the final hour, and then delivered a series of pars before finally making a seven-foot birdie putt to finish the 72-hole tournament at 10 under par at 278.
German Esther Henseleit finished the match with a birdie-birdie and a 66-stroke finish, so Ko had to work hard. Henseleit took silver. Chinese Xiyu Lin managed a birdie-birdie on the last hole and a 69-stroke finish, taking bronze.
“I kept telling myself, ‘I can write my own ending.’ I wanted to be the one who controlled my own destiny,” Ko said. “For it to end like this is honestly a dream come true.”
Ko won the silver medal in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. Three years ago, she won the bronze medal in Tokyo. The missing medal proved to be more valuable than its weight in gold.
For American players Nelly Korda and Rose Zhang and many others, it was a day to forget at Golf National. Many of them were within reach early on. Many of them fell behind with mistakes that paved the way for knockouts.
It is the latest award in a remarkable career for Ko, who won her first LPGA Tour as a 15-year-old amateur and rose to No. 1 in the women’s golf world rankings for the first time at age 17. She began this year with a win in Florida that put her within one point of LPGA Hall of Fame induction, but went through a period this summer when she doubted she would get that final win.
Ko is the 35th player to qualify for the LPGA Hall of Fame and the second youngest player after top Australian player Karrie Webb to reach the required 27 points: two points for each of her two majors, one point for her other 18 victories on the LPGA Tour, one point for winning the LPGA Player of the Year award (twice) and the Vare Trophy for lowest scoring average (twice). And then a big point for Olympic gold.
Ko needed just two close-range putts to win, and as the putt went in, she stepped back with her hand over her mouth and it wasn’t long before she began to sob.
Ko was ahead of a tight field of pursuers when suddenly and shockingly for everyone except her, victory got out of control.
China’s Ruoning Yin, who closed to within one shot of the leader, bogeyed two of three holes after the turn. Australia’s Hannah Green was two shots behind until her tee shot went into the water on the left on the 10th hole, causing a double bogey that ended her courageous comeback after an opening-round 77.
Zhang and Japan’s Miyu Yamashita each played tennis on the ninth green, chipping from side to side, back and forth, until both made double bogey.
And so Ko was five strokes ahead of the field and the only drama seemed to be a wild race for the other two medals. At one point, 12 players in the B-Flight were separated by just two strokes.
If only it were that easy for Ko.
She was playing easy and had a birdie chance on every hole until she hit the water on the 13th and made a double bogey, cutting her lead to three shots but still fairly safe until Henseleit forced Ko to play her best down the home stretch.
Henseleit watched Ko play the last few holes from a red sofa in the clubhouse and never thought about going to the practice range in case of a playoff.
“There are just players you know aren’t going to mess up the last two holes and she’s definitely one of them,” said Henseleit, the first European to win an Olympic medal in golf. “I was sitting there happy and enjoying my silver medal.”
Lin is the second player from China to win a medal – Shanshan Feng took bronze in Rio – and due to the large number of participants, she somehow managed to avoid a playoff.
The petite Yamashita played a strong game, two shots behind the leader until she hit the water for double bogey on the par-3 16th hole. She had a chance to force a playoff for the bronze medal until she missed a 35-foot eagle putt on the 18th hole.
Yamashita missed the podium by just one stroke with a 73, as did Green (69), Bianca Pagdanganan of the Philippines (68) and the winner of the Women’s PGA Championship, Amy Yang of South Korea (69).
Korda, the No. 1 player in women’s golf and a gold medalist at the Tokyo Olympics, was in the lead until the closing stages at Golf National again derailed her. This time she hit a wedge into the water on the 15th hole and made triple bogey, finishing with a 75. For the week, Korda had a triple bogey on the 15th, a quadruple bogey on the 16th and two three-putt bogeys on the 17th.
“I played pretty solid until the last few holes,” she said. “I think that was the most important thing about my week. Other than that, I played solid golf.”
Zhang finished with a 74 and scored two birdies on the last three holes. Swiss player Morgane Metraux, who shared the lead with Ko on the final day, only managed a birdie on the 15th hole and reached a 79.
In the end, the stage, the podium and the shrine belonged entirely to Ko.
