JEDDAH – Lydia Ko spent “too much” time playing golf with her husband during their honeymoon, but it paid off in spades as the world No. 1 New Zealander kicked off her season with victory in Saudi Arabia on Sunday.
Ko won her second Saudi Ladies International title by a stroke from India’s Aditi Ashok, firing a final-round four-under 68 to finish with a 21-under total at the Royal Greens Golf & Country Club.
Ko won the Ladies European Tour-sanctioned event at the same venue two years ago. “I’m two for two on this golf course. Clearly something is going for me,” said Ko, who claimed a US$750,000 (S$1 million) winner’s cheque.
“The first event of the year, it’s really hard because you don’t have anything to base yourself off.”
Ko, who will be in Singapore for next week’s HSBC Women’s World Championship, has started the season as she finished the last one.
In November, the 25-year-old gave herself early wedding presents as she won the LPGA’s season-ending CME Group Tour Championship in Florida to reclaim the world No. 1 ranking, while scooping the tour’s Player of the Year award and a US$2 million winner’s cheque.
It was her last tournament before tying the knot with Chung Jun, the son of a prominent South Korean businessman, in her birth-place Seoul during the off-season.
“I played a lot of golf, maybe a bit too much golf, on my honeymoon,” said Ko. “But my husband loves golf and that’s something that we can mutually do together, so we took advantage of that.
“And actually, thanks to him, it made my transition into off-season practice a lot easier.”
Starting Sunday a stroke behind American Lilia Vu at the Red Sea-adjacent course, Ko had an erratic start, bogeying the par-four second hole to cancel out a birdie on the first. However, she was flawless thereafter and seized the outright lead on the 17th hole by rolling in a 12-foot putt for birdie.
With Ashok (68) unable to birdie the last hole, a tap-in par on the par-five 18th was enough for Ko to underline her status as the top women’s golfer.
“I’ve just been very grateful. A lot of great things (are) happening, especially in the last few months, again and again,” she said.
Ashok, 24, said: “It’s been great. I think 20-under par on this golf course with the wind that we had on some of those days is a pretty good score.
“I knew I needed to make a few birdies. I knew where I stood after nine when I saw the leaderboard. I didn’t do much until 14.
“Yesterday I birdied three of the last four, so I tried to think that it was possible today too.
“I ended up making birdie on two of the last four, which was good.” REUTERS
