Golf: Ko retains HSBC Women’s World C’ship crown, wins 1st title in a year

SINGAPORE – The last 12 months have been tough for Ko Jin-young. Since lifting the HSBC Women’s World Championship title in March 2022, she has endured a winless streak and lost her world No. 1 ranking as she battled a wrist injury.

No wonder she wept as she walked away from the 18th hole of Sentosa Golf Club’s New Tanjong Course after she sunk the putt that sealed her victory on Sunday, becoming the first golfer to retain her title at the tournament.

She joins fellow South Korean Park In-bee (2015 & 2017) as the only two-time winners in 15 editions of the HSBC event.

Ko, 27, said: “It’s a great honour to defend this title. It was a long week with all the rain (which caused numerous delays each day). I had a tough year last year. I fought with injury and did not have a good game, and mentally it was tough.

“This victory is very important to me and it’s going to be a big momentum for me in my life.”

For most of the final round, the overnight leader barely showed any emotions save for a fist pump at the 10th hole after draining a crucial putt from the fringe to save par. It kept her three shots ahead of her flightmate and closest challenger Nelly Korda.

Ko said: “I just didn’t want to lose to the other players, especially today. So it was really hard to keep my poker face on the course, and I tried to stay focused.”

The world No. 5 started the morning with a two-stroke advantage over Korda and birdied the first hole to stretch it to three. Ko was unflappable, barely missing any greens, and even when her American rival birdied Nos. 3, 4 and 5, she kept her composure.

Ko rolled in birdies on the fifth and eighth holes to keep Korda at arm’s length and responded to a bogey on No. 11 – her only dropped shot of the day – with a birdie two holes later to reach 17 under, a score no one came close to equalling.

Ko eventually signed for a three-under 69 and 17-under 271 total, beating Korda (69) by two shots. Japan’s Ayaka Furue (67) and Americans Danielle Kang (68) and Allisen Corpuz (69) ended joint-third, a further shot adrift.

Curiously, 17 under was also Ko’s winning score in 2022. Few would have suspected after that celebration – it was her sixth win from 10 starts on the LPGA Tour – how challenging the rest of the year would turn out for her.

The repetitive-motion wrist injury she was nursing began to worsen, resulting in sharp pain every time she hit a shot.

From August to November last season, she missed the cut in three tournaments and withdrew from the fourth. She lost her No. 1 ranking to Thai rookie Atthaya Thitikul in October.

In the off-season, Ko went to Vietnam for a winter camp to work on her game and took up meditation. While not at “100 per cent”, she has regained her confidence.

She finished tied-sixth at the previous week’s LPGA Thailand.

She said: “I played well here but I need more time to work with my new swing, especially under pressure.”

Korda, who finished joint-second here in 2018, was disappointed having come so close again.

The world No. 2 said: “I didn’t play really well but also didn’t really battle as much as I wanted to. I just made a couple of kind of silly mistakes here and there.

“It was nice to finish with a birdie and be in contention again... hopefully I can build on this going into the next few events back in the States.”