Ko Becomes Only Second in Tour's History to Win in Her LPGA Debut
- Sport Science
- Hit3328
- 2018-02-19
Ko Becomes Only Second in Tour's History to Win in Her LPGA Debut
ADELAIDE, South Australia – The pipeline of talent to the LPGA apparently has an endless supply of players. One year after Sung Hyun Park matched Nancy Lopez as the only ones to win Rolex Rookie of the Year and Player of the Year in the same season, Jin Young Ko is starting 2018 as if she wants to make that elite duo a threesome.
With her three-stroke victory over Hyejin Choi on Sunday in the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open, the 22-year-old rookie from South Korea became the first player in 67 years to win in her debut tournament as an LPGA member and only the second in the tour’s history, equaling the feat pulled off by Beverley Hanson in 1951, just the tour’s second year.
Ko, who earned LPGA membership when she won the KEB Hana Bank Championship last October, was impressive start to finish at Kooyonga Golf Club, leading wire-to-wire. She began Sunday’s final round four strokes ahead of Hannah Green and put the title away with a closing 69 that left her at 14-under-par 274.
Jin Young Ko, who has nine wins on the KLPGA, burst on the scene when she finished second to Inbee Park in the 2015 Ricoh Women’s British Open at Turnberry after squandering a three-stroke lead on the back nine at the age of 20. It seems as if that painful experience was a steppingstone for her rather than a stumbling block as she won three times on the KLPGA in both 2016 and 2017.
Ko showed her resiliency at Turnberry by employing a caddie she met only the day before the tournament began and by adapting quickly to links golf, which she had never played before. In Australia, she once again displayed a mental approach that is one of the strengths of her game, revealing no signs of pressure in her LPGA debut.
“I focused on my game and I think my chipping and putting were keys,” she said about her solid play at Kooyonga. “This course is narrow, and then there’s the green, so I’m thinking about only the greens and then try to two putt,” she said of her strategy for the final round.
This is an excerpt from an english article.
(Source: http://www.lpga.com/news/2018-with-win-ko-became-second-in-tours-history-to-win-debut)
College of Sport Science