Lydia Ko and the shot that gave her the Women’s Open championship (2024)

ST ANDREWS, Scotland — As Lydia Ko walked down the picturesque 17th hole at the Old Course, level at 6-under-par with Nelly Korda, Lilia Vu and Jinyai Shin, the postcard view darkened. The heavens suddenly caved in and, as she walked around the hotel to discover she still had 200 yards to the infamously tough green, it felt like the New Zealander’s bid to end an eight-year wait for a third major may be about to follow suit.

Ko was way short of the longest players off the tee on Sunday and her drive, while on the left of the fairway, left the back of the green out of reach. But the par-4 17th had played as the most difficult hole across the week, averaging 4.5 shots with just 20 birdies and 25 double bogeys. There was no option to lay up, she had to fully commit to a line into the pin that flirted ominously close to one of golf’s most notorious hazards, the Road Hole bunker.

It has claimed the souls of many challengers — most notably Tommy Nakijima whose four-shot escape saw it re-christened the ‘Sands of Nakajima’ — and given Ko’s many near misses since winning the 2016 Chevron Championship, the sense of jeopardy intensified.

She had vowed to play smart golf Sunday at the Women’s Open and not look at the score she was chasing. But with Ruoning Yin putting ahead of her at 18 to make it a five-way tie, she knew there was no margin for error.

Ko hit a flat 3-wood that bumped its way over the steep front lip of the green to leave herself within 20 feet. She holed out for par, before hitting an exquisite approach shot on the last that presented a five-foot birdie to go in as clubhouse leader.

Not one of the three groups chasing could come up with one, never mind two clutch shots under the pressure, and Ko finished two clear on a scoreboard that did not fully capture the drama St Andrews served up in a memorable final major of the year.

Ko, who had been on the practice greens wearing ear muffs for 20 minutes in preparation for a potential play-off, burst into tears as she watched Vu bogey the last to confirm Ko’s status as champion.

She buried her face into her husband’s chest and shook her head almost in disbelief at what had just happened. By the time Ko was being presented with the trophy, talking about the ‘Cinderella’ August she has experienced, the sun was bouncing off the Old Course again.

Ko had shaken the monkey off her back that had been there since she won her last major in 2016, while still as a teenager. Now, aged 27, after years of doubting her time would come again, her number was called for the third time this month.

First, Olympic gold in Paris, then the long-awaited entry into the LPGA Hall of Fame, and now as Open champion at the home of golf.

“I don’t think there’s a word in the dictionary that can explain what just happened,” she said.

“But somebody put it into perspective before I won the gold, they said, try to think of like getting into the Hall of Fame as like a gas station on the way to my final destination and not like my final destination.

“I’m pretty sure I was still in my teens when I won at Mission Hills (in 2016 as a 19-year-old). My mom said it in another interview I was a better golfer when I was 15 than I am now. But now I can say, ‘Hey, maybe this statement is wrong.’

“It’s been the whirlwind of a past three weeks. These are things that I could have never imagined because they were just too good to be true. I would have thought somebody was honestly messing with me. But here I am, and it’s just been unreal. I feel very fortunate.”

Ko carded only six bogies the whole week, shooting below par in all four rounds. She becomes the only player in the last 50 years to trail entering the final round in each of their first three LPGA major wins, a lead she only realised she shared moments before two tricky pars at 16 and 17.

“I said, ‘What a time for us to play that 17th hole,'” laughed Ko, who praised the influence of her Scottish caddy Paul Cormack, who was also on Anna Nordqvist’s bag when she won the Women’s Open at Carnoustie in 2021.

“To have parred that hole in those conditions, that was probably one of the best shots I’ve hit. On 15, I thinned my 3-wood into the green and hit into the bunker (costing bogey). So my biggest goal is to make solid contact. Honestly, it was so windy and rainy, I saw that the ball was heading towards the pin but I had no idea that it was on that second tier.

“Because of the conditions, I could only hit one club. It was 3-wood or a 3-wood. The back was completely out of play because I couldn’t reach it. So it was nice to just be able to make an aggressive swing at it, but that’s probably one of the best punch shots I’ve hit coming down the stretch.”

It looked like it would be an end to the year that would match Korda’s blistering start.

But as she walked down 18 all the world number one could do was puff out her cheeks, knowing her mistakes down the back nine had cost her. Korda had got to 9-under with a three-shot lead on Saturday before an out-of-bounds tee shot on 15 cost a double bogey.

She climbed back to 8-under again on Sunday, reclaiming a two-shot lead at the 10th with back-to-back birdies, but at the par-5 14th she suffered another nightmare double-bogey.

The final leaderboard. Lydia Ko wins by two shots. pic.twitter.com/QP9LuYBkGh

— AIG Women’s Open (@AIGWomensOpen) August 25, 2024

She took five shots from the rough 20 yards to the green, with a chip that failed to make it up the slope the catalyst for a poor finish, which included another bogey after finding the bunker Ko avoided on 17.

“I had 58-degree and it just shot on me,” Korda said.

“The wedge shot that I had over the green was kind of sitting a little bit in a hole with some of the — whatever you call it, the “hay” or whatever you call it behind it. I just can’t catch it cleanly and then obviously didn’t make the putt for bogey.

“Listen, it’s golf. I’m going to mess up and unfortunately, I messed up over the weekend twice in two penalising ways coming down the stretch. Theoretically, that’s what kind of cost me the tournament but I played well. I played solid. I even fought after that. I’m going to take that into the next coming events.”

Retirement has been on Ko’s mind for some time but she set a goal with her coach of winning one more major before she called time. The clock still has many more hours left if she wants them but her triple success this month, at the major she least expected to triumph at, has bestowed her with a record that more accurately matches her precocious talent and a career timeline that is balanced to reflect her enduring class.

Ko was among a group of 30 LPGA players, including contenders Shin, Korda and Vu, who had won two majors. Adding another would have elevated any of their status but for Ko, the most prolific teenager golf has ever seen, winning at St Andrews has tied a ribbon around an already glittering career.

(Top photo: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)

Jordan Campbell is a football writer for The Athletic, who regularly covers Arsenal. In 2024, he was named in the 30 to Watch journalism awards. He previously covered Glasgow Rangers and was twice nominated for Young Journalist of the Year at the Scottish Press Awards. Follow Jordan on Twitter @JordanC1107