Lydia Ko on Sunday after her second shot on the 14th gap at Tiburon Golf Club.
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Lydia Ko, holding her membership out to the left in an effort to will her ball that method, didn’t prefer it. Over the course of a jiffy, neither did two observers.
“Wow, I was not expecting that,” stated NBC analyst Karen Stupples, herself a longtime participant.
“There’s no reason to be over there,” stated Morgan Pressel, additionally a commentator and veteran.
“To respond that way is so surprising,” Pressel added later.
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“It’s one thing for Leona to hit it into the water — it was a poor shot — but I’m just completely floored at Lydia following her in there,” Stupples added later.
Ko was up one Sunday through the CME Group Tour Championship’s ultimate spherical. She had 5 holes to go at Tiburon Golf Club. She was in the midst of the green after her tee shot on the 527-yard par-5 14th. She had simply watched Leona Maguire, her closest pursuer within the LPGA’s two-mil-to-the-winner season-ender, mishit one into a marsh.
She dumped hers in, too. Ko didn’t go left, the place you can put up a car parking zone with all the room on the dogleg proper. Instead, Ko tried to parallel-park her ball into a tight window of water, bunkers and little grass on the precise. And you and Karen Stupples and Morgan Pressel requested why.
And Ko stated why not.
Then she gained. By two.
On the outlet in query, Ko didn’t need to journey that far proper. But she wasn’t going left. Or perhaps extra precisely, she didn’t want to.
Everyone else be damned.
Afterward on Sunday, Ko was reflective, because the victory glow tends to make one. The 2014 CME winner, she’s stamped her identify on the occasion — although, Ko’s not the fondest of that tourney pic of 17-year-old her in glasses, thanks very a lot — and there was dialog earlier within the week over who was the higher participant: the teenager phenom, or the 25-year-old who misplaced her method for a bit, however is now world No. 2.
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Ko’s mother knew that reply.
“My mom does joke to me at times,” the youthful Ko stated Friday. “She’s, like, ‘You played so much better when you were, like, 15.’
“I was, like, ‘Thanks, Mom. OK, what am I meant to do with that information?’”
Good stuff. Is she proper? Who’s to say? Jump forward a few years, to 2015 and 2016, and Ko gained a whopping 9 instances, together with two majors. This 12 months, she’s gained 3 times. And it is best to take all of that into your individual guess.
This, too. The trade is prolonged, however Ko is a wonderful storyteller, and there’s outstandingly a level.
“I’m just curious, when you look back to that girl that year in 2014 maybe versus the woman you are now, how do you compare?” a reporter requested Sunday.
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“Yeah, I think that week I actually flew from Mexico because we had Lorena’s [Ochoa] event the week prior,” Ko started. “I was coming into the week a little drained, and I bear in mind I didn’t play that nice. So that 12 months was the primary time that we had the million greenback for the Globe outdoors of the occasion. I believe in the event you had been a high 9 coming into the race that you simply had the chance to win the Globe in the event you gained the occasion. I ended up doing that.
“I believe I performed additional holes that day, and I was within the playoff with Carlota [Ciganda] and Julieta [Granada], and all three of us had been very totally different type of gamers. I believe there was a second within the playoff the place I truly thought I had misplaced as a result of Carlota had hit a actually shut shot in there, however clearly she ended up lacking the putt.
“You know, a lot of issues have happened since then. I was 17 in 2014. I don’t really feel 25 proper now. There’s been a lot of ups and downs each on and off the golf course, however all of these moments have made moments like right this moment. I believe, sure, perhaps once I was youthful, I performed perhaps a little bit extra freely as a result of I was a little clueless on the similar time.
“But now, you already know, I’ve gone via my share of ups and downs, and I believe that’s helped me to understand that, hey, we’re going to have good days and we’re additionally going to have dangerous days. I believe my perspective on how I deal with the dangerous photographs or the dangerous occasions is a lot higher now than I did then.
“I hope that I’ve grown more as an individual since then, and I think golf is very relatable to life in general, and I think golf keeps you very humble as well. It’s a continuous learning journey, but I’m excited with where I am at in life and at the golf course. But, you know, I don’t miss the times of wearing the glasses and having to clean my lenses too. Yeah.”
At this level, Ko laughed. And bear in mind, all of that above got here after 72 holes on the event with the richest prize in LPGA historical past. Let’s proceed.
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“Just as a follow-up,” a reporter stated, “so would you say you kind of recaptured the same kind of freedom that you were playing with back then, just in a different way?”
“I think so,” Ko stated. “I believe I’m freer now figuring out that, hey, no matter goes to occur goes to occur. Sometimes I can put my one hundred pc intention, and it does nothing like I meant it to.
“Then typically I don’t assume it’s going to go nice, and it goes nice. So I believe simply all these type of experiences assist me to turn out to be extra free as a result of on the finish of the day, it’s like a gamble. Yes, you type of need that to go in your favor, however I can’t — like, simply because I turn out to be extra controlling, it’s not going to do any good for me.
“So I think just to let go, and I’ve said all year, you know, what’s meant to be is going to be. I want that to be, like, how I envision, but at the same time, I’m playing alongside the world’s best female golfers, and I know it’s not easy, so I just have got to focus on me. And if I do a good job of what I have in front of me, then that’s all I can really ask for.”
All of this isn’t to say this model of Ko is firing at flags and ramming putts 6 ft previous. She’s nonetheless calculated. But you study issues.
Like the playbook for when your ball goes a little too far proper.
In brief, Ko’s 14th on Sunday was surgical. Precise. No nerves. She mounted the harm, with nary a scar.
After discovering her ball in an unplayable spot, she dropped, hit her fourth shot to about 30 ft and two-putted for a bogey. Maguire bogeyed too, and Ko’s benefit held at one.
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After a par on 15, she birdied 16. And 17. The leaderboard learn this manner: Ko, 17-under; Maguire, 15-under; Anna Nordqvist, 14-under.
After Ko parred 18, that’s how the leaderboard learn on the finish. She’ll head into next 12 months a winner.
And now we glance forward. We’ll achieve this with a query.
What would occur if certainly one of golf’s best-ever gamers grew to become unafraid to take dangers, as a result of she will get well from no matter consequence?
While you consider the reply, we’ll finish issues with this line from Pressel, after Ko’s birdie on 16.
“Look at how stoic and calm and settled she looks. Like, yup, that’s what I’m supposed to do.”
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