An emotional Lydia Ko stands atop the Olympic dais following her stunning victory- image PGA Tour / IGF
New Zealand’s Lydia Ko has established herself amongst the legends of golf with victory at the Olympic Women’s Golf Competition in Paris, holding off a brilliant final-round burst by Germany’s Esther Henseleit to win by two and not only complete her collection of Olympic medals but in doing so she now joins the immortals of the LPGA Tour by qualifying for its Hall of Fame.
Beginning the final round sharing the lead with Switzerland’s Morganne Metraux, Ko quickly established a substantial lead when Metraux dropped five shots in her first five holes and although she too ,would also drop a shot at the first, she recovered to make the turn in 2 under 34 and through 12 holes her lead was five.
Then came a hole that threatened her lead. At the par 4 13th Ko found the water with her second and eventually took a double bogey six and with Henseleit recording birdies at five of her first ten holes and then going on to birdie the 17th and 18th the gap was just one.
Henseleit finished her round 45 minutes ahead of Ko and waited to see if her great final round might have been good enough to force a playoff or win outright.
Ko, however, would steady the ship with four straight pars before one last birdie at the 18th to claim Gold.
“Going into the final round with a two-shot lead with Morgane, I think when I was younger, I would have been, oh, man, everyone trying to catch me and get almost more pressure from that,” said Ko.
“I think it’s one of the things I’m most proud of is I stuck to my game plan and stuck to being aggressive off the tee, and that’s been something that I’ve been struggling with and been working really hard with on with my coaches. And for to progressively get better these past couple months and for it to hits peak here at the Olympics, it doesn’t get better than this. To be holding and wearing this Gold Medal, it’s pretty crazy right now.
“Going into this week, everyone was saying, Oh, what if you finish and collect all the Gold on top of the Silver and Bronze you have the complete set. Of course I want to do that, complete it, too, but it’s much easier said than done.
“I wanted to focus on my golf and nothing else. And that’s why I deleted my Instagram because I just didn’t want to be fazed by what other people were saying and just enjoy this opportunity because this experience has been unbelievable and the fans have been great.
“The French fans have been awesome, kind of taking me in as one of their own. And it’s definitely a life peak for me here. I don’t think I’ve experienced this kind of adrenaline before, and to do it here, it really can’t get any better.”
Ko was asked if the emotions she displayed on the victory dais were the most she had ever shown on the golf course?
“I cried a lot winning the CME TOUR Championship in 2022 because that was actually the first win with my fiancée at the time, now husband, there with me. Seeing him, I was getting very emotional and my mom and my sister was there, as well.
“So I think those moments are what makes it extra special. Like because I know that because of them, I’m here today, and you know, my husband may be in America right now but I felt like he was with me. I had a marker that had his name on it.
“So you know, thanks to them, I’m a Gold Medallist now, and you know, I think all of those emotions combined was why I was crying.
“I definitely don’t have our National Anthem on repeat on Spotify. Listening to my National Anthem, I can understand why Scottie Scheffler was so emotional last Sunday. It’s a feeling that you can really not repeat unless you are in that position again. I know that it’s probably never coming again.”
Henseleit plays the LPGA Tour but has yet to win there and is currently ranked 54th in the world so her performance to finish second was outstanding.
China’s Xiyu Lin finished third, one shot behind Henseleit.
Hannah Green’s effort to finish in a share of 4th as the leading Australian was made even more impressive given her horror start on Wednesday when she opened with a round of 77.
She would eventually finish just one shot out of the medals after playing her last 54 holes in 11 under.
Minjee Lee finished 22nd.
