File photo LET
Lydia Ko’s impressive 2021 has continued with a share of 3rd place at the BMW Ladies Championship in Busan in South Korea.
Ko finished five shots from the playoff between the eventual winner, Jin Young Ko, and Hee Jeong Lim but for the 24-year-old New Zealander the finish was her 11th top ten in her 19th start of 2021 and continues her climb in the Rolex World ranking after being outside the top 50 during 2020.
Ko was ranked 8th heading into this week’s event and may well improve another spot when the rankings are revised later today but either way her return to the form which had become so synonymous with her earlier career has been impressive.
“My ball striking has been really good leading up to this week,” said Ko. “And the first day I really didn’t feel like it was there, and my iron play wasn’t good.
“Normally, if my iron play has been — like driver or irons, one of the two, have been working. But the first day I really didn’t have any of them. And when I made a mistake, I kind of kept topping it up with another mistake. So it was really hard to feed off of any momentum that first day.
“But I talked to Sean on my drive over to the golf course on the second day, and he said the swing is looking fine, so just be really aggressive. And that’s what Dave thought as well.
“So I just tried to play aggressive. And I think when I did that, even though I miss it, I felt like it was solid, and that’s a good place to be with my long game. And when you see putts start falling, I think that’s a good mindset to be in. And I felt like I putted really solid, and I think that was something that I could kind of lean on, even if I did miss a green.”
Minjee Lee finished 12th and as the leading Australian, Hannah Green was 29th, Su Oh 61st and Sarah Kemp 79th.
Lee currently heads the Australasians in the Rolex World Ranking, her best standing in over a year and should retain that spot following her solid week in Korea.
For the winner, Jin Young Ko, the victory continues a remarkable run of late, this victory her 4th in her last eight starts and although still trailing Nelly Korda in terms of world ranking, the momentum she has might see her regain her number one seeding in the next few weeks.
