Lydia Ko covered her face with her hands and cried tears of joy.
An Olympic gold medal. Entry into the Hall of Fame. And now another major championship title — at the home of golf, no less.
Summers don’t come much better than that.
Ko completed what she described as a “Cinderella-like story” by breaking free from a logjam of world-class talent to win the Women’s British Open by two strokes at St Andrews, securing a third major title — and a first in eight years.
Just two weeks ago, the 27-year-old Kiwi took gold at the Olympic Games in Paris.
“This is almost too good to be true,” Ko said.
She rolled in a left-to-right birdie putt at the storied 18th hole on the Old Course to shoot three-under 69 — for seven under overall — and then had to wait to finish ahead of top-ranked Nelly Korda, defending champion Lilia Vu and two-time champion Jiyai Shin.
That quartet of past or present No. 1s shared the lead at one point down the stretch of an engrossing final round played mostly in cold, blustery and wet conditions before ending in sunshine. Ko was waiting on the practice putting green not far from the 18th green, doing stretches while wearing ear muffs, when Vu lined up a 20-foot putt for birdie that needed to go in to force a playoff.
It came up short, and Vu ultimately made bogey to shoot 73 and drop to five under alongside Korda (72), Shin (74) and also Ruoning Yin (70) in a four-way tie for second place. Ko wept in the embrace of her caddie. Ko qualified for the Hall of Fame by winning the gold medal in Paris and now has what many believe to be the ultimate prize in the sport — a major championship title at the home of golf.
