Lydia Ko finished ahead of Esther Henseleit of Germany and Xiyu Lin of China to secure the women's Olympic golf gold medal; the win takes her onto the 27 points required for the LPGA Hall of Fame; Ko has now won a bronze, a silver and a gold medal at the Olympics across three games
Saturday 10 August 2024 17:32, UK
Lydia Ko completed her women's Olympic golf medal collection with the most valuable of of them all, a gold medal that puts the 27-year-old New Zealander into the LPGA Hall of Fame.
Ko built a five-shot lead on the back nine in the final round of the tournament at Le Golf National in Paris as her closest pursuers all collapsed, and then had to hang on until the very end.
With her lead down to one after 17 holes, Ko made a seven-foot birdie putt at the 18th for a one-under 71 and a two-shot victory on 10 under.
Ko won the silver medal in Rio de Janeiro and the bronze in Tokyo, but the missing one turned out to be more valuable than its weight in gold.
The victory pushed her career total to the 27 points required for the LPGA Hall of Fame.
Esther Henseleit of Germany finished birdie-birdie for a 66 to make Ko work for it. She wound up with the silver on eight under. Xiyu Lin of China birdied the final hole for a 69 to win the bronze on seven under.
For Nelly Korda, Rose Zhang and Morgane Metraux, it was a day to forget. All of them were in range early on, but fell back with a double-bogey or worse.
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Great Britain's Charley Hull and Georgia Hall finished tied 27th and tied 36th respectively at Le Golf National, while Ireland pair Stephanie Meadows and Leona Maguire were 39th and 59th respectively.
This is the latest prize in a remarkable career for Ko, who won her first LPGA title as an amateur when she was 15 and rose to No 1 in the world for the first time at 17. She began this year with a victory at the Tournament of Champions, leaving her one point short of the Hall.
"It would be a hell of a way to do it," she said when she arrived at the course on Monday.
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