New Zealand’s Lydia Ko is a winner as soon as once more, opening the 2024 LPGA Tour season by claiming the Event of Champions title.
Ko was a 36-hole co-leader and completed the third spherical with a two-stroke lead. Her two-under-par 70 in Sunday’s last spherical was sufficient to complete at 14-under 274 for the week at Lake Nona Golf and Nation Membership.
Alexa Pano (70) began and completed the day two photographs behind Ko and positioned second at 12 underneath. Canada’s Brooke Henderson, the defending champion, was third at 10 underneath after a 68.
The occasion was unique to gamers who’ve gained on the LPGA Tour up to now two seasons. Ko was within the subject on the power of three victories in 2022, however she didn’t win an official occasion stateside in 2023.
Now the 26-year-old has her twentieth profession LPGA title. She is the seventh to achieve the mark earlier than turning 27.
“I think the finish that I had last year, not only winning Grant Thornton (a mixed-team exhibition) but I played really well in Korea and in Malaysia,” mentioned Ko, who lives in Orlando.
“Possibly if I had discovered the keys that I discovered then a bit of earlier, perhaps I might have had a greater season.
“I think if you keep going down a spiral of thinking like ‘what if’, it’s endless. I worked hard in the two weeks leading up to this event. To win at home has been nice.”
Ko’s lead was not severely threatened after she birdied the sixth, ninth and tenth to maneuver to fifteen underneath earlier than her first bogey on the par-five eleventh. Pano struggled out of the gate, with two bogeys and two birdies over her first 15 holes.
After gaining the solo lead after the third spherical, Ko put in a dominant fourth-round show
By the point Pano birdied the sixteenth and seventeenth, it was too little, too late. Ko birdied the fifteenth earlier than a closing bogey.
Henderson had her greatest spherical of the week, with all 4 of her birdies coming in a five-hole stretch from the seventh, whereas she stayed bogey-free.
“The game plan was to try and climb the leaderboard as much as possible, stick to the game plan,” Henderson mentioned. “To shoot minus-four in these conditions, I’m really happy with. It was very cold and very windy.”
Cheyenne Knight (69), Ally Ewing (72) and Japan’s Ayaka Furue (71) tied for fourth at eight underneath. Rose Zhang began her first full season on tour with a tied-seventh end with England’s Charley Hull, as each gamers shot 71 and completed seven underneath.
Scotland’s Gemma Dryburgh (73) completed a shot additional again on six underneath, with Leona Maguire of Eire (68) tying for twelfth place on 4 underneath.
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