SYLVANIA, Ohio – Danielle Kang won for a second time in as many weeks, but the lingering talk about the Marathon LPGA Classic centered around the stunning way a once-dominant Lydia Ko managed to lose the tournament.
A woman with one of the most enviable short games in golf misjudged one shot after another on the par-5 18thafter her second shot settled on a cart path behind the green. After Ko took what felt like an eternity to play her third shot, the rest of the collapse happened in short order. A failed bump into the bank for her fourth rolled back into a greenside bunker. Her fifth from a good lie settled 10 feet from the hole. She two-putted for double-bogey, a gut punch felt all the way down in New Zealand.
Ko was commenting on the weather when she arrived at the flash area to talk to reporters. She was calm, cool and gracious.
“When you look back afterwards you are like, maybe I should have done this, maybe I should have done that,” said Ko. “But, I mean, what can you do?”
As Ko talked, her good friend Kang was gathering on the putting green at Highland Meadows, preparing to give her second victory speech this month. Ohio has been good to her.
“I mean, there are really no words, to be honest,” said Kang of what happened to Ko on the 18th. “As a competitor, friend, I mean, she’ll bounce back and she’s a great player and she’s proven to be one of the best players in the world.”
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Kang, 27, entered the final round four strokes back of Ko and after three-putting the 12th, she turned to her caddie, Oliver Brett, and said “Man, that’s too costly.”
Brett responded by telling her that she was five shots back of Ko with six to play.
“I like that,” Kang replied.
Brett laid out the challenge plainly to Kang and she responded, making two consecutive birdies. When she stood on the 18th tee, Kang trailed Ko by a single shot.
What happened next left everyone’s head spinning in absolute shock, though such drama certainly would’ve played out better with a packed grandstand. Only volunteers, officials and media rimmed the final green.
“It’s like putting a big musical together and all the stars of the show are here,” said longtime tournament director Judd Silverman, “but there’s nobody in the theater to watch.”
Ko’s double-bogey dropped her into a share of second with Jodi Ewart Shadoff at 14 under. Kang’s closing par for a 68 clinched the $255,000 first-place prize. She’s the first player to win back-to-back events since Shanshan Feng won the TOTO Japan Classic and the Blue Bay LPGA in the fall of 2017.
Marathon LPGA Classic scores | LPGA schedule
Jin Young Ko, the current No. 1 has yet to compete on the LPGA in 2020. She isn’t signed up for the next two events in Scotland either. Because of changes to the Rolex Rankings due to COVID-19, the LPGA can’t project whether or not Kang will move up to No. 1 after this victory. She moved to No. 2 after clinching last week’s title at the LPGA Drive On Championship at Inverness.
“I think a big part of how I’ve approached the golf game is I’m really not focused on a lot of other things other than just getting better at things I want to get better at,” said Kang. We always have room to improve, and that’s the beauty of golf.
“At the same time, I’m able to tell myself I did a good job with certain things and positive reinforcements to myself so I’m not too critical. That’s something that I think I’ve changed in how I approach my own game.”
Now a five-time winner on the LPGA, Kang made herself at home for her fortnight in Toledo and credited Amy Yang, who stayed in the room across from her at the hotel, for making enough food to share every night.
“I ate out one time,” she said, “and it was McDonald’s.”
Few distractions off the course, and a growing confidence in what she’d worked on with Butch Harmon in Las Vegas during the LPGA’s 166-day break, left her focused on one thing: learning golf courses.
Kang proved a quick study, and now she’ll head to Scotland for two weeks where she’ll try to tame a style of play that hasn’t suited her in the past.
“I’m really excited to go to Scotland actually,” she said. “Links golf hasn’t been my forte, but I’ve kind of proven that what I worked on with different parts of my game. Inverness and Highland Meadows have been two different golf courses completely, and I was able to play well on both of them.”
Ko gets on tonight’s charter flight to Scotland with plenty to think about, though if her post-round interview is any indication, she won’t let Sunday’s catastrophe linger.
“I think there are so many positives from the week,” said Ko, “and I feel overall like more confident in my game. I think that’s really the goal I had coming into this stretch after quarantine.
“Obviously, I would’ve loved to be the one holding the trophy, but I think if somebody said, ‘Hey, you’re going to be second at Marathon coming into the stretch I would’ve been, OK, cool.’ I would take that.”
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