Lydia Ko picked up right where she left off — winning. On the heels of an Olympic gold medal and the AIG Women’s British Open victory at St. Andrews, Ko added another first-place prize at the 2024 Kroger Queen City Championship, topping the field by five strokes after a three-week break. Incredibly, she had only one bogey the entire week at TPC River’s Bend.
In her post-round interview with Golf Channel’s Amy Rogers, Ko called this stretch of golf “surreal” and put any talk of retirement on a back burner with a newish goal.
“I think it’s always been the goal of mine to do the career grand slam,” said Ko, who currently owns three different majors. “I thought that would be so out there.
“I feel like I’ve already been part of this fairytale, so why not?”
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The newest member of the LPGA Hall of Fame now owns 22 LPGA career titles. She has three LPGA official wins this season, plus the gold medal. Ko closed with a 9-under 63 to run away from former No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul. Ko finished at 23 under for the tournament.
Kroger Queen City: Photos | Leaderboard
This marks the first time since 2016 – when she claimed the JTBC Classic and Chevron Championship titles – the 27-year-old Kiwi has won in back-to-back starts on the LPGA.
She joins Nelly Korda as the only other player with at least three wins this season. Korda, who finished in a share of fifth in Cincinnati, won six times in the first half of the season and leads the Rolex Player of the Year list by 100 points. (Ko did not receive any POY points for her gold-medal performance in Paris, though she did get that valuable LPGA Hall of Fame point.)
Ko starts the fall season the same way she ended the summer, on a hot streak, extending her top-10 run to her last five consecutive starts, including the Olympics.
World No. 1 Korda will have three weeks at home before heading to South Korea for the LPGA’s BMW Ladies Championship. The LPGA heads to the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship, Sept. 27-29, before a four-event swing through China, Korea, Malaysia and Japan.
“I don’t think I had my best stuff, but played some solid golf here and there,” said Korda, who closed with a 68. “Definitely didn’t capitalize on the par-5s. I had a lot of irons in my hands and came out with pars. A little disappointing there.
“Overall, happy with the way I played coming off last week and my energy levels.”
South Korea’s Haeran Ryu birdied five consecutive holes on the back nine en route to a closing 67. She finished solo third.
Ko now immediately heads to South Korea to compete in the KLPGA’s Hana Financial Group Championship. As for retirement, Ko said she’s always looked up to the way Lorena Ochoa ended her career while still playing well. She’d rather leave the tour wondering if she could’ve won a few more rather than reach a point where she feels like she should’ve left the game long ago.
“I don’t know when that moment is right now,” she said. “I enjoyed these past three weeks and it was great being home and not to live out of my suitcase. While I’m competitively playing, it’s good to have goals. The career grand slam seems too far out there, but what has happened the past couple months has been that extent of craziness, I guess.
“So I just wanted to set a goal that was something that I can work towards and whether that’s happens or not isn’t as important. It’s just more the drive for me to keep wanting to put myself in contention and hopefully be the one holding the trophy at the end of the week more and more after this week as well.”