A solitary champagne bottle lay chilled in a bucket of ice near the 18th green. To the right, three more bottles lined up in the grass. To the left, a bouquet of red and white roses.
When Lydia Ko’s approach shot on the first playoff hole at the Drive On Championship last January came to rest right next to those flowers beneath the grandstand at Bradenton Country Club, it was a cruel foreshadowing of what was to come.
Ko, who got relief from the flowers, ultimately lost the Drive On title to hometown favorite Nelly Korda, who went on a tear of epic proportions to start 2024. But Ko, the player on the cusp of entering what’s considered the toughest Hall of Fame in any sport, needed one more victory to take her place among golf’s most legendary players.
Alas, she’d have to wait. The flowers and champagne went to someone else.
As commentators began to draw up the perfect scenario for Ko to enter the Hall, the Paris Olympics seemed the most fitting place.
Why? For starters, Ko already owned the silver and bronze medals, and needed only gold to compete the set. No one has gushed more about what the Olympics has meant to golf as much as Ko. She viewed a third appearance in the Summer Games as an important milestone.
Every so often, sport delivers a storyline that hits so perfectly it feels more Hollywood than raw competition. But Ko’s emotional victory at the Paris Olympics proved exceptionally fitting for a career that has rewritten history books and captured fans the world over.
Ko felt like she was living in a fairy tale.
“I woke up, like, was that a dream? Did that just really happen?” said Ko, who pulled an all-nighter after she won and crashed on Sunday.
To win an Olympic gold medal and enter the Hall of Fame on the same day is a feat that, like many records in Ko’s career, might never be matched.
While it looked for a while on Saturday at Le Golf National that it would be a runaway victory, the fight for Ko’s 27th Hall of Fame point went down to the wire on what she called the most difficult Olympic test yet. She won by two over Germany’s Esther Henseleit with a birdie on the 72nd hole.
After the medal ceremony in France, LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan presented Ko with 27 white roses.
“Did I imagine that I was going to do it at the Paris Olympics? Probably not,” said Ko. “But this is definitely the coolest way to do it. You know, not going to lie, I was gutted when I lost in the playoff in Bradenton.”
Ko became the 35th player to qualify for the LPGA Hall of Fame and the first since Inbee Park in 2016. Lorena Ochoa got in two years ago after the tour removed the stipulation that required 10 years on tour, but she reached 27 points in 2008. Ko became the 25th player to reach 27 points. Nine women were inducted as honorary members (eight LPGA founders and beloved entertainer Dinah Shore).
How tough is it to get into the LPGA Hall? Consider that legends like Laura Davies, Hollis Stacy, Sandra Palmer and Dottie Pepper aren’t in it.
One of the biggest questions surrounding Ko’s victory in Paris was what comes next for the 27-year-old. Would she retire on the spot or later this year?
That former turned out not to be the case as she went straight from Paris to Scotland and, two weeks later, claimed her third major championship victory and 21st LPGA title at the AIG Women’s British Open. That she accomplished the feat over the Old Course seemed appropriate given Ko’s place in the history of the game.
Would she retire right there on the Swilcan Bridge?
Nope. After a brief break – that included a celebratory dinner made by renowned chef Thomas Keller – she’s back in action at this week’s Kroger Queen City Championship in Maineville, Ohio.
So much life has transpired for Ko since she earned her first LPGA Hall of Fame point as a 15-year-old wunderkind. Now married and perhaps on the verge of retirement, the Kiwi’s path to the Hall has been anything but straight. While she became the youngest to ever enter the LPGA Hall under its current criteria at age 27, it somehow still felt like a long wait for a player who won twice on tour before she even turned professional.
“Her career is definitely very rare,” said LPGA and World Golf Hall of Famer Karrie Webb, “and the fact that she’s had not just — she’s had some pretty big dips in her career, and she’s managed to reinvent herself and come back and win again. That’s a testament to her will and strength of mind to do that.”
As Ko enters the final leg of her 11th season on the LPGA, it’s difficult to imagine that she feels much pressure – other than to decide how much longer she wants to compete.
A storybook-ending that remains incomplete.