Tag: Jin Young Ko

Jin Young Ko leads while Nelly Korda lurks two back at the HSBC Women’s World Championship

Tough to beat a Jin Young Ko vs. Nelly Korda battle.

Jin Young Ko backed up her second-round 65 with another one Saturday at Sentosa Golf Club in Singapore for the HSBC Women’s World Championship.

Over her last 36 holes, Ko has made 16 birdies and two bogeys and holds a two-shot lead heading into the final round.

Her closest counterpart is Nelly Korda, who has shot 68 all three days in Singapore. She sits at 12 under.

Danielle Kang, who fired a 9-under 63 on Friday, couldn’t get much going on Day 3 and shot an even-par 72. She’s 10 under through three rounds.

Celine Boutier and Nasa Hataoka are tied for sixth at 9 under while Lydia Ko is 7 under, T-13.

Final-round coverage will be on Golf Channel from 9:30 p.m. ET Saturday to 1:30 a.m. ET Sunday.

LPGA: Leaderboard

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LPGA: HSBC Women’s Champions celebrates 15 years of star-studded champions, Jessica Korda turns 30 and Brooke Henderson reunites with lost luggage

Jin Young Ko was a on mission to find a good egg tart in Singapore.

Jin Young Ko was on a mission to find a good egg tart in Singapore. The defending champion has grown quite fond of the food that surrounds the event known as “Asia’s major,” and the fans there have grown quite fond of her.

After Ko’s victory last year at the HSBC Women’s Champions, she said a wealthy man in the city created a fan club for her that has 27 members, one representing each point needed for the LPGA Hall of Fame. Ko, a 13-time winner on the LPGA, currently has 18 points.

“There’s never been a time I didn’t want to play at this event,” said Ko. “I always want to come here.”

This marks the 15th playing of the HSBC, and nine of the top-10 players in the world are in the field. Lexi Thompson, No. 6, is the only one not teeing it up at Sentosa Golf Club’s Tanjong Course.

Ko, 27, began the 2022 season in Singapore and, after winning, looked poised to dominate. But a nagging wrist injury derailed her for much of the year and she didn’t win again. As she took an extended time to rest over the offseason, Ko booked a trip to Europe for 10 days. She asked Finland’s Matilda Castren for advice on how to see the Northern Lights and after a snowy adventure there, went to Paris for Christmas to see the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre.

“One of my highlights in my life was to go and watch Northern Lights,” she said.

After spending a month in Vietnam working on her game, Ko, who took up meditating over the winter, opened the season in Thailand with a share of sixth, recording four rounds in the 60s at a tournament for the first time since the 2022 Amundi Evian.

“I’m training hard in meditation and practicing golf,” she said.

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Meet some of the longest-standing and successful player/caddie duos on the LPGA

Here’s a list of players and caddies who have found a good rhythm and seem to be in it for the long haul.

There’s turnover every season when it comes to player-caddie partnerships on the LPGA, particularly at the start of the year. World No. 1 Lydia Ko has changed caddies regularly throughout her career, including this season, despite having an enormously strong 2022.

Minjee Lee, who won a couple majors in the past two years, will begin 2023 with a new looper after enjoying much success with veteran Jason Gilroyed.

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Plenty more players have made changes, but there are a number who have stood the test of time. While not by any means exhaustive, here’s a list of players and caddies who have found a good rhythm and seem to be in it for the long haul:

Former World No. 1 Jin Young Ko set to return to LPGA competition next month in Thailand

Jin Young Ko plans to return Feb. 23-26 at the Honda LPGA Thailand tournament, her manager has confirmed to Golfweek.

Jin Young Ko plans to return to LPGA competition Feb. 23-26 at the Honda LPGA Thailand tournament, her manager has confirmed to Golfweek. The former World No. 1 is currently in Vietnam for winter training after reuniting with instructor Siwoo Lee.

Ko withdrew from the field at the season-opening Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions due to a wrist injury that plagued her at the end of last season. She is currently taking part in light training in Vietnam as she eases back into competition form. She will remain there until early February.

A 13-time winner, Ko last won on the LPGA at the 2022 HSBC Women’s Champions. She will return to Singapore to defend in early March.

At last year’s season-ending CME Group Tour Championship, Ko said she felt pain in her left wrist from the moment she touched the club on every shot. She withdrew from the BMW Ladies Championship in October after shocking rounds of 80-79 when the pain was at its worst.

Ko’s doctor has advised her to refrain from any strenuous activities.

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5 things we want to see on the LPGA in 2023: Majors for Lydia Ko and Lexi Thompson, buy-in from PGA Tour stars and more

Majors for Lydia Ko and Lexi Thompson, buy-in from PGA Tour stars and more.

As we look ahead to 2023, there’s plenty to wish for inside the ropes on the LPGA. With major championship venues like Pebble Beach and Baltusrol on the horizon, and the first-ever Solheim Cup set in Spain, the stages are ripe for epic drama.

Watching Lexi Thompson, Nelly Korda and Annika Sorenstam compete alongside the men at the last two silly season events of 2022 got the excitement levels revved up for a mix-team format. Sorenstam’s continued presence in the game also serves as a reminder that the LPGA is in need of its next dominant superstar.

And with that, here’s what we’re wishing for in 2023:

Top 10 LPGA moments in 2022: A stirring revival, a stunning collapse and big-money Sundays

There were plenty of storylines that captured our attention throughout the year.

The 2022 LPGA season will be known as Lydia Ko’s comeback year. And while the one-time prodigy rightly grabbed all the headlines as the season came to a close, there were plenty of other storylines that captured our attention throughout 2022.

The Jin Young Ko/Nelly Korda budding rivalry was abruptly stopped due to health reasons. The two combined for nine LPGA titles in 2021 and won a total of two in 2022.

In their stead, a wave of first-time winners who ranged from rookies to thirtysomethings created plenty of feel-good moments. In fact, two first-time winners included on this list took home major championship trophies.

Scotland’s Gemma Dryburgh became the LPGA’s 11th first-time winner of 2022 in Japan (winning a toilet!), which matches a tour record set in 1995. The players hailed from nine different countries.

In many ways, it was a milestone season, marked by record-setting purses, historic venues and plenty of memorable moments.

Here are the 10 best:

Meet the top 10 single-season money list winners in LPGA history

A record-setting six players crossed the $2 million mark this season on the LPGA and 27 players won seven figures.

Almost any other season, Minjee Lee’s $3,809,960 earnings would’ve topped the LPGA money list. But with the CME Group Tour Championship offering a record-setting $2 million first-place prize, Lydia Ko’s season-ending victory pushed her to the top of the list for 2022 at $4,364,403. Lee finished second.

Ko moved up to fifth on the LPGA career money list with $16,695,357, ahead of Lorena Ochoa. Annika Sorenstam, Karrie Webb, Cristie Kerr and Inbee Park are the four players ahead of Ko.

A record-setting six players crossed the $2 million mark this season on the LPGA and 27 players won seven figures.

Where do Ko’s season earnings rank in history? Read on:

Photos: Jin Young Ko through the years

Jin Young Ko is one of the best players in the world. View photos of the former World No. 1 throughout her career.

Jin Young Ko is a name synonymous with winning.

The South Korean sensation was an LPGA first year back in 2018 at the age of 22 when she took home Rookie of the Year honors.

The accolade was just the first of many in Ko’s illustrious LPGA career. When making the jump from Korea, she had already won a whopping 12 times on the Korean LPGA Tour.

In just her fifth season, Ko has tallied 13 LPGA wins including two major championships. She took home the most prize money for three straight seasons (2019-2021) and also was awarded LPGA Player of the Year honors in 2019 and 2021.

Battling a wrist injury that has plagued her since the end of the 2021 season, Ko looks to regain her form and retake No. 1 in the world.

Jin Young Ko endeavors to smile through the pain as she seeks third consecutive CME title

Jin Young Ko hasn’t made a cut since late July.

NAPLES, Fla. – Jin Young Ko has won the past two CME Group Tour Championships at Tiburon Golf Club, and if she were to three-peat and collect the record-breaking $2 million first-place prize, she’d buy a yellow Ferrari.

While Ko, 27, won last year’s CME in heroic fashion, clinching the Rolex Player of the Year award while playing hurt, that Ferrari seems far from a sure thing.

Still plagued by the left wrist injury that kept her from warming up at this event in 2021, Ko comes into this week off a missed cut and a withdrawal from the BMW Ladies Championship after shocking rounds of 80-79. The pain is worse than it was last year at the CME  but better than it was last month at the BMW. On a scale of 1-10 (with 1 being the worst), Ko said it’s about a seven or eight now. It was a two at the BMW.

She feels pain from the moment she touches the club, on every shot.

“It’s hard,” she said, “but only (thing) I can do is just medicine and just tape on it. Just trying to play, yeah. Nothing to do.”

Ko wasn’t sure if she even wanted to come back to the U.S. for the last two events in Florida. Ultimately, she changed her flight to come in earlier, arriving the Thursday before the Pelican LPGA Championship. After missing the cut last week, she took more time to rest, getting out on the course for the first time on Tuesday.

A 13-time winner on the LPGA, Ko has been ranked No. 1 for 145 weeks since 2019. She’s understandably concerned how long this injury might last. This week she’s icing it, but when she returns home to South Korea, she might try a blood-spinning treatment, a procedure used to shorten the time it takes for an injury to heal.

“I heard it’s really painful,” she said, “so I’m worried.”

Ko, who won her first event of the season in Singapore at the HSBC Women’s Champions, hasn’t posted a top-10 finish since July at the Amundi Evian Championship when she tied for eighth. She hasn’t made a cut since the Trust Golf Women’s Scottish Open in late July.

At this time last year, Nelly Korda and Ko were in the midst of a promising budding rivalry, trading blows up til the end of the season, with Ko coming out on top.

Injuries brought that rivalry to a screeching halt, however, with Korda taking months off with a blood clot scare that required surgery. Korda won her first LPGA title of the season on Sunday at the Pelican.

“For me, the uncertainty of that was the scariest,” said Korda of her health scare.

Ko feels the same, noting that her problems were likely caused by overuse.

“I think a lot of players has injury on this tour,” said Ko, “so I don’t want to say, like – I don’t want to say I’m sick more than any player is like this. This is my fault because this is my body.”

Ko, who has dropped to No. 4 in the world, said this is the first time in her life that she has faced such adversity. She believes good things will come from the struggle, but that doesn’t diminish the physical pain.

When asked to name the biggest challenge of the year, Ko laughed as she said, “Just patience with my game and don’t cry – big smile.”

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Thai teen sensation Atthaya Thitikul ascends to No. 1 in the world, overtaking Jin Young Ko

Thitikul, 19, becomes the second teen to ascend to No. 1, following in the footsteps of Lydia Ko.

Atthaya Thitikul has officially supplanted Jin Young Ko as the No. 1 player in the world. Thitikul, 19, becomes the second teen to ascend to No. 1, following in the footsteps of Lydia Ko, who was 17 years, 9 months and 9 days when she reached the top spot in 2015.

Ko, who has held the top spot since Jan. 31, 2022, first became No. 1 in April 2019 and has spent 152 total weeks atop the rankings. Lorena Ochoa holds the record at 158 weeks.

Thitikul, a rookie who has two wins this season, also joins Ariya Jutanugarn as the only Thai players to reach No. 1. Thitikul joins Sung Hyun Park as the only rookies to reach no. 1. She currently leads the Louise Suggs Rookie of the Year race and is in the mix for LPGA Player of the Year.

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“It means a lot for my team, my family, my supporters and myself. It is such an honor to have my name at the top amongst the biggest names of the game,” said Thitikul in a release. “It is very special to get to the top but it is much harder to retain it. I still have a lot to learn from all the legends and current players both on and off the course. I will continue to work hard for my family, my team, my fans and my country.”

Prior to joining the LPGA, Thitikul became the youngest player ever to win the Ladies European Tour’s Race to Costa del Sol in 2021 while also securing Rookie of the Year and Player of the Year honors. At 14 years, 4 months and 19 days, Thitikul also became the youngest golfer to ever win a professional golf tournament with her victory at the LET’s Thailand Championship in 2017.

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