ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — As Lydia Ko walked up to her husband, Jun Chung, and placed her hand tenderly on his cheek beside the practice putting green, the newlyweds couldn’t have looked more at ease as they competed for a major championship.
After hitting a few practice putts, Ko walked over to the falconer who’d been on-site all week to chat about the magnificent creatures whose job it is to scare away pesky seagulls on the Old Course. Meanwhile, on the nearby 18th green, 2023 AIG Women’s British Open champion Lilia Vu was up and down for birdie, trying to force a playoff at seven under par.
When Vu’s best efforts fell flat, Ko broke down in tears on a nearby practice putting green. Two weeks after winning Olympic gold in Paris and being inducted into the LPGA Hall of Fame, the 27-year-old Ko ended a major championship drought that began in the spring of 2016. With three major championships, Ko becomes just the third woman to win a major championship in the birthplace of golf, joining Lorena Ochoa (2007) and Stacy Lewis (2013).
“I don’t think there are words in the dictionary that can describe what just happened,” said Ko, who beat a field of big names including world number one Nelly Korda, who bogeyed a double on the par-5 14th hole and a road hole to finish two strokes behind former world No. 1s Zhiyai Xin and Luoning Ying.
After Ko birdied the 72nd hole to take the clubhouse lead, her sister and manager, Sula, noted that everything was going smoothly at Old Grey Toon. Relentless winds had wreaked havoc on the field all week, and rain poured down late Sunday as the stars played out the closing stages.
But as Ko cruised to a two-stroke victory that had seemed likely to send the tournament into a playoff just an hour earlier, the sun came out and one of golf’s most popular players continued his fairytale winning streak for the ages.
Asked at the closing ceremony where his win on the Old Course stood in his career, Ko replied: “It’s like saying, ‘Who do you prefer, your mum or your dad?'”
The crowd cheered wildly.
This was Ko’s most unlikely major title, given that she had only two top 10 finishes in the British Open in her career and had only just recently learned to embrace the oddities of links golf. This week, all Ko could do was chuckle at the absurdity of shots she hit in winds so strong it was hard to stand.
Eight years ago, Ko was just a teenager when she won the ANA Inspiration (now Chevron) — so long ago, in fact, that all she remembers about that day is holding her nose as she dove into Poppy’s Pond.
Ko, a 21-time LPGA winner, has been brutally honest in recent years about the low points of her career, even recalling this week how she was in tears after missing the cut in Portland last year and couldn’t taste the barbecue she was eating with Sula. She was lost.
That’s why it was so moving when the two sisters embraced each other in Paris and in St. Andrews.
“I felt really empty in Paris,” Seurat says.
Ko’s husband, Jun, was disappointed that he couldn’t go to Paris, so he enjoyed every bit of St. Andrews. Her husband started playing golf during the COVID-19 pandemic, and his passion for golf was passed on to Ko, who played with him on their honeymoon and caddied for him in an amateur tournament last year. After watching the tournament, Jun played at Kingsbarns and Dumbarney Links this week, making sure to get some playing time of his own. He also visited the R&A Museum.
When Ko got off to an early start in her golf game this week, Jun, who works at a tech startup in San Francisco, woke up at 4 a.m. to stretch with her. After a later start on Sunday, the pair slept in and killed time by watching YouTube videos of their favorite New Zealand golf influencers, Jun said.
“What’s great about her is her tenacity,” Jun said. “I’ve never seen such a tough routine.”
“I work in tech and meet CEOs a lot, and her tenacity is unmatched by anything I’ve ever seen.”
With driving rain and blustery winds, Ko showed his Hall of Fame mettle until the very end, hitting a superb three-wood into the road hole for an unbeatable finish of par-birdie.
The last time the LPGA was at St. Andrews, the bespectacled Ko won the Smith-Salver Trophy, the lowest amateur honor, and Lewis won the title. A lot has happened in life since that moment. A lot of growth.
This will likely be Ko’s final time competing in the birthplace of golf, and it will be interesting to see how many more majors one of the greatest players in golf’s history will play in.
With a flight scheduled for 5:50 a.m. on Monday morning, Koh hadn’t made many plans to celebrate. He had talked about going for Thai food on Sunday night but was worried restaurants might be closed.
“Usually I have a burger after my round on Sunday,” she said, “so there’s a good chance I’ll do that.”
Nowadays, the most important thing is the company.