“Hawaii was more proving to myself that, hey, I can be back in the winner's circle,” Lydia said. Two weeks prior, Lydia had closed the ANA Inspiration in 62 to notch her second runner-up finish of the young season, but nothing replaces winning. That’s why winning the Lotte was so critical. “If I said, no, I didn't doubt myself at all, that would be a lie,” she said earlier this year. But in recent years, this often-cruel game had turned the tables on its young superstar, as Lydia dropped outside the top 50 in the world last August on the heels of a 2019 in which she finished outside the top 20 in 11 straight events to close the year.įull-field tee times from the CME Group Tour Championshipĭuring her lowest moments, Lydia, admittedly, began to wonder if she’d ever lift another trophy. 1 in the world by age 17, better than any professional golfer, male or female, ever.

As a teenager, Lydia was a world-beater, winning 14 times on the LPGA, her first at an LPGA-record 15 years old, and ascending to No. No, she hasn’t won at the healthy clip of Korda or Jin Young, but she did win – and one could argue that no non-major victory on the LPGA this season meant more than Lydia’s drought-ender at the Lotte Championship last April in Hawaii.īefore snapping her winless streak, Lydia was mired in a lengthy slump that spanned 1,084 days, or more than three years.

… I feel like there is a little less pressure on me because like they have the Player of the Year and they're so close in everything that I was like, OK, I'm going to be like spectating while playing tomorrow.” “I might be third, but I feel like I'm 100 compared to them.

“I told my mom, I was like, I'm going to be like third-wheeling with the two,” said Lydia, who was a distant third to the pair of four-time winners in the Race to the CME Globe. 1 and 2, Nelly Korda and Jin Young Ko, in the first round of the CME Group Tour Championship.īut in Lydia’s mind, she doesn’t feel like she’s anywhere close to the spotlight entering the tour’s limited-field finale.

– After a resurgent year, Lydia Ko deservedly finds herself in the premier grouping as this LPGA season winds down at Tiburon Golf Club.

Ok ko finale