New Zealand’s Lydia Ko is rewriting golfing history. Yesterday in France, she became the youngest winner of a women’s major with an astonishing final round of 63 at the Evian Championship.
The flawless eight birdie round was the low score of the week and she finished on 16 under par 268 and six ahead of American Lexi Thompson (70).
Catriona Matthew was the only Scot in the field and she closed with a 70 for six over par and a share of 53rd place. This week, the 46-year-old will be aiming to help Team Europe win the Solheim Cup for the third time in a row.
But while some were turning thought to the Solheim in Germany, teenager Ko was celebrating what will surely be the first of many majors. Overcome with emotion, she burst into tears on the 18th green – she had just holed her eighth birdie putt of the day from 20 feet.
Ko is 18 years 142 days – 171 days younger than when Morgan Pressel won the 2007 Kraft Nabisco Championship.
Back in February, aged 17, Ko became the youngest player to claim the world No. 1 ranking – the Evian victory still leaves her at No.2 behind South Korea’s Inbee Park, the inner of last month’s Ricoh Women’s British Open at Turnberry.
She also holds the record of the youngest winner on the LPGA Tour, the first of her nine wins coming as a 15-year-old amateur at the 2012 Canadian Open.
“It’s pretty amazing,” said the delighted teenager. “This has been an awesome day and an unbelievable experience.
“Everyone has been asking me when I was going to win my fist major, and now it’s done. It’s so hard tp get you hands on te first one.”
Ko started the final round two shots behind South Korea’s Lee Mi-Hyang, she fell back to joint fourth with a 74, and was three behind Thompson after seven holes.
But she birdied four holes between the seventh and 12th to take the lead and edged three ahead when Thompson, over the back and in deep rough from the tee, took a double-bogey five at the short 14th.
After that it was really plain sailing. An up and down birdie at the long 15th stretched the lead to four, then it was five thanks to a 20 foot birdie putt at the 17th and six when she holed the long one at the last.
Ko is the first New Zealand woman to win a major golf title – Bob Charles (1963 Open Championship) and Michael Campbell (2005 US Open) have won men’s titles.
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