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New Zealand’s Lydia Ko is a winner as soon as once more, opening the 2024 LPGA Tour season by claiming the Event of Champions title.
Ko was a 36-hole co-leader and completed the third spherical with a two-stroke lead. Her two-under-par 70 in Sunday’s remaining spherical was sufficient to complete at 14-under 274 for the week at Lake Nona Golf and Nation Membership.
Alexa Pano (70) began and completed the day two photographs behind Ko and positioned second at 12 beneath. Canada’s Brooke Henderson, the defending champion, was third at 10 beneath after a 68.
The occasion was unique to gamers who’ve gained on the LPGA Tour up to now two seasons. Ko was within the discipline on the power of three victories in 2022, however she didn’t win an official occasion stateside in 2023.
Now the 26-year-old has her twentieth profession LPGA title. She is the seventh to achieve the mark earlier than turning 27.
“I believe the end that I had final 12 months, not solely profitable Grant Thornton (a mixed-team exhibition) however I performed rather well in Korea and in Malaysia,” mentioned Ko, who lives in Orlando.
“Possibly if I had discovered the keys that I discovered then a bit earlier, perhaps I might have had a greater season.
“I believe for those who maintain taking place a spiral of pondering like ‘what if’, it is countless. I labored arduous within the two weeks main as much as this occasion. To win at dwelling has been good.”
Ko’s lead was not significantly threatened after she birdied the sixth, ninth and tenth to maneuver to fifteen beneath earlier than her first bogey on the par-five eleventh. Pano struggled out of the gate, with two bogeys and two birdies over her first 15 holes.
By the point Pano birdied the sixteenth and seventeenth, it was too little, too late. Ko birdied the fifteenth earlier than a closing bogey.
Henderson had her finest spherical of the week, with all 4 of her birdies coming in a five-hole stretch from the seventh, whereas she stayed bogey-free.
“The sport plan was to attempt to climb the leaderboard as a lot as attainable, persist with the sport plan,” Henderson mentioned. “To shoot minus-four in these circumstances, I am actually pleased with. It was very chilly and really windy.”
Cheyenne Knight (69), Ally Ewing (72) and Japan’s Ayaka Furue (71) tied for fourth at eight beneath. Rose Zhang began her first full season on tour with a tied-seventh end with England’s Charley Hull, as each gamers shot 71 and completed seven beneath.
Scotland’s Gemma Dryburgh (73) completed a shot additional again on six beneath, with Leona Maguire of Eire (68) tying for twelfth place on 4 beneath.
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