Leaderboard of the last round
-7 L Ko (NZ); -5 N Korda (USA), R Yin (Chn), L Vu (USA), Jiyai Shin (Kor)
Selected: -1 L Woad (Eng*); +1 C Hull (Eng); +2 G Hall (Eng); +4 L Maguire (Irish)
Full leaderboard
Lydia Ko ended an eight-year drought by winning the AIG Women’s Open after a thrilling finish in stormy weather at St. Andrews.
The New Zealander, who won the Olympic gold medal earlier this month, birdied the final hole and closed with a score of 69 (three under par) to celebrate her third major victory at seven under par.
Last year’s champion Lilia Vu failed to hole a 15-foot birdie putt on the final hole that would have forced a playoff, and then missed from 12 inches, giving Ko a two-shot victory.
With a 73, Vu finished in second place, along with world number one Nelly Korda, who eased off on the final holes and shot a 72, as well as last week’s leader Jiyai Shin (74) and China’s Ruoning Yin (70).
“It’s unreal,” said the 27-year-old Ko. “Winning the gold medal in Paris a few weeks ago was almost too good to be true.”
“Before the weekend I was thinking, ‘How can I win the Open?’ The last two weeks have been a true Cinderella story.”
Englishwoman Lottie Woad won the Smyth Salver as best amateur by making a birdie on the last shot and finishing with a par.
Korda falters while Ko shines on the Old Course
Ko became the youngest woman to win a major when she won the Evian Championship in 2015 at the age of 18.
In 2016, she won what is now known as the Chevron Championship, but despite eleven top-10 finishes in the majors since then, she has not been able to increase her account.
And their hopes of doing so on Sunday hung in the balance during a thrilling finale as rain and wind lashed the Old Course as they had all weekend.
Ko was three strokes behind Shin at the start, but managed birdies on the fourth, tenth and 14th holes to secure a good starting position.
However, Korda seemed to have regained control with a series of three birdies in four holes around the turn, and she led by two shots at eight under par on the 14th tee.
But a few bad wedge shots around the green meant that the American needed seven shots on the par 5 hole.
“That’s golf,” Korda said. “Unfortunately, I messed up twice on the home stretch this weekend. That cost me the tournament, but I played well.”
Meanwhile, Ko, who was playing in a few groups ahead of him, made an excellent up-and-down par on the back of the 16 holes and stayed at six under par.
This left all four players tied for the lead, with Shin and Vu, who made a birdie on the 14th hole.
As the rain got heavier, Ko hit arguably her best shot of the championship, hitting her second shot on the notoriously difficult 17th hole to 15 feet and needing two putts to make par.
With her birdie on the final hole, she set the target at seven under par and watched from the practice putting green as first Korda, who hit her second shot into the Road Hole bunker, and then Shin made bogey on the 17th hole, effectively ending her hopes.
That left Vu.
The American world number two holed a 10-foot putt for par on hole 17 and stayed in the game.
However, she was unable to match Ko’s three-pointer on the final shot and then lost concentration, allowing her par putt to dribble wide and leave her with a shabby bogey.
When asked how she would rank this victory compared to her Olympic title and two other majors, Ko replied: “It’s like asking me who I like best, my mom or my dad.”
Englishwoman Charley Hull, who led after the first round with five under par, started Sunday five strokes behind the leader, but her challenge failed due to consecutive bogeys on the sixth and seventh holes and a double bogey on the ninth.
Hull, ranked 10th in the world, finished with a three-over-par 75 and a total score of one over par.
