The light at the end of the tunnel finally shone over Lake Nona Golf and Country Club for Lydia Ko as she ended her trophy drought at the LPGA Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions Sunday.
Ko endured a trying 2023, failing to win on the tour for over 12 months, but if the season opener is anything to go by, this year is set to be a very different one as she clinched her 20th career LPGA victory.
The New Zealander re-entered the winner’s circle at her home course of Lake Nona in Orlando, Florida with a two-shot victory over Alexa Pano.
The victory arguably cemented Ko’s place as one of the game’s greatest, pushing her one point off the LPGA Hall of Fame’s minimum threshold at just age 26.
‘I thought two was really close and now one is really, really close,’ she told the Golf Channel following her win. ‘I’m literally right in front of the door.
Lydia Ko won the LPGA’s Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions on Sunday
The victory ended the former World No. 1’s 12-month wait for a trophy after a rough 2023
MLB star Jeff McNeil (left) won the celebrity division of the season-opening tournament
‘No, I think my mindset was, “Hey, I’m going to do all the things I can do and try and do a good job of that. If it happens, it happens. If not, just not meant to be mine to be in the Hall of Fame.”
‘And to give myself a better chance of it now after winning this week is definitely really cool, but hopefully nothing changes internally, where I’m not going to get too crazy about what may happen.’
Ko had topped the leaderboard following Friday’s second round, sharing the lead with Ayaka Furue before pulling away Saturday.
And she never looked like relinquishing the lead on the final day, starting steady with five pars before her first birdie of the day came on the sixth and another two at nine and ten opened a five-shot lead over Pano.
Pano along with Brooke Henderson launched a rallying effort but Ko had already pulled too far ahead and even a bogey on the par-four last wasn’t enough to dent her win.
Ko moved into a tie for 27th with Laura Davies and Cristie Kerr on the All-Time Official Career Wins List.
Ko, who became the youngest player to reach World No. 1 in 2015, pocketed $225,000 with the win taking her total career earnings over $17million.
However, while Ko may be holding off the changing of the guard for now, 19-year-old Pano is undoubtedly a name fans will be seeing in final groupings in the future.
19-year-old Alexa Pano finished second, two shots off Ko’s lead at Lake Nona in Florida
Reigning champion Brooke Henderson attempted to make a challenge, finishing third
The Massachusetts native performed better than her beloved New England Patriots whose crest she donned on her jacket as a sponsor to shield herself from the chilly Florida weather Sunday.
Caddied by her dad, who enjoyed the celebrity element of the competition, Pano shot two-under in the final round to keep pace with Ko but couldn’t close the gap the leader had established Saturday.
Pano, a rookie in 2023, earned her place in the winners-only, limited-field event with her first career win at the ISPS Handa World Invitational in Ireland last August but she proved she could challenge in a field of a higher caliber.
She carded her first LPGA bogey-free round Saturday but couldn’t replicate the feat in her pursuit of Ko.
However, the rising star scrambled, pulling it back with three birdies through the final five holes to seal solo second.
A year ago, as a rookie right out of the Q-Series qualifier, Pano wasn’t in the biggest events but as one of the 12 new winners on the LPGA last year, she’s unlocked the greater tournaments. And this weekend’s result has proven she belongs there.
Reigning champion Henderson attempted to make a challenge to Ko’s lead of her own making three straight birdies on the final holes of her front nine before sinking another on 11 to finish at 10-under for the tournament in solo third.
Annika Sorenstam, competing in the celebrity division of the tournament, fell short
The New York Mets second baseman scored 35 points to take his total to 138 for the week
However, Annika Sorenstam, competing in the Stableford celebrity division of the tournament, fell agonizingly short once again.
The 10-time major winner had set up a final-day battle against celebrity overnight leader Jeremy Roenick and former winner Derek Lowe but it was a different MLB star who shocked all three.
New York Mets second baseman Jeff McNeil scored 35 points to take his total to 138 for the week and leapfrog the trio atop the leaderboard, pipping Sorenstam in second by two points.
It would have come as a case of deja vu for the Swede to find herself bested by a baseball player once again after being edged out by former pitcher Lowe in a playoff in 2022.