Lydia Ko wins third major with Open triumph at wild St Andrews as Nelly Korda fades

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Taking a lofty position in small structures where great achievements are celebrated is beginning to suit Lydia Ko.

Earlier this month, the New Zealander took top spot on the Olympic podium in Paris and on Sunday she finished with the AIG Women’s Open trophy at the Swilcan Bridge in the home of golf, St Andrews.

The 27-year-old won her third career major championship and her 21st on the LPGA after holding steady during a final round that was played in at times brutal conditions.

She scored 69 (three under par) for a total of 281 (seven under par), which no other woman could match. But those figures do little justice to the gruelling battle for the last major women’s championship of 2024.

It was almost perverse, in fact, that the sun greeted Ko as she walked out onto the 18th green to collect the trophy, a rare sight in a week of bad weather that rivaled the brutal scenes of the men’s Open at Troon last month. As a pair, the two championships could hardly have been a worse advert for British shores, but no one could fault the quality of the drama on either occasion.

In the end, nothing could deny Ko her triumph at St Andrews. Not the raging wind or the biting rain. Not the need to wear more clothes than an Arctic explorer. Not even the pace of play, which, due to the Old Course’s idiosyncratic double greens and double fairways, was sometimes icier than the temperatures. And above all, even her top-notch opponents could not hold off the Kiwi in a final that only peaked late on the back nine.

When Ko teed off on the 16th hole, she was two strokes behind American world number one Nelly Korda. Her birdies on the 9th and 10th holes had revived her bid for glory, but her ball seemed irreparably damaged when it cleared the out-of-bounds fence late in her third round.

However, Korda made a clumsy and disastrous double-bogey of seven on the par-five 14th hole and suddenly she and Ko, plus the final two-ball from reigning champion Lilia Vu (USA) and two-time tournament winner Jiyai Shin of Korea, were equal at the top of the leaderboard at six under.

Within minutes, the weather had taken a turn for the worse. The wind picked up and the heavens opened as Ko prepared to hit her approach shot on the par-four 17th. Better known as the Road Hole, it’s also notorious for having one of the most terrifying second shots in the sport.

Ko had to hit the ball in the worst conditions of the day, from the rough, and yet she managed to avoid the treacherous bunker in front of her left, as well as the road along the green, before coming to a stop 6 metres from the flag.

She couldn’t complete the birdie, but the biggest test of the last nine holes was behind her and she took advantage by hitting her approach shot from 18 to 8 feet away and making the putt to take a one-prong lead.

Shin lost with bogeys on holes 15 and 17, while Korda also lost a stroke on the penultimate hole after finding the pot bunker from the same angle as Ko, thus underlining the qualities of the winner.

Only Vu could mount a challenge. She negotiated 17 cautiously and had to match Ko’s last-minute par breaker to force extra holes, but despite hitting her ball close to the putting surface, her pitch left her 20 feet for birdie and she made three putts. Vu, Shin, Korda and China’s Ruoning Yin shared second place at 5 under, two strokes behind Ko.

After the match, the champion had no doubts about the two key moments in her fight.

The first was on 16. After breaking the green in two and chipping to three feet, she felt comfortable holing out until she looked at a scoreboard and realized she was now tied for the lead. “Suddenly, those three feet seemed a lot longer,” she admitted, but she made her par.

Equally crucial was the second shot on 17. “What a time to make it,” she said. “Honestly, the wind and rain were crazy, but it’s one of the best shots I’ve made in the final phase.”

She also said she had a positive attitude that helped her cope with the bad weather this week. “It’s easy to get into a downward spiral, but this week I was able to laugh about it and it was really because there was nothing else I could do.”

The winner of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur in April, Lottie Woad of England, added the Smyth Salver, awarded to the lowest amateur, after finishing tied for 10th at one under. Victories on the world’s two most famous courses are a remarkable double for the 20-year-old and perfect preparation for next weekend, when she will lead Britain and Ireland’s quest to reclaim the Curtis Cup at Sunningdale.