SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France — One gold short of the Olympic medal collection, one win away from the LPGA Hall of Fame, Lydia Ko pondered what it would be like to knock out both at the same time and said when she arrived, “It would be a hell of a way to do it.”
What the 27-year-old Kiwi didn’t share was her decision that the Paris Games would be her last Olympics. The goal Saturday in the women’s golf competition was never more clear.
“I knew the next 18 holes were going to be some of the most important 18 holes of my life,” Ko said. “I knew being in this position was once in a lifetime.”
She delivered a dream finish at Le Golf National with a 1-under 71 for a two-shot victory. The win pushed her career total to 27 points for the LPGA Hall of Fame, one of the strictest criteria for any shrine.
Ko watched the documentary of gymnastics great Simone Biles, “Rising,” and was so inspired by one quote from Biles that she wrote it in her yardage book: “I get to write my own ending.”
This final chapter featured Ko building a five-shot lead, watching it cut to one over the final hour and then delivering a steady diet of pars until she made a 7-foot birdie putt at the end to finish at 10-under 278.
Esther Henseleit of Germany finished birdie-birdie for a 66 to make Ko work for it. Henseleit wound up with the silver. Xiyu Lin of China birdied the final hole for a 69 to take the bronze.
In her third Olympic Games appearance, Canada’s Brooke Henderson carded a final round of 71, finishing tied for 13th at 3-under. This marks her second-best finish, following a T7 at Rio 2016 and a T29 at Tokyo 2020.
Fellow Canadian Alena Sharp concluded the tournament tied for 42nd at 9-over.
Ko won the silver medal in Rio de Janeiro. She won the bronze in Tokyo. The missing one turned out to be more valuable than its weight in gold.
This is the latest prize in a remarkable career for Ko, who won her first LPGA title as a 15-year-old amateur and rose to No. 1 in the world for the first time at 17. She began this year with a victory in Florida, leaving her one point short of the Hall, and had a spell this summer when she doubted she would get the last one.
Ko becomes the 35th player to qualify for the LPGA Hall of Fame, and the second-youngest behind Australian great Karrie Webb to earn the required 27 points — two points for each of her two majors, one point for her other 18 LPGA victories, one point for winning LPGA Player of the Year (twice) and for the Vare Trophy for lowest scoring average (twice).
And one big point for Olympic gold.
Ko needed only two putts from short range to win, and when the putt fell, she stepped away with her hand over her mouth and it wasn’t long before she began to sob.
Henseleit watched from a red sofa in the clubhouse as Ko played the final few holes, never considering going to the practice range in case of a playoff.
“There’s just some players you know they’re not going to mess up coming down the last two holes, and she’s definitely one of them,” said Henseleit, the first European woman to earn an Olympic medal in golf. “I was happy sitting there enjoying my silver medal.”
Lin is the second player from China to win a medal — Shanshan Feng won the bronze in Rio — and she somehow avoided a playoff with the number of players in the mix.
At the end, the stage, the podium — and the shrine — all belonged to Ko.