SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France — Before walking down the long hill beside Le Golf National’s 18th hole, the three medal winners of the Olympics’ women’s golf competition were given some brief instructions on the ceremony. The three were behind a fence but, peeking through an opening, you could make out what was happening.
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The stuff of legends.
Silver medalist Esther Henseleit and bronze winner Xiyu Lin listened, trying to follow along. Henseleit, looking a little confused, squinted and asked a question about the proceedings.
That’s when Lydia Ko, not the Olympic official, jumped in and answered. Henseleit leaned forward, paying close attention, nodding. “Oh, OK.”
This is Ko’s place in the game. She knows where to go. Even before Saturday, the woman has already won enough Olympic medals — silver in Rio, bronze in Tokyo — to teach others how to do so.
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A career like that, there’s no summation that doesn’t feel short-changed. Golf fans feel like they’ve known Ko forever. She was the youngest LPGA Tour winner ever, back in 2012. She was the youngest LPGA major winner ever, back in 2015. In total, there’s been 20 wins, including two majors.
Now Ko is 27. Feels like a typo, but no. She’s packed a lifetime into her golf career and is known to have been thinking about walking away sooner rather than later. How does one tie a bow around a run so big?
How about: An Olympic gold and a reservation in the LPGA Hall of Fame.
Yes, that’ll do.
“It feels like I’m a mythical character in a story tale,” Ko said late Saturday afternoon at Le Golf National, a gold medal around her neck, Henseleit to her right, Lin to her left. “It really couldn’t have gotten any better than I could have imagined. I’ve had so many grateful things that happened in my career so far, and this really tops it.”
A closing 1-under 71 was good enough for gold. Ko, born in Korea, but raised in New Zealand, and proudly repping the Kiwis, finished the week at 10-under, finishing two shots clear of the field.
The moment Lydia Ko became a GOLD MEDALIST AND LPGA HALL OF FAMER! 🥇👏
📺 Golf Channel and Peaco*ck | #ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/CUg7j4VaoR
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 10, 2024
The enormity of it all seemed to start setting in midway through Saturday’s final round of the Olympic women’s golf competition. Holding a five-shot lead, Ko rinsed an approach on 13 and started looking uncomfortable on what had been an otherwise flawless day. She scrunched her face and looked at the leaderboard.
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The hardest part about golf is often how much time one has to think. All that time between shots. All that time waiting for others to play. Time to think big thoughts. One can only imagine what was in Ko’s mind and what she was trying to keep out. She called Saturday in Paris, “the most important 18 holes of my life.”
Only a week ago, Jon Rahm led the men’s golf competition by four strokes on the back nine. The Spaniard didn’t medal, let alone win. He came undone. Scottie Scheffler ended up taking the gold.
Ko refused such a fate, but at least tempted it. Early on, Saturday had the makings of a manic final round and a potential stage for American stars Nelly Korda and Rose Zhang. Instead, Le Golf National showed its teeth, and mistakes mounted everywhere.
Ko, meanwhile, played her game and shot her shots. She turned what would’ve been a nice two-putt from 45 feet on No. 7 into a birdie and a two-shot lead.
Three holes later, after another birdie on nine, suddenly it was a five-shot lead.
Ko was proving that experience matters, and that she has loads of it.
Finding a gnarly patch of rough between fairway bunkers on the par-4 fifth, she surveyed the options, pulled a club, considered a shot into a protected green and then clubbed down to hit a 70-yard pitch short of the green. An approach to four feet left an easy par.
“It feels like I’m a mythical character in a story tale,” Lydia Ko said after winning Olympic gold Saturday, which now puts her in the LPGA Hall of Fame. (Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)
This was Ko’s week. Taking birdies when they came, avoiding trouble where it lurked. Steady. Consistent. 72-67-68-71.
This, though, is the Olympics and wasn’t going to go by without at least a dash of drama.
Holding that five-shot lead, and hitting into the 13th green with water right, Ko missed the green by a good 25 feet. The shot was so confoundingly bad that it was difficult to tell if it was a total mish*t or if she was unwisely trying to take on a tucked right pin placement.
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A drop, a shot and two putts later, Ko’s lead was down to three shots with eight players sitting between three and four shots back.
Henseleit rolled in a birdie to get to 7-under, moving within two shots. Things felt nervy, but Ko kept her feet under her. She rattled off a string of pars to finish and, again playing smart, took 3-wood off the tee on the par-5 18th, laid up, and managed a one-putt birdie.
No surprise from one of the game’s great winners. After leaving the course as the clubhouse leader at 8-under, Henseleit didn’t bother going to the practice range, in part, because she fully expected Ko to close the book without issue.
“If there was one person I’d want to finish in front of me,” Henseleit said, “it’s probably Lydia.”
Ko finished the week with 19 birdies, scrambled to save 12 of 19 pars, and led the field in putting (7.682 strokes gained).
With that, her collection is complete. Gold, silver, bronze. They go nicely with the Olympic rings tattooed on the inside of her right bicep.
The silver came in Rio. Ko was ranked No. 1 in the world at the time and a bona fide phenom. Only 19, she’d won five times the prior year, following up her 2014 LPGA Rookie of the Year honors with 2015 Rolex Player of the Year honors. Ko was the Olympic favorite but struggled with her putter all week. On the final hole, she slid in a 7-foot birdie to clinch the silver medal and unleashed a fist pump, saying afterward that she felt like she’d won gold.
She learned a good lesson the next day, one unique to Olympians. On her way to the Canadian Open, Ko’s carry-on bag set off an alarm going through the X-ray. She apologized and explained it was the silver medal.
In Tokyo, Ko shot 66-65 on the weekend to climb into a closing tie for second and earn a spot on the podium. She lost to Mone Inami in a sudden-death playoff and ended up winning bronze.
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Ko came to Paris needing only one more point to qualify for the LPGA Hall of Fame. To be eligible for the Hall of Fame, players must have won or been awarded at least one of the following: LPGA major, Vare Trophy for lowest scoring average or Rolex Player of the Year, and accumulate 27 points for winning LPGA official tournaments (one point), LPGA majors (two points), an Olympic gold medal (1 point) and winning the Vare Trophy or Rolex Player of the Year (one point each).
Before this week, there were 34 members of the hall.
Now there are 35.
After the win, Ko told gathered media that this would be her final Olympic appearance. She stopped short of saying she’s ready to retire, but didn’t rule out putting the clubs in the garage after the 2024 season. She said she doesn’t have a set date to walk away, but says winning gold and securing her place in the LPGA Hall of Fame will make it an easier decision, whenever the time comes.
“Golf has given me so much,” Ko said, offering a personal summary, “and I know that my ending is sooner than when it first started. So I want to really enjoy it. And while I’m still competitively playing, I want to play the best golf I can.”
Required reading
- Paris Olympics 2024 live updates: Day 15 latest with track and field, women’s golf final round
- What to watch at Olympics today: Women’s soccer, men’s hoops — and 37 other gold medal events
- Scottie Scheffler’s golden Olympic moment can stand the test of time
(Photo: Andrew Redington / Getty Images)
Brendan Quinn is a senior enterprise writer for The Athletic. He came to The Athletic in 2017 from MLive Media Group, where he covered Michigan and Michigan State basketball. Prior to that, he covered Tennessee basketball for the Knoxville News Sentinel. Follow Brendan on Twitter @BFQuinn
