You don’t need to stop the presses for this one and it’s hardly breaking news but while Henrik Stenson was basking in the reflection of the Claret Jug on Sunday, the world’s most dominant player was winning again.
Yes, little Lydia Ko, the quiet assassin struck again, this time in Slyvania, Ohio at the Marathon Classic.
This time she had to work a little bit harder for it. Not 18 holes on Sunday but 22.
She posted 14-under par and joined up with Ariya Jutanugarn and Mirim Lee.
Props to Jutanugarn, she had as many season wins as Ko going into that playoff — three. And she had a chance to go ahead of the world’s No. 1 with a fourth.
Jutanugarn and Lee had an advantage as they would play the 18th hole, a par five, until there was a winner. Both could reach the green in two, Ko couldn’t.
But Lee and Jutanugarn kept making mistakes and Ko kept hitting her layup shots to the wrong side of the fairway.
When you give Ko a wedge shot, odds are she will hit it close and make birdie.
But after three straight tries, she failed to get one close which might have left the ghost of Vince Lombardi hollering: “What the hell is going on out there??”
Don’t give Ko a fourth try. That was the lesson her opponents learned on that day.
Ko finally hit her layup on the right side of the fairway and of course, hit her wedge to 10 feet and of course, she made the putt.
Next came an out-of-character fist pump.
“I’m not really a huge fist-pump kind of person but I think it’s probably the biggest fist-pump I’ve ever done,” Ko admitted after victory No. 4, a win that pushed her season earnings to $2,255,376, almost a million in front of Jutanugarn’s $1,327,386.
Not bad for a 19-year-old.
