What could have, and perhaps should have been a disappointing start to last week ended with Jin Young Ko’s triumphant return to the top spot in the Rolex Rankings and another milestone victory under her belt. The 26-year-old from Seoul, South Korea, returned to her home country and fired a blistering 22-under-par 266 in the BMW Ladies Championship at LPGA International Busan. That got Ko in a playoff with Korean LPGA player Hee Jeong Lim, which Ko won with a birdie on the first extra hole.
Making the week even more impressive, Ko rallied to win after a lackluster opening round of 71. Therein lay the potential source of disappointment. Ko arrived in Busan with an all-time record on the line. Before last week she had posted 14 consecutive rounds in the 60s, tying her with Annika Sörenstam and So Yeon Ryu. One more 60-something on Thursday and she would have owned the record outright.
“It was a lot of stress,” Ko said after failing to meet the mark on Thursday. “But now that it’s over, I can focus on the tournament and (starting over) with more good rounds.”
She did better than that, firing a 64 on Friday, followed by a 67 on Saturday that left her five shots off Lim’s lead going into Sunday. But Ko rallied again with eight birdies and no bogeys, another 64, to tie Lim. Her ninth birdie of the day came in the playoff.
Records aside, Ko has been nothing short of remarkable. She has played in 18 events in 2021 and has a dozen top-10s, including four wins, a runner-up finish and a T6 since July 1. It is her third time to reach No. 1 in the Rolex Rankings, having moved to the top for a cup of coffee in early 2019 and then regaining that spot in July of that year and holding it for 100 weeks. Nelly Korda moved ahead of her after winning back-to-back weeks in the middle of the summer, including the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. But Ko’s surge has made the Player of the Year race worth watching with only two events left on the LPGA Tour calendar.
Ko also set another milestone. Her victory in Busan marked the 200th win by a South Korean player on the LPGA Tour, almost all coming in the 23 years since Se Ri Pak won the 1998 U.S. Women’s Open.
“This is a tremendous honor,” Ko said. “And I think it's very fortunate that I am the player, the 200th-win player. And I actually think that it's really fortunate that it was an event held in Korea as well. Obviously being the player (to capture) the 200th win by a Korean player was not a goal that I was working toward. It just so happens that I was really focused, and I did my best and this came along.”
Steve Eubanks