Lydia Ko picked up right where she left off — winning. On the heels of an Olympic gold medal and the AIG Women’s British Open victory at St. Andrews, Ko added another first-place prize at the Kroger Queen City Championship, topping the field by five strokes. Incredibly, she had only one bogey the entire week at TPC River’s Bend.
In her post-round interview with Golf Channel’s Amy Rogers, Ko called this stretch of golf surreal and put any talk of retirement on a back burner with a newish goal.
“I think it’s always been the goal of mine to do the career grand slam,” said Ko, who currently owns three different majors. “I thought that would be so out there.
“I feel like I’ve already been part of this fairytale, so why not?”
The newest member of the LPGA Hall of Fame now owns 22 LPGA career titles. She has three LPGA official wins this season, plus the gold medal. Ko closed with a 9-under 63 to run away from former No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul. Ko finished at 23 under for the tournament.
This marks the first time since 2016 – when she claimed the JTBC Classic and Chevron Championship titles – the 27-year-old Kiwi has won in back-to-back starts on the LPGA.
She joins Nelly Korda as the only other player with at least three wins this season. Korda, who finished in a share of fifth in Cincinnati, won six times in the first half of the season and leads the Rolex Player of the Year list by 100 points. (Ko did not receive any POY points for her gold-medal performance in Paris, though she did get that valuable LPGA Hall of Fame point.)
Ko starts the fall season the same way she ended the summer, on a hot streak. She extends her top-10 run to her last five straight starts, including the Olympics.
World No. 1 Korda will have three weeks at home before heading to South Korea for the LPGA’s Asian swing at the BMW Ladies Championship.
“I don’t think I had my best stuff, but played some solid golf here and there,” said Korda, who closed with a 68. “Definitely didn’t capitalize on the par-5s. I had a lot of irons in my hands and came out with pars. A little disappointing there.
“Overall happy with the way I played coming off last week and my energy levels.”
South Korea’s Haeran Ryu birdied five consecutive holes on the back nine en route to a closing 67. She finished solo third.
Ko now immediately heads to South Korea to compete on the KLPGA.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Lydia Ko wins again at Kroger Queen City Championship, puts an end to retirement talk
