Lydia Ko’s dream becomes reality, wins 23rd LPGA victory at ‘Asia’s major’ in Singapore

Lydia Ko emerged victorious in Singapore, winning for the first time this season.

When Lydia Ko woke up on Sunday morning, she thought she had already won the HSBC Women’s World Championship in Singapore.

“I dreamt last night that I won,” Ko said.

“But then I woke up, and I was like, dang, it’s not real yet.”

Ko held a one-shot advantage over Charley Hull going into the final round, and plenty of other stars lurked not too far behind. But Ko, being the hall-of-famer she is, locked in and won the tournament by four shots over Ayaka Furue and Jeeno Thitikul.

“I just wanted to focus on my game, and it was a pretty tight leaderboard,” Ko said.

“There’s been a lot of change throughout the past few days. So just focusing on me was really important. I started off really steady, and you know, didn’t really put myself in trouble that much. I think that was going to be the key for today.”

The New Zealander began with five straight pars, then rattled off three consecutive birdies on the 6th, 7th, and 8th holes to separate herself from the pack. Her putter was a big reason why she eventually emerged victorious — Ko could not miss on the greens.

A bogey at the 11th followed, but she bounced back with birdies on the 13th and 15th holes, the latter of which came from about 60 feet away.

By then, the tournament was all but over as Ko coasted to the finish, winning ‘Asia’s major’ for the first time.

“To add Asia major to my major collection is really cool,” Ko said.

“Overall it’s just been a fun week, and I think I just focused a lot on myself. I think that was the big key on winning this week.”

Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Follow him on X @jack_milko.