18-year-old golf phenom Lydia Ko went full throttle in the final round of the Fubon LPGA Taiwan Championship, closing out with a spectacular 7-under 65 highlighted by holing out for eagle from the fairway, to win with an aggregate score of 20-under 268 for her 10th career LPGA win. The New Zealander not only reclaims the world no. 1 title, but also breaks the all-time LPGA record of youngest player to reach the 10-win milestone.



Coming into this tournament, Ko was trailing by a very slim margin in world rankings points and was breathing down Inbee Park’s neck. Buoyed by six birdies, one eagle against one lone bogey, Ko was able to pull off an impressive victory by a whopping 9 strokes as well as pocketing USD300,000 in winner’s prize money and considerable rankings points to overtake Park as world no. 1. Park chose to stay in Korea, instead of defending her title due to scheduling conflicts.

LPGA legend Nancy Lopez previous held the record when she won her 10th LPGA win at the tender age of 22 years and 2 months, followed by Yani Tseng’s 22 years and six months. Ko, who just turned 18 years and six months old, was planning to undergo Lasik surgery after losing her glasses earlier this year, but the procedure has been put on hold until next year as doctors told her she is still too young.

World no. 8 So Yeon Ryu of South Korea also shot 68 to finish tied for second with compatriot Eun Hee Ji at 11-under. English teenager Charley Hull sits alone at the fourth place with 10-under. Two-time LPGA Taiwan Championship winner Suzann Pettersen of Norway finished fifth at 9-under.
Lydia Ko also set records for the greatest tournament winning margin as well as her personal winning margin in terms of strokes this week. After hoisting the championship trophy, Ko promised to come back next year to defend her title to show her appreciation for the fans and title sponsor Fubon Financial Holdings.   Ko was especially ecstatic about birdying Miramar Golf Country Club’s 18th hole four days in a row.

Incidentally, Ko’s five LPGA wins this year came from five countries in four different continents, including Australia (ISPS Handa Women's Australian Open), Canada (Canadian Pacific Women's Open), San Francisco (Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic), France (The Evian Championship) and Taiwan. Ko said each of these five wins have special significance and she would be hard pressed to pick which is more important.

On the other hand, Taiwan’s LPGA rookie Wei-Ling Hsu finished in style with a parting eagle to close with 73 for a four-day total of 289, good for T29 and the best finish among 20 Taiwanese players this week.

Hsu said she could not get much going until the par-5 18th hole, where she was able to hit a beautiful draw shot to knock the ball on the green and then nailed the ensuing 12-foot eagle putt. “Even though I failed to reach the goal I set coming in, I am still happy with my overall play this week and I learn to trust my swing a bit more,” said Hsu.

Taiwan’s favorite Yani Tseng wasted no time to put her dismal round 3 behind as she finally regained her aggressiveness and stuck to her pre-round strategy, firing eight birdies. However, her aggressive play backfired when three of her tee shots strayed out of bounds as she closed with 70, easily her best round of the week, to finish T37 with Taiwan’s Pei-Ying Tsai and TLPGA’s Yu-Ling Hsieh.

Yani, who revealed she really wanted to win this week, said she felt great during practice and her drives off the tee were also very straight. However, things started to fall apart as soon as she stepped on the tee box, as she recorded 6 costly OBs and put two balls in the water. “I hope I have maxed out on my OBs this week. No more OB for me,” said Yani. For more information, please visit: http://www.fubonlpga.com/