Golf: Lydia Ko wins Saudi Ladies International for second time

Lydia Ko won her 26th title at the Saudi Ladies International. Photo / Getty Images

Before the start of the Saudi Ladies International last week Lydia Ko said she didn’t feel like the world number one as she prepared to begin her season after a 12-week break.

The Kiwi should be feeling top of the world today after starting 2023 with another victory.

Ko birdied the 17th hole to hit the outright lead and claim her second title in Saudi Arabia along with the US$750,000 (NZ$1.185m) payday, the biggest winner’s cheque outside of the five women’s majors.

Ko shot a final round 68 to finish at 21-under to beat India’s Aditi Ashok by one shot. With two holes to play, Ko, Ashok and American Lilia Vu were all tied at 20-under atop the leaderboard before the world number one broke away at the penultimate hole.

The win is Ko’s 26th professional victory and seventh on the Ladies European Tour. She now heads to Thailand for her opening LPGA event of the season and her defence of the LPGA season-long CME Tour title.

Going back to her first win as an amateur at the NSW Open at age 14 in 2012, Ko has now at least won one event in nine of the last 12 years.

It’s been a remarkable few months for the 25-year-old who returned to world number one in November after winning the CME Tour Championship for a second time in her career. She then got married in South Korea before enjoying a decent break away from tournament golf, while still playing eight rounds during her honeymoon.

“A lot of great things happening, especially in the last few months again and again. You don’t know if this is real or not, but I’ve been trying to enjoy being out on the golf course,” she said after her win.

“I’m playing with the world’s best. The field this week was really good, so I knew it was going to be a challenge. And the first one of the year, it’s really hard because you don’t have anything to base yourself off. You don’t know if you’re going to play well or bad.

“But the start definitely helped, and I think I stayed really patient and I was not as nervous as I thought I would be, which is definitely good.”