It would have to be up there with the best wedge shots in New Zealand golfing history.
Ten years ago, Dame Lydia Ko was walking down the 18th hole at the ANA Inspiration tied for the lead in the opening major of the year. The 18-year-old was at the peak of her powers. Seven months earlier, she’d claimed her maiden major victory at the Evian Championship and only a week earlier won the Kia Classic for her ninth title in a two-year span.
But that all counts for little when you’re staring down an 80m wedge shot after laying up and needing birdie to take the win.
Ko started the final round at the 2016 ANA Inspiration, now called the Chevron Championship, just one shot behind American leader Lexi Thompson, who Ko tomorrow tees off with in the opening round at this year’s tournament. As Thompson’s final round fell apart, Ariya Jutanugarn jumped clear, walking to the 16th tee with a two-shot lead. However, three straight bogeys from the Thai player opened the door for the chasing pack.
It meant Ko went to the last hole in a tie for the lead with Jutanugarn and Englishwoman Charley Hull at 11-under-par, with crucial long-distance par putts at the eighth, 11th and 13th keeping the Kiwi in the mix.
At the par-five 18th, after a solid drive, Ko had to make the decision to go for the green in two or lay up with an eight iron and take her chances with wedge in hand to get close.
After the win and a traditional leap into Poppie’s Pond, Ko acknowledged the advice she got from her caddie Jason Hamilton.
“Jason kind of talked me out of going for the green in two,” Ko said, looking at a three wood over water from a downhill lie if she wanted to take it on. “I knew if I mishit it, it was going to go straight in the water. He said, ‘Hey, we can still make birdie going the conventional way’.”
From 80m out, she stuck her third shot on the par-five 18th hole to about 40cm to set her up for the go-ahead birdie and to finish at 12-under-par. She said at the time it might rank as one of the best shots of her career, considering the circumstances. Ten years on, there have been many more brilliant Ko moments, leading to 11 more titles, with an Olympic gold.
There was the three wood in the playoff win over Aussie Minjee Lee at the 2018 Mediheal Championship – from almost 200m to within a metre, setting up an eagle for victory. At the 2024 Women’s Open, Ko’s approach to the road hole 17th at the St Andrews Old Course in windy and rainy conditions has to be up there, although that didn’t lead to a birdie, but another brilliant wedge shot a hole later did as Ko claimed her third major, in one of the most famous finishes in golf.
There was her amazing approach, that three wood again, from 190m to within 2m, setting up victory with Aussie Jason Day at the Grant Thornton Invitational in 2023. And then there’s Le Golf National. It wasn’t a difficult wedge, but similar to the ANA Inspiration, due to what was riding on it, her third shot into the par-five last hole in the fourth round at the Paris Olympics, which secured gold, also has to be up there.
Ko’s victory at the ANA Inspiration saw her become the first Kiwi to win multiple golf majors – she added a third with victory at the Women’s Open in 2024. At 18, Ko also became the youngest two-time major winner in LPGA history and the youngest golfer to win two majors since Young Tom Morris in 1869.
“I mean it would be up there. Every shot is special in its own way, like every win is special, because every tournament is so different,” Ko said at the time. “But just playing the 72nd hole, birdieing the last hole, that’s always a good feeling. Obviously for that shot to mean so much that I would win the event, that makes it extra special. But I obviously laid up to the right number and hit it to the exactly right spot. But I thought it was going to be a little short, but with the greens firming up, it ended up being perfect.”
It was part of an amazing run where Ko finished in the top three in five straight majors, with two more LPGA Tour victories in 2016 as well as a silver medal in Rio.
This week, she will play the major for the 13th time, having missed the cut just once, with three top-10 finishes. At the 2021 ANA Inspiration, Ko tied the course record on the final round with a 62 when she finished second, two shots behind Thailand’s Patty Tavatanakit, who went wire-to-wire at the Mission Hills Country Club, formerly the traditional home.
If Ko does win the event for the second time this week, claiming a fourth major, there will be a different kind of winning leap.
With Mission Hills and Poppie’s Pond long gone and three previous years at The Club at Carlton Woods, the event now moves 40 minutes south to the Memorial Park Golf Course in Houston, where organisers have built a small swimming pool beside the 18th green to replicate the winner’s leap.