Lydia Ko breaks records once again and becomes the youngest golfer to win a major, having won the Evian Championship at 18 years, four months and twenty days, thus surpassing Morgan Pressel’s record of 18 years and ten months.
The New Zealander of Korean origin signed a final card of 63 strokes, and finished with a total of -16, six strokes ahead of Lexi Thompson, who fought to get the win but found an unbeatable Lydia Ko. Her eight birdies without errors gave no option to her rivals, who finished with 70 strokes. Lexi Thompson and Shanshang Feng finished with -10 and -8 respectively.
The fourth place, with 7 under par, was shared by two Asian players, Koreans Ilhee Lee and Mi Hyang Lee, who came to be at the top of the ranking but lost positions due to her final 74 strokes. Alison Lee and Lee Anne Pace finished sixth, with -6, while the other places in the top 10 were shared, with -5, by Inbee Park, Eun Heen Hi and Amy Yang.
Among the Spaniards, only Carlota Ciganda from Navarre had passed the cut and in the last round she signed 69 strokes to finish with +3, far away from the lead and already thinking about the imminent Solheim Cup.
There is no doubt that Lydia Ko has become the world reference in women’s golf, a phenomenon who has demonstrated her exceptional talent since she was still a brat.
At only 15 years of age, Lydia had already scored her first victory in a professional tournament, the Canadian Open in 2012. To gauge the importance of that triumph in a golfer, whether male or female, one would have to see who is the youngest player to have won a tournament on the American Tour, the PGA Tour. Well, you have to go back almost a century, to 1923, to find it: it was Harry ‘Lighthorse’ Cooper when he won the Galveston Open at the age of 19 years and eight months.
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