The closest Lydia Ko had come to recording a hole-in-one in her career, either in a tournament or otherwise, was during a practice round. sort of.
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Lydia Ko later emulated Lin’s feat when her tee shot dropped as she charged up the leaderboard to take a share of second place through 10 holes.
After two so-so rounds to open the tournament, Ko got everything she could out of her game in the third round as wind gusts battered the course and scorecards. “For me to shoot six under in these conditions, I am proud of that”. She is the No. 1-ranked player in the world. I put myself in positions and opportunities and those putts I did have opportunities I grabbed them.
“I think the most important thing for me is to just focus on me and just focus on the shot I have in front of me”, she said.
Yet Friday’s 70 looked solid compared to playing partners Stacey Lewis of the US and Great Britain’s Charley Hull, who were one and two shots behind her overnight.
She parred every hole on the back nine and finished the day without a single bogey. “I’ll take that one”.
There were similar frustrations for Brooke Henderson of Canada, who started Friday tied for third with Hull but could only score a disappointing 75 to be one of seven players along with Lewis on four under.
“I haven’t been the luckiest person with hole-in-ones but for me to do it here this week is awesome”. “The other girls are playing some great golf and I hopefully I’ll be able to do the same”.
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“I want it as tough as it can possibly play”, she said of Saturday’s forecast. I’m having this opportunity at the Olympics to maybe stand on the podium and that itself I’m really grateful for that.
