While Park was basking in the glory of her victory both Ko and Feng were equally ecstatic to have taken their place on the podium in the first Women’s Olympic golf competition since 1900.
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Ko, however, never let up in her quest to earn a medal and made the turn in a three-way tie for third, but the New Zealander had no interest in playing for a bronze medal.
China’s Hao-tong Li won the Volvo China Open on the European Tour in May at age 20, but that doesn’t likely resonate with the sporting public, or more importantly with Chinese government officials who could support golf with funding, like an Olympic medal does. “Any time I talk about representing my country and what it would mean to hold the medal for our country and hear the national anthem, I’m just so proud to be an American”. We’re going to process that some, we get some time to grieve.
The former No.1 Park birdied three of the opening five holes in a stunning start to her final round at the Marapendi course to open up a five-shot lead on the field. It kept her there on the second with another 66.
Lewis shot an 8-under-par 63 in the second round of the Olympic women’s golf competition Thursday, including a double-bogey, to surge up the leaderboard. But she did have patience.
Yang went on a birdie binge on the front nine in the second round.
Walsh Jennings was better with her passing Wednesday night than she was in Tuesday’s semifinal loss to Agatha and Barbara, and she also tallied six successful blocks.
Kim had a 12-under 128 total to take the two shot advantage over Furyk, Lucas Glover, Kevin Na and Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama into the weekend.
Ahead, Lydia Ko of New Zealand had posted a 6-under 65. She moved up into a tie for 17th place after two rounds of play.
Lexi Thompson, ranked fourth in the world, is tied for seventh, three strokes back. After seeing so many putts go in, she charged her par putt about 4 feet by the hole and missed that one, taking double bogey. “Other than five holes yesterday, I played awesome”.
She spun her ball to a foot.
She hit her tee shot into the water en route to a bogey on the par-five tenth hole, but the typically unflappable Park shrugged it off to card three birdies down the stretch against one further bogey. She turned and waved and talked about the “amazing support” she received during the week.
Oh played her way into the team at the expense of Hall of Famer Karrie Webb, who sent her a message the night before the tournament.
“Even people [in China] that they don’t play golf, they actually get to see us and they get to actually see how great the Chinese players are”, Feng said.
After a brief honeymoon in Charleston, South Carolina, Lewis got back to work, but still thought she would enjoy the experience of being here more than worry about grinding at golf. “I would be saying, ‘Please keep it in'”.
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She’s managed that before. As such, expect anything and lots of movement on Saturday in the gold medal round. “I had to overcome a lot of obstacles”, Park said.
