Jin Young Ko was on a mission to find a good egg tart in Singapore. The defending champion has grown quite fond of the food that surrounds the event known as “Asia’s major,” and the fans there have grown quite fond of her.
After Ko’s victory last year at the HSBC Women’s Champions, she said a wealthy man in the city created a fan club for her that has 27 members, one representing each point needed for the LPGA Hall of Fame. Ko, a 13-time winner on the LPGA, currently has 18 points.
“There’s never been a time I didn’t want to play at this event,” said Ko. “I always want to come here.”
This marks the 15th playing of the HSBC, and nine of the top-10 players in the world are in the field. Lexi Thompson, No. 6, is the only one not teeing it up at Sentosa Golf Club’s Tanjong Course.
Ko, 27, began the 2022 season in Singapore and, after winning, looked poised to dominate. But a nagging wrist injury derailed her for much of the year and she didn’t win again. As she took an extended time to rest over the offseason, Ko booked a trip to Europe for 10 days. She asked Finland’s Matilda Castren for advice on how to see the Northern Lights and after a snowy adventure there, went to Paris for Christmas to see the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre.
“One of my highlights in my life was to go and watch Northern Lights,” she said.
After spending a month in Vietnam working on her game, Ko, who took up meditating over the winter, opened the season in Thailand with a share of sixth, recording four rounds in the 60s at a tournament for the first time since the 2022 Amundi Evian.
“I’m training hard in meditation and practicing golf,” she said.
Jessica Korda returns to competition in style
Jessica Korda returned to the LPGA with a bit of fanfare as sister Nelly coordinated a 30th birthday surprise. Jessica hadn’t teed it up on the LPGA since late September as she’s been out with an injured back. The Korda sisters, who skipped college to turn professional as a teens, have won a combined 14 titles on the LPGA.
“Dirty Thirty for her on Monday,” said Nelly. “It was fun. She didn’t expect it at all. She walked into the restaurant and we were set up all the way in the back.
“Obviously I didn’t really know what (the cake) looked like. My dad’s friend, Michael, helped me with it. I had to push her and she was like, ‘Why are you pushing me?’ And then everyone came out and surprised her. Yeah, the cake was funny, it said ‘R.I.P. 20s’ on it. She got a little bit of a laugh from that.”
Brooke Henderson reunites with her clubs
Brooke Henderson began the season on the highest of highs with a victory at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions. Her 13th career LPGA title was especially notable given that it was her first week playing with TaylorMade clubs.
For her second event in Thailand, however, Henderson had to start all over again after her luggage went missing. TaylorMade scrambled to get Henderson a replacement set of clubs, and she tied for 44th.
“I was so grateful that my clothes were returned to me on Friday afternoon,” she said, “and to put them in play over the weekend and just be able to work with them and practice in the days leading up before this week is nice. It’s kind of like a long, lost friend.”
Lydia Ko reflects on first time as No. 1
World No. 1 Lydia Ko makes her third start of the season this week after winning on the LET in Saudi Arabia to begin her year and then finishing T-6 in Thailand. While Ko has never won the HSBC, she has played well in the event, no matter the venue.
Ko is 69-under par in her eight previous starts at the HSBC Women’s World Championship, more than any other player. Her scoring average in the event is 69.84, more than two strokes lower than the field average of 72.12.
The newlywed Kiwi rose to No. 1 after winning the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship last November, returning to a once familiar spot at the top of the game for the first time since 2017.
“When I became No. 1 for the first time, I was – I’m still young, I’d like to think – but I was even younger,” said Ko, “and I felt like being No. 1 meant that I had to be winning or like contending week-in, week-out but that’s not necessarily true.
“ … everybody is going to have their up-and-downs but to kind of manage that, making sure those lows aren’t super low and you don’t get too high from the highs, I think just having kind of gone through a little bit of it, I’m just able to accept it a lot better.”
Who's who of winners
South Korean players have won six of the last seven HSBC events. Michelle Wie West was the only American to sneak in a victory in recent years. The last three champions – Jin Young Ko, Hyo Joo Kim and Sung Hyun Park – all hail from South Korea.
Inbee Park, the only two-time winner of the HSBC, is not in the field this week as she and husband Gi Hyeob Nam are expecting her first child. Of the 14 different players who have won the HSBC, 12 are major champions.
