World number one Lydia Ko has her sights set on a return to Sentosa.
Singapore: Newly crowned world number one
Lydia Ko would love to add the US$1.4 million HSBC Women’s Champions title to a list of career milestones that is fast defining her as the most talented golfer of her generation.
Breaking world records is familiar territory for the 17-year-old from Auckland, New Zealand, with ‘youngest person ever to win a professional golf tour event’, ‘youngest person ever to win an
LPGA Tour event’, and ‘fastest player to reach US$1 million in career earnings’, among some of those held to date.
Landing the HSBC Women’s Champions title at Sentosa Golf Club – a Golf Facility Member of the Asian Golf Industry Federation – is the next target.
Ko said: “I would love to win the tournament. The world’s best players are there and all the people that have played really well in the last 12 months. The champions of champions are there, so everybody is going to be super excited and everyone’s going to hope to have a trophy at the end of the week.
“I’ve just got to play my own game. It’s definitely a tournament I would love to win. I felt like last year I did leave a couple of shots behind, so I do feel like I can win on that course. I had lots of fun there and being my second time playing here, I’ll be a little bit more used to the course.”
Speaking about her latest world record of being the youngest player of either gender to be ranked number one in professional golf – a feat that Tiger Woods had to wait another four years in his career to achieve at 21 years of age – Ko added: “It’s pretty awesome and a huge honour to be in this position. I’m very proud to be here.
“It’s always been a goal to become world number one and to be in that ranking right now is awesome. But you know, I’m really going to go out to every tournament and not thinking about the rankings because if somebody else plays really good and wins a couple of tournaments, it’s really out of my hands. I’m just going to enjoy it, and enjoy being here.”
Ko’s move up the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings coincides with the announcement by tournament organisers that this year’s HSBC Women’s Champions – from March 5-8 – will feature the top-10 ranked players in the women’s game, adding
Ryu So-yeon and
Kim Hyo-joo from Korea, former winner
Karrie Webb from Australia and American
Lexi Thompson.
Previously confirmed were defending champion
Paula Creamer,
Park In-bee (2),
Stacy Lewis (3),
Feng Shanshan (4),
Suzann Pettersen (5) and
Michelle Wie (6).