Lydia Ko wins her 2nd Saudi Ladies International title ahead of the opening LPGA event of the season

New Zealand golfer Lydia Ko has started her 2023 season with a bang. She had clean-sweeped all the titles last year and it seems like she is on her way to repeat the feat this year as well.

The reigning World No. 1 has won the 2nd Saudi Ladies International title ahead of the opening LPGA event of the 2023 season. She found an outright lead with a birdie on the 17th hole. She had a whopping $750,000 payday which was the biggest pay cheque outside of the majors.

Lydia Ko hit a final round 68 to finish at 21 under to beat Indian golfer Aditi Ashok by one shot. Ko, Ashok and US golfer Lilia Vu were all tied at 20-under at the top of the leaderboard before Ko broke away at the penultimate hole.

Ko took a 12-week break from golf after a fabulous 2022 season. She married her boyfriend Jun Chung in South Korea after the season finished. She enjoyed a decent break away from competitive golf, however, she still played eight rounds during her honeymoon.

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"You don’t know if you’re going to play well or bad" - Lydia Ko

Lydia Ko at the HSBC Women's World Championship - Previews (Image via Lionel Ng/Getty Images)

Lydia Ko had said that she doesn't feel like a world no. 1 ahead of the 2nd Saudi Ladies International title. However, she proved that she very well deserved to still top the world rankings with her phenomenal display of golf at the tournament.

Ko was more than elated with the results. She said that she was trying to enjoy her time on the golf course.

"A lot of great things happening, especially in the last few months again and again. You don’t know if this is real or not, but I’ve been trying to enjoy being out on the golf course."

Ko further talked about the uncertainty of starting a new season.

"I’m playing with the world’s best. The field this week was really good, so I knew it was going to be a challenge. And the first one of the year, it’s really hard because you don’t have anything to base yourself off. You don’t know if you’re going to play well or bad."

She spoke a bit about how he played, and thinks the patience and confidence helped him prevail over tough times.

"But the start definitely helped, and I think I stayed really patient and I was not as nervous as I thought I would be, which is definitely good."

Fans will now certainly look forward to her performance in the LPGA season.