By Jeremy Harness

SAN FRANCISCO – Lydia Ko is the only champion the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic has ever known. The only real difference is that this year, besides the need for a playoff, she has switched her eyewear from thick glasses to contacts.

Ko, who just turned 18 on Friday, drained a five-footer for birdie on the second playoff hole with Morgan Pressel to win this event held at Lake Merced Golf Club for the second straight year.

She began her final round in the fourth position and trailing by three shots, and she didn’t get off to a very good start. She bogeyed the first two holes and actually had two more bogeys on the back nine, but she hung in there and kept giving herself a chance by making several key putts that resulted in six birdies, including an eight-footer at the 72nd hole of regulation to force the playoff.

The two players both made par on the first playoff hole, and each had a good look at a birdie on the second extra hole. Pressel had a 12-footer for her birdie, which she missed, and moments later, Ko put hers in the center of the cup to conclude matters.

It was the sixth career win in only two years on the LPGA Tour for Ko, who was recently named Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People.

“Every hole is pretty nerve-racking, but to be in a playoff, that was double the pressure,” she said. “Morgan had been playing so well the whole week, and she’s a tough player to beat, but I had to concentrate on my game. That’s all I can do.

“Obviously, I would love to have the lead going into a final round, but it ended up being OK today.”

Pressel teed off Sunday trailing by a single stroke but took the lead at the third hole, and she expanded it by rolling in a 40-foot putt for an eagle three holes later. She dropped a shot at the seventh but got it right back on the very next hole to keep her lead intact.

She began to come back to the group on the back nine with three bogeys on holes 12 through 16, opening the door for Ko to use her superior putting to get back into the hunt and eventually track her down.

“She’s very, very impressive and always there,” Pressel said of Ko. “At her age, she plays with so much poise and calmness I don’t think you see from other kids her age.”

However, Ko herself said, don’t let the exterior fool you.

“I do get nervous; you have to take my word on that,” she said. “I think everybody has nerves. Some people show it, some people don’t. But to me, even just playing a round of golf with club members gets me nervous.”

Brooke Henderson, the 17-year-old from Canada, was the 54-hole leader but lost that advantage early on, as she bogeyed the first two holes and just did not seem to be in sync the entire round.

Especially damaging was a three-putt bogey that she took on the 12th hole, when after reaching the green on the tough, uphill par-3, she missed a two-foot par putt while Pressel bogeyed that hole as well.

“I just wasn’t 100 percent comfortable (over the ball), and I hit it harder than I should have,” Henderson said. “Putts have to go in with the perfect weight, and when you hit them too firm, that’s what happens.”

She then dropped another shot on the next hole, as she was unable to get it up and down from the thick greenside rough. She quickly got two shots back at the 14th, however, as she rolled it in from the sand for an eagle to immediately lift her spirits and get her right back on track.

Pressel, though, answered with a tap-in birdie to push the lead back to two shots.

At about the same time, however, Ko drained a 40-footer for birdie at the 15th to leap-frog Henderson and get within a stroke of the lead but made a bogey at the 16th to fall into a second-place tie.

Henderson had another chance to get one in close at the 17th, as she had 73 yards for her approach. However, she hit her wedge shot a bit thin, and she ended up near the back of the green while the pin was located in front. She was able to two-putt for par to keep the deficit down to a single stroke, but it was chalked up as an opportunity gone by the wayside.

Ko did her part to put pressure on Pressel, making birdie at the 18th in front of her to tie her at the top of the leaderboard. Pressel herself left herself a 12-foot birdie chance to win the tournament, but she left the putt just short, and after she tapped in for her par, the playoff was on.

Henderson could not join Ko and Pressel, however. Her tee shot at the par-5 18th hit a rake located just outside of a fairway bunker, leaving her with an awkward stance for her second shot. As a result, she ended up with a slightly-longer approach than usual – 156 yards – and although she hit the green and had a reasonable look at a birdie, she missed the 20-footer and finished a shot back.

“I learned a lot from today,” said Henderson, who will get on an airplane en route to the Dallas area for a Monday qualifier to get into next weekend’s Volunteers of America North Texas Shootout. “I didn’t play my best, but it was fun just to be there and be in contention most of the day.

“(Being in the playoff) would have been nice, but a third (place) finish is definitely a confidence booster moving forward.”