Photo credit: @1NewsSportNZ

By Jeremy Harness

DALY CITY, Calif. – Celebrating one’s 21st birthday is a huge deal here in the United States, as Lydia Ko acknowledged on Friday. Winning a professional golf tournament days after turning 21 will make the milestone much more significant.

That’s what Ko did on Sunday, as she powered past Minjee Lee on the first playoff hole to win the LPGA MEDIHEAL championship at Lake Merced Golf Club. It was her 15th-career win and the third time she has been victorious on this golf course.

She got the victory in spectacular fashion. From a little more than 230 yards away, with both players in the fairway at the par-5 18th, Ko pulled out a 3-wood and hit a stunning second shot, coming within inches of a double eagle before the ball came to rest just two feet past the hole.

Following that, Lee elected to go with a long iron from a little more than 200 yards away and pushed it to the right, ending up in the rough. Just as she did at the final hole in regulation, she got up and down for birdie.

Ko then rolled the ensuing short eagle putt to secure the win, her first since the 2016 Marathon Classic.

Lee started the final round three shots behind the lead, but after a bogey at the third, she made a charge and overcame another bogey at the 10th to tie Ko at the top when she made birdie at the par-5 15th.

That was short-lived, as Ko tapped in for birdie at No. 15, after coming within inches of an eagle. Lee, however, came right back two holes later at the par-3 17th, as she holed out from the right greenside bunker for a birdie and momentarily took a one-shot lead with her birdie at the 18th, one group ahead of Ko.

Ko played the hole masterfully, leaving her second shot just 10 feet short of the green. Her ensuing chip shot – for eagle and the win – just burned the edge of the hole, and her tap-in birdie forced the playoff with Lee, who has also won at Lake Merced, in the 2012 U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship.

Jessica Korda began Sunday just one shot behind Ko, but her putter deserted her down the stretch and proved to be the difference.

Korda and Ko were tied at nine-under after 11 holes, and both hit the green at the par-3 12th. While Ko made par, Korda three-putted the green for a bogey.

Two holes later, she found the right fairway bunker with her tee shot but recovered beautifully by sticking her second shot to two feet. However, she missed the short putt that would have closed the gap to a single stroke.

Although she birdied the par-5 15th, Korda could not recover from that point on. She finished the tournament in a four-way tie for third with Angel Yin, ShanShan Feng and Charley Hull.

Ko began Sunday’s round with a one-stroke lead over Korda, but both young women struggled in the early going. Both bogeyed the opening hole before Ko bogeyed the fourth – her first three-putt of the tournament being the main culprit there – as well as the sixth, and at that point, she fell one stroke behind Korda and Lee, who birdied the seventh hole to get into a tie for the lead.

However, Ko bounced back with a birdie at the seventh to get back into a tie at the top. That lasted for about a minute, as Korda also made birdie there to re-take the lead.