Jin Young Ko returns to the LPGA for this week’s HSBC Women’s World Championship, her first start since that rip-roaring finale last November in Naples, Florida. Given how much time has passed since the CME Group Tour Championship, it might be easy to forget some of Ko’s incredible feats. Like the fact that she won five of her last nine starts in 2021.
Ko, 26, typically comes out of the gates fast at the start of the year. In 2018, she made history by becoming the first player to win her first LPGA start as a member at the Australian Women’s Open. She’d finish second there the following year. In 2021, Ko finished fourth in her season debut at the Gainbridge LPGA.
This week in Singapore at the Sentosa Golf Club, Ko will play the first two rounds alongside Yuka Saso and Lydia Ko, who won her most recent start on the LPGA in late January at the Gainbridge.
Inbee Park, the only two-time winner of this event, called the first three events of the season her warmup.
“I think the real season starts from this week,” said Park, though Nelly Korda is among the top names missing from the 66-player field.
At the CME, Ko hit 63 consecutive greens in regulation, the longest streak in LPGA and PGA Tour history. And she did it all on a bum left wrist. Her wrist hurt so bad, in fact, that she didn’t take a full swing beyond her 52-degree wedge while warming up before any of her rounds.
When asked in Singapore for an update on the condition of her wrist, Ko said, “it is getting better so far.”
After the CME, Ko went home to South Korea and put her clubs away for about a month. She returned to the United States in January for winter training in Palm Springs, California, where she resumed work on her backswing.
“Many people say my swinging looks fine,” said Ko, “but it doesn’t feel comfortable into my swing.”
In her last nine starts of the 2021 season, the No. 1-ranked Ko amassed a scoring average of 67.39 and posted 11 bogey-free rounds. She’s a hallmark of consistency, drawing comparisons to Annika Sorenstam, the greatest player of the modern era.
In 2019, Ko surpassed Tiger Woods when she went 114 holes without a bogey. Woods held the previous record of 110 bogey-free holes.
The now two-time LPGA Player of the Year has a dozen career LPGA titles, including two majors. She also now has 17 of the 27 points needed for the LPGA Hall of Fame. Inbee Park was the last player to qualify for the LPGA Hall of Fame in 2016 after meeting the required minimum of 10 years on tour.
“Many people say this week is important a little bit,” said Ko who looks to continue her latest mind-blowing streak of greens hit. “But I don’t want to think about it. Just having fun on the course. Yeah, course condition is amazing. So I love it.”