Lydia Ko carried only a one-stroke lead into the final round of the HSBC Women’s World Championship with plenty of challengers nipping at her heels.
But the wily veteran, at age 27, reminded the field why she has 22 career LPGA wins, 14 tournament victories on three other global tours, three Olympic medals, and LPGA Hall of Fame membership.
The New Zealander turned the final round of the Singapore tournament into a clinic of precision distance control and steely putting on Sentosa Golf Club’s Tanjong Course for her 23rd LPGA win. She hit 10 of 14 fairways, 14 greens in regulation, and recorded 29 putts with five birdies en route to victory.
It was also her first victory of 2025 in three starts and her first win at this event in 11 appearances. The Singapore win marked Ko’s career third LPGA victory in Asia.
“Obviously, we have a long season ahead, but this is my first time winning in the spring [on the LPGA’s] Asia Swing,” said Ko, who won by four strokes at 13-under 275 over Japan’s Ayaka Furue and Thailand’s Jeeno Thitikul, tied for second at 9-under 279.
“It’s exciting to add Asia’s major championship to my major collection,” added Ko, pocketing $360,000 of the no-cut event’s $2.4 million prize purse for a 66-player, limited-field tournament.
And while not officially one of the LPGA’s majors, the 17th staging of the HSBC Women’s World Championship attracted nine of the world’s top-10 players with a total of 19 major winners with 27 titles. The field also included six former world top-ranked players and 46 LPGA winners boasting a combined total of 174 tournament titles.
Among that list was defending champion Hannah Green of Australia, who kick-started her three-victory 2024 season in Singapore. American Angel Yin, who won the previous week’s event at the Honda LPGA Thailand, carried momentum into the event, but withdrew due to illness in the third round.
South Korean A Lim Kim, who won the LPGA’s 2025 season opener in Florida, held the second-round lead at the HSBC and lurked four shots behind Ko heading into the final round. England’s Charley Hull was only a single shot off the lead, with Thitikul three strokes back.
Ko knew her final-round pairing with Hull and Thitikul would require her to focus on her strengths rather than on being the shortest hitter in their group. As Hull faltered on the last day with a 2-over score of 74, and Thitikul simply could not catch Ko, the Kiwi rolled in three consecutive birdies on the front nine to launch her charge.
Even with a bogey on the 11th hole, Ko maintained a three-stroke advantage, which she built to four strokes with a birdie on No. 13. Hull and Thitikul hit their approach shots closer on the par-3 15th hole and hoped to inch closer to Ko, but the savvy veteran drained a seemingly impossible long, downhill, double-breaking birdie putt that all but signaled this competition was over.
“When those kinds of things happen, you think, oh, maybe it is going to be my time to win the event,” said Ko, posting her second top-10 finish in three starts for 2025 with the victory.
Ko’s times to win have been many since she first arrived to play LPGA tournaments as a bespeckled teenager. She competed in 16 LPGA events as an amateur in 2012 and 2013, never missing a cut. She won four professional tournaments as an amateur, including the LPGA’s 2012 and 2013 CN Canadian Women’s Open.
Finally old enough to join the LPGA Tour in 2014, she won top rookie honors that year and in 2015, was the world’s top-ranked woman player at age 17. Since then, she has twice been the LPGA’s player of the year (2015, 2022), and a two-time Vare Trophy winner for low scoring average (2021, 2022).
And after securing the gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics and winning her third season tournament at the AIG Women’s (British) Open, Ko became the youngest player inducted into the LPGA’s Hall of Fame. She also was named as a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit — a national honor in her home country.
Admittedly, there are still two major championships on her wish list to complete her stellar resume: the U.S. Women’s Open and the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.
Ko likes to think an early-season victory in 2025 and an off-course appearance on the March cover of Vogue Korea magazine could help set the stage for more career highlights.
“I’m not trying to prove anything to anybody else,” said Ko, currently world-ranked No. 3. “Who’s to say that I had a great year [in 2024], and [this year], I can have an even better one.”
What is the next event?
The next event on the LPGA Tour schedule is Blue Bay LPGA taking place between 6-9 March at the Jian Lake Blue Bay Golf Course in China.