New Zealand’s Lydia Ko captured gold in the Women’s Golf Competition in Paris to enter the LPGA Hall of Fame in style as Leona Maguire and Stephanie Meadow went out on a high in Paris.
Ko (27), who won silver in Rio in 2016 and bronze in Tokyo three years ago, closed with a controlled and clinical one-under 71, holding off a final-round charge from Germany’s Esther Henseleit, who shot 66, to win by two strokes on 10-under par.
With her gold medal, Ko also reached the 27 points necessary for induction into the LPGA Hall of Fame.
China’s Xiyu Lin, who had Derry’s David Jones on her bag, birdied the 18th to finish shot further back in third on seven-under after a 69.
As for the Irish, Stephanie Meadow closed with a best of the week, two-under 68 to finish 39th on six-over as Leona Maguire, recovered from the flu symptoms that saw her card opening rounds of 78, 79 and 83, signed off with a one-under 71 to finish 59th on 23-over.
Maguire explained that pride in pulling on the green jersey prevented her from withdrawing with illness at Le Golf National.
“I’ve felt absolutely rotten the last few days, and I know that wasn’t the golf that I was capable of,” Maguire said. “It was one of those things. If it was any other week, I probably wouldn’t have played this week.
“But it’s the Olympic Games, and representing Ireland, there’s no bigger honour. So it’s one of those things. You don’t give up until the very end, even if it seems like it’s too far gone.
“I suppose it was as much of a point to prove to myself today that I knew I could handle this golf course. Under par on this golf course, I’ll take that every time.”
Maguire hopes her final round will give her some momentum as she is scheduled to play the Scottish Open and the AIG Women’s Open at St Andrews over the next two weeks before headlining the KPMG Women’s Irish Open at Carton House.
“You need to be at 100pc and I was very far from that this week, but proud of the way I bounced back today and hopefully some good momentum heading into the next few weeks,” she said, pointing out that the enthusiastic support she received from Irish fans made her reluctant to pull out.
“To be honest, if it wasn’t for all the support, I probably would have thought about packing it in,” Maguire said. “But I think it’s been phenomenal.
“With the whole support that the Irish team has gotten over the past few weeks, both at home and over here, it’s been incredible.”
As for the battle for medals, Ko turned in two-under to lead by five strokes as joint overnight leader Morgane Metraux of Switzerland faded to 18th after a closing 79, and American Rose Zhang, the other member of the final three-ball, shot 74 to tie for eighth on five-under.
Henseleit, who started the day seven shots off the lead, turned in four-under to move into the frame before finishing with two birdies to card a 66 and set the target at eight-under.
Ko had opened the door to the chasing pack when she found water and double-bogeyed the 13th.
But even with a slim one-shot lead, she ground out four pars before finishing with a pitch and putt birdie from 76 yards at the par-five 18th, rolling in a seven-footer to seal victory.
World number one and defending champion Nelly Korda briefly threatened to contend for a medal before making a triple bogey seven at the 15th in a 75 that left her tied 22nd on one-under.
The Phillippines’ Bianca Pagdanganan, Australia’s Hannah Green, Korea’s Amy Yang and Japan’s Miyu Yamashita finished one stroke outside the podium on six-under.
“I can’t believe it,” Ko said. “You know, going into the final round with the two-shot lead with Morgane, I think when I was younger, I would have been like, ‘Oh, man, everyone’s trying to catch me’, and I would have felt almost more pressure from that.
“But I tried to think, hey, like Morgane, I get two free shots over some of the other players, and they don’t come for free.
“So now I wanted to have that as a cushion, but also just focus on my game. I think one of the things that I’m most proud of is I just stuck to my game plan, stuck to being aggressive off the tee, and that’s been something that I’ve been struggling with and been working really hard on with my coaches.
“For it to progressively get it to get better these past couple of months, and for it to kind of hit its peak here at the Olympics, it doesn’t get better than this, and to be holding and wearing this gold medal, it’s pretty crazy right now.”
As for her finally getting the win she needed to make the LPGA Hall of Fame, she said: “I think being two points away last year was actually quite difficult because as much as people say it’s only two wins, I know how difficult two wins are, and especially in this day and age.
“You don’t win multiple times, and not many players win multiple times in a season. I think that put a lot of pressure on myself. So I struggled in 2023 but to win the first event of the year at my home club at Lake Nona, I think that took the pressure off.
“And I knew that if I worked on the right things that one tournament could happen at any point.
“Did I imagine that I was going to do it at the Paris Olympics? Probably not, but this is definitely the coolest way to do it.”