Lydia Ko competes for Olympic gold medal, LPGA Hall of Fame in Paris

In a spectacular performance at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Lydia Ko won the gold medal with a final score of 71, two shots ahead of Germany’s Esther Henseleit and three shots ahead of China’s Xiyu Lin, who won the silver and bronze, respectively.

With the victory, Ko becomes the first golfer in the modern era to win three medals in three Olympics. The gold joins his bronze medal from the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, and his silver in golf’s return to the Olympics in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The gold medal also gave Ko the final point he needed to enter the LPGA’s most exclusive club: the Hall of Fame.

To earn a spot in the LPGA Hall, players must accumulate at least 27 points. Under the current qualifying format, one point is earned for each LPGA official tournament win, Olympic medal (from last year), Vare Trophy or Player of the Year award, and a major is worth two points. A player must also win at least one Vare Trophy, Player of the Year or major tournament.

After winning the 20th LPGA at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions in January, Ko needed just one final point to cement his place in the Hall. He had a chance to do it the next week, at the LPGA Drive On Championship, but finished second.

With her gold medal in hand, Ko, 27, becomes the LPGA Hall of Fame’s 35th player, the youngest under the latest process, the first to enter the hall since Lorena Ochoa in 2022, and the first active player to strengthen his position since. Inbee Park in 2016. He is also the first member of the Hall from New Zealand.

After 54 holes at the Paris Olympics, Ko was tied for the lead with Switzerland’s Morgane Metraux at nine under par. Rose Zhang and Japan’s Miyu Yamashita tied for third at seven under.

But the drama began early in the final round, when Metraux faded to five over for the opening five holes. Ko bogeyed his opening hole, but bounced back with birdies on Nos. 3 and 7 to get to 10 under and take a two-shot lead.

Another birdie on No. 9 gave Ko and impressive cushion with nine holes to play – a situation almost identical to Jon Rahm’s in last week’s men’s tournament.

Ko’s lead stretched to five shots after she birdied the 11th, but a water ball on her approach to the 13th led to a double-bogey that cut her lead to three thanks to charging Esther Henseleit.

Henseleit, who plays several teams ahead of Ko, then bogeyed 17 and 18 to move up to within one shot of Ko’s lead.

Ko parred his way to 18 to preserve his one-shot advantage.

Ko’s drive on the par-5 final hole found the middle of the fairway. He was playing with food, sleeping with iron to build a short iron path, only needing to balance to get gold.

Ko hit it for birdie length, all but closing in on the gold. He received a rousing ovation as he approached the green, and made a good birdie, securing the victory by two shots.

Golf.com Editor

As a four-year member of Columbia’s inaugural class of women’s varsity golfers, Jessica knows how to beat everyone on the golf course. He can pass them through the office, too, where he is primarily responsible for producing both print and online features, and overseeing major special projects, such as GOLF’s first Style Issue, which began in February 2018. His first interview series, “A Round With,” released in November 2015, and appeared in both magazine and video form on GOLF.com.