HSBC World Championship: Lydia Ko fancies her chance in a strong field in Singapore

Dubai: Lydia Ko, who once occupied the top spot in Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings for 85 consecutive weeks, is hoping that 2022 will bring in her luck as she approaches the HSBC Women’s World Championship in Singapore this weekend. The Korea-born New Zealander has ended a long title-drought a month ago at the Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio.

“I’ve been putting myself in contention a lot and I think when you start doing that more often, you just get a little bit more confidence,” said Ko, who became the youngest golfer at 17 years, nine months and nine days in either gender to be ranked No.1 in professional golf. “Week in, week out, the technique and skill things doesn’t change that much. But when you get in a good rhythm of things, I think sometimes some putts that might have lipped-out, lips-in,’’ the former world No.1 told LPGA media.

“For me when I won Gainbridge, I hit a shot that I think most of the time it would have gone out of bounds, but I got a really lucky kick off the tree and then I was in bounds and I was able to save par from there. Kind of things start falling your way and I’ve kind of been able to feed off that kind of momentum, just trying to keep it super simple and just being confident and having fun out there.”

Ko’s win in South Florida is the most recent mark of success in her second career flourish. In her last 12 starts across multiple Tours, she has 10 top-10 finishes, including her last seven straight. She currently sits at number three in the Rolex Rankings after dropping as low as 50th in early 2020.

Now in her eighth consecutive appearance at the HSBC Women’s World Championship in Singapore, Ko has performed consistently - never finishing worse than 15th, including a runner-up finish in 2015, but has never been able to find the winner’s circle.

“I hope my chances are good. I mean, it would be a pretty bad start if I went into the week thinking my chances were not so good,” said Ko. “But in saying that, you know, we have world No. 1 Jin Young here playing this week. I know it’s also Hyo Joo, the defending champion’s first week in for this season. Inbee is a multiple-time winner here. So we have a lot of big names here. This is another great field this week. So it’s going to be difficult but I’ve just got to focus on my game and play the best score I can.”