World No. 1 Lydia Ko once again lived to fight another day – barely. Ko, who nearly missed the cut Friday making it on the number, also made the second cut of this double-cut event exactly on the number. Ko’s streak of never having missed a cut in any of her 51 starts remained intact after Friday’s round, and she’s still never missed a round in any LPGA event she’s teed it up after making the second cut Saturday.
“Really, I think of the last two days, I’m realizing that one shot – one little putt can make a huge difference,” Ko said. “I started off well. I haven’t shot under par on the back nine before, but did that. I missed a couple putts, birdie putts coming down the stretch, but luckily I’m playing four days, and after the first day, you know, I didn’t know if I was going to play through.”
However, at even-par, nine shots back of the lead, Ko doesn’t have Sunday expectations of winning back-to-back events but is hoping to secure a bigger donation for the International Red Cross for Nepal earthquake relief with a higher finish.
“I think it’s great that I don’t have to worry about, hey, am I going to make the cut or not,” Ko said. “Tomorrow, I don’t know what the pin positions are going to be like, but the weather has been great the last couple days. I’m just going to go out there and try to make a couple of good putts, and I’m pretty sure I’m not going to be, hey, close to the lead. But just try and have fun out there and enjoy and do my best for Nepal.”
The biggest difference between last week’s win and this week Ko says is simply the flat stick. She needed 31 and 32 putts, respectively, in the first two rounds, and without that two-hole, 5-over-par stretch on Thursday, she’d be right there in reach of the lead.
“That’s really crucial. The winner is going to hole some key putts, and I’m not doing that,” Ko said.
Ko won’t ultimately be the winner on Sunday, but she won’t be surprised a bit if it’s Inbee Park, the No. 2 player in the world one spot back of Ko. Every week it seems like either Ko, Park or Lewis are one at the top of the leaderboard, and Ko praised their consistency Saturday.
“They say sometimes when they’re interviewed they didn’t have a good putting day, but somehow they’re still 3 or 4-under-par,” Ko said. “So just shows that even if you don’t have that top “A” game, you’re still able to shoot a couple under par, and I think that’s the great thing about those two top players, where they’re always up there. It’s like their average day is 1- or 2-under. I would love to be in that state where I’m like, ‘Oh, I had an average day and I shot 1- or 2-under and have a great day and shoot 7.”
But Ko herself recently had a streak of 29 consecutive rounds under par she was reminded.
“Yeah, like I say, I wasn’t counting but especially during that stretch I was playing pretty consistent,” she said. “During the end of last year, during Naples, I holed a lot of good putts, and I’m actually hitting the ball much better and I feel more comfortable, but just the putts aren’t dropping.”
Hopefully, for Nepal, her putts drop on Sunday.
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