Lydia Ko headed to the eighth tee – her 17th hole of the day – at even par, her streak of 28 subpar rounds in serious jeopardy. It was the talk of the golfing world Thursday: Can the 17-year-old Ko produce another to tie Annika’s streak of 29 in a row?
If Ko has a greatest asset in a game seemingly free of weaknesses, it may be her mind. The ability to completely ignore how absurd it is the things she’s accomplishing at 17. And, again, she tuned out any outside noise and smoked a drive down the middle of the par-3 8th fairway and plopped her approach down to two feet and tapped in for birdie. Just like that with a par on the ninth, she secured her 29th consecutive rounder under par, tying Annika on a day in which she made five birdies, four bogeys.
“Today I was so busy trying to make up-and-downs, or trying to make a good two-putt or make some birdies, because I really wasn’t hitting my driver well, and here the rough can get pretty thick,” Ko said. “When you’re in that position a record was the last thing I was thinking about. But, yeah, Lexi [Thompson] and I made two really good birdies on 8, and I got back to under par.”
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