When she learned just how close she was to winning the Vare Trophy, Lydia Ko changed her plans, packed her bags and booked a flight to Tampa for the Pelican Women’s Championship presented by Konica Minolta and Raymond James. The 24-year-old sits at fourth in the standings and having met the minimum round requirement, is a shoo-in to earn the honor.
She’s also in position to add a second LPGA Tour win to her 2021 resume, carding rounds of 67-66-64 to post 13 under and sit three shots back of the lead ahead of Sunday in Belleair Fla. The last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind for the New Zealand native. She won the Aramco Saudi Ladies International by five shots just six days ago. But her energy level doesn’t seem to be phased through three rounds.
“In some ways, when you've got another week right after one you just feel like it's not two weeks but one really long week,” said Ko of her busy travel schedule. “I landed on Monday and then I was out playing a practice round on Tuesday. Kind of didn't know who I was at that point. When you're playing well and you have played well, you feed off that momentum. At the end of the day, I just got to trust my game and trust my training. That's what Sean (Foley) says a lot. That's all you can do, and enjoy it out there. If I get to play good golf on top of that, that's an extra bonus. Last week, I played really solid. My iron shots were really good so that set up a lot of opportunities. When you play well, day-to-day things don't change much, but you're feeding off confidence and the belief that you can shoot good scores. That's kind of been the approach and that's been working so far this week as well.”
Ko’s recent history has seen a player with high highs and low lows. So, this consistency is something that she’s relishing. Sitting at third in the Race to the CME Globe, back-to-back wins would definitely be a confidence booster. But Lydia is just pleased with her game so far at Pelican Golf Club and is looking to end the regular season on a positive note.
“This has been one of the most consistent seasons for me,” she said. “Even when I was world No. 1, I'm not sure if I had played this consistently then. I started off the season really well with a few Top 10s, and then winning in Hawaii just kind of gave me the confidence that, ‘Hey, I can be back in the winner's circle.’ It's good to be back there again last week even though it was on the LET. Just gives you confidence. You always want to start the season well because it kind of sets your mode for the rest of the season. Then you want to end it well. That's kind of the best-case scenario. So I'm hoping that I can finish the season off strongly.”
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