The Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions is where it all began for Lydia Ko last season.

After a frustrating year in 2023 that saw her go winless on the LPGA Tour save for an unofficial victory at the Grant Thornton Invitational, Ko shot out of the gate at the first event of the 2024 season at Lake Nona Golf and Country Club, capturing her 20th career title at her home course in Orlando, Fla.

But that victory had much bigger implications than just adding an additional tally to Ko’s win column. It also earned the New Zealand native a 26th LPGA Hall of Fame point, putting her within one point of automatically qualifying for the Tour’s Hall of Fame, one of the most prestigious of its kind in all of sports. Finally picking up that penultimate point was a huge relief for the then 26-year-old, who was starting to doubt if she would ever achieve that goal before hanging up the sticks after a challenging performance the season before.

“To be part of the small group that has won more than 20 times, to be in that 20 club is really cool,” Ko said after her victory at the 2024 Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions. “I think last year I was chasing the Hall of Fame. I felt like, with the way I was playing in 2022, I could back it up with another great year. Look where it put me. I just kept my card if I hadn't won the year before. So, I'm not really going to think about it much.

“I think we're all human. To say that it's not going to linger next time I'm in contention, oh, my God, if I actually do this, I'm going to be in the Hall of Fame, I'm sure that's going to be one of the gazillion voices in my head. I just got to strive to be the best golfer I can. If that leads me, and if my career leads me to becoming a Hall of Famer, that's awesome.”

Ko nearly got the job done the next week, going toe-to-toe with Nelly Korda coming down the stretch at the LPGA Drive On Championship before falling to the American in a playoff at Bradenton Country Club and finishing solo second. It was a dream start for Ko, especially after all of the aggravations of the previous year, and her solid play over those first two weeks of the new season made her LPGA Hall of Fame goal finally seem well within reach. Or so she thought anyway.

The next six months saw a red-hot Ko cool off substantially, and even though she played some solid golf in that stretch, a 21st victory continued eluding her, as did her spot in the LPGA Hall of Fame. So, when Ko came to the Paris Olympics to make her third consecutive start in the Games, she didn’t have too many expectations about what would transpire throughout the week at Le Golf National.

Little did Ko know, however, that at the end of four rounds, it would be her standing atop the podium with a gold medal hanging around her neck, having automatically qualified for the Hall in maybe one of the coolest ways possible and making all sorts of Olympic golf history in the process, as she became the first player ever to win bronze, silver and gold medals in the Games, a complete medal trifecta.

“For it to have happened here at the Olympics, unreal,” said Ko after the final round in France. “I do feel like I'm a mythical character in a fairytale. It really couldn't have gotten any better than I could have imagined, and I've had so many grateful things that happened in my career so far, and this really tops it. I couldn't have asked for anything more, to be honest.”

Just a couple of weeks later, Ko added another page to her personal history book, collecting her third career major title at the AIG Women’s Open at St Andrews, joining Lorena Ochoa and Stacy Lewis as the only other woman to win a major championship at one of the most iconic venues in all of golf. But Ko didn’t stop there, earning her 22nd LPGA Tour victory in her next start at the Kroger Queen City Championship presented by P&G and then finishing off an incredible year with three straight top-15 results, capping off the 2024 season with a solo third result at the CME Group Tour Championship.

“It's honestly been crazy. The things that I could have only asked for all came true. Even just winning the first tournament of the year after having one of my worst seasons last year,” Ko said at Tiburón Golf Club. “I was joking that I should change my birthday to August 2024. Might be the oldest 1-year-old out there. I think no matter what and no matter what's ahead of me, 2024 is going to be a special one. Going to be a year that I'm going to always look back on and know that I can't take this moment for granted.”

With the page now turned to the 2025 season, Ko is already using the confidence gleaned from her 2024 successes to her early advantage in the new year. Through three rounds in her first title defense of the season at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, she is currently tied for third alongside Rolex Rankings No. 1 Nelly Korda, only four shots behind 54-hole leader A Lim Kim.

Ko got off to a slow start in the event that’s been annually hosted at her home golf course since 2022, posting a 1-over 73 on Thursday to sit in a tie for 28th after the first round. She picked up the pace with a bogey-free, 5-under 67 on day two, moving into a tie for seventh at the end of 36 holes.

The three-time major winner then lit up Lake Nona on Saturday in the third round of the Tournament of Champions, firing a flawless 7-under 65 that included three sets of back-to-back birdies to move inside the top three on the leaderboard with just 18 holes to play in her adopted home of Orlando, Fla.

“Everything has been pretty solid,” said Ko after round three. “Even the first day, I hit the ball decent. Really struggled on the greens. I think that part of my game has improved the most the past couple days. Golf is strange. I feel like I technically played better yesterday, and even the 5-under, 7-under, they're both really good rounds. I shot a lower score today. It’s definitely some good momentum going into tomorrow.”

Ko has either been within five of the lead or leading entering the final round several times over the course of her career, doing so seven times last season alone. While she often wins when she is holding the 54-hole lead, Ko can be just as deadly as a chaser, and considering that she knows Lake Nona better than most of the athletes in this week’s field, she will be quite a threat to A Lim Kim during Sunday’s final round.

But Ko has learned a lot over the past couple of years about not forcing success, so even though she has her eye on a second consecutive Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions trophy, the 27-year-old is planning to keep her attention on herself and control what she can control as she battles for a 23rd victory coming down the stretch in Orlando, Fla.

“I'm just going to focus on my golf, which is what I've been doing the past two days, and see where that lands me,” Ko said. “Never did I know that after Thursday, I might be in the final group and in contention, so it's definitely a good position to be in, and I'm just going to focus on me. I think that's what I did really generously last year. If I'm the one hoisting the trophy at the end of tomorrow, that'd be great.”

2024 Champion Lydia Ko Contending in Title Defense at Hilton Grand Vacations TOC

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