Ko seeks gold in Paris – Golf News
New Zealand's Lydia Ko can now boast a complete set of Olympic medals after adding an elusive gold medal to her collection after finishing two shots outside the field at Le Golf National.
The ones who left the podium were Esther Henseleit from Germany who won silver and Xiyu Lin from China who won bronze.
Ko, 27, who started the final round tied for the top spot with Switzerland's Morgane Mertraux, shot a closing 1-under 71 to finish at 10-under for the week.
His lead reached five shots after turning 34, but he opened the door for the rest of the field following a double bogey on the par-4 13th.
Ko reeled off four straight points before birdieing at the end, securing not only the gold medal, but the final point he needed to secure his spot in the LPGA Hall of Fame.
The gold medal also makes Ko the first triple Olympic golf medalist, adding to his silver at Rio 2016 and bronze at Tokyo 2020.
Moving up 12 spots on the leaderboard and moving into silver medal position on the podium, Henseleit shot a 6-under 66 to finish at 8 under, two shots behind Ko.
The 25-year-old German opened with rounds of 72-73 before going into the red on Friday with a 3-under 69.
Coming back from behind to claim his place on the podium was Lin, who bogeyed three of the last four holes to also shoot a 69 on Saturday and finish three shots behind Ko.
Defending gold medalist and world No.1 Nelly Korda finished T22 in defense of her gold medal, shooting a 3-over 75 on Saturday.
Another finisher was USA teammate Rose Zhang, who was out of the final group with Ko, but shot a 74 to finish T8.
Switzerland's Morgane Mertraux, who set a new nine-hole Olympic record in the second round with a 28 on the front nine, started the day in contention but dropped to T18 after a 7-over 79 on Saturday.
Fellow Swiss Albane Valenzuela carded the round of the day, shooting a 7-under 65 that moved him 20 places up the leaderboard to finish T13.
Charley Hull put the disappointment of his opening round 81 behind him, shooting rounds of 71, 68 and 69 to finish tied for 27th at +1, finishing 18 holes behind.
Georgia Hall had an off week, shooting rounds of 74, 71, 74 and 74 to finish at +5 and tied for 36th.
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