There have been many memorable NZ moments from the Paris Olympics. From a
Kiwi golfer’s perspective Lydia Ko’s gold medal performance probably sits at the top.
Such has been the erratic form of Lydia’s over the past couple of years it was hard to believe she could triumph in Paris against a field with a distinctly Major championship look about it.
Lead by her putter , ably assisted by her driver and coupled with a sprinkling of those exquisite trade mark wedge shots all combined to get Lydia over the line and her hands on that gold medal she so anxiously sought.
In some ways it was a bit of a trip back into her memorable past. One last hurrah
possibly. Those days when she was regularly clocking victories on the LPGA tour
against the world’s best. Always calm under pressure happy to her allow her short
game to bail her out of trouble she made the game look so easy but as usually
happens when you’re at the top in sport the only other movement you can make is
downwards. And so it happened to Lydia. Victories dried up and missed cuts became
the more obvious feature of her game. Caddies and coaches came and went in rapid
fashion. Throughout these tough time Lydia’s smile never disappeared. In fact her
optimism was probably her real coach during these dark days .
She arrived in Paris with a couple of useful if not spectacular appearances behind
her as she prepared for her 3rd Olympics.
An even par opening round of 72 hardly provided evidence she was going to take
this tough Parisian course apart. It nonetheless represented a solid start even if it did
begin t with a bogey on the very first hole and a double on the par 4 15th .
Day 2 saw Lydia’s putter take charge and as the putts started to drop a seriously low
score looked on the cards . In the end she had to settle for a 5 under par 67 spoilt
only by a bogey on the 18th .
More of the same followed the next day . Six birdies and 2 bogeys and with a 4
under 68 Lydia had climbed into a tie for the 3 rd round lead with little known Swiss
golfer Morgane Metraux who in her 14 starts on the LPGA this year had missed the
cut in 9 of them.
It was nonetheless a crowded leaderboard prime for someone to come out of the
pack go low and grab the gold medal from under Lydia’s nose, It wasn’t to be
fortunately for Lydia who again played solid reliable golf despite an error from the
fairway on her first hole, going with hybrid for her second from about 150metres
which saw her ball overfly the green leaving her with a steep downhill lie in rough
which inevitably lead to a bogey.
From that point however it was classic Lydia, the Lydia of old churning out the pars
with 3 crucial birdies tossed in to the mix. All of a sudden her lead had shot out to 5
strokes as carnage was laying waste all over the course. The field were learning first
hand why this French course is regarded as one of Europe’s toughest. Even Lydia at
her near best was not exempt from punishment here. On the 13th she made a
simple error after inexplicably plopping a half wedge shot into water from the
middle of the fairway on a simple straightforward par 4. While this was happening
another little known European golfer 25 year Esther Henseleit ranked 54th in the
world from Germany was mastering these torridly fast greens as well stringing
birdies together that defied her experience at this level. While Lydia was faltering on
13 Henseleit, playing a few holes in front of Lydia birdied both 17 and 18 cutting
Lydia’s lead to just one stroke with 4 holes to play. This then was the time for Lydia to
step up and calling on all her experience , patience and guile negotiated her way
superbly through these demanding closing holes even managing to birdie the par 5
18th with a very conservative approach. She went with three wood off the tee laying
up with her second and dumping her wedge inches from the hole. As she tapped the
ball in for the win the relief was immediate and palpable as tears flowed freely
down her face as she tried to absorb the enormity what she had just achieved
winning the gold medal in her last Olympics , completing the 3 medal set and getting
herself into golf’s Hall of Fame. Her superstar golfing status absolutely assured.
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