(Reuters) – Lydia Ko spent “too much” time playing golf with her husband during their honeymoon but it paid off in spades as the world number one New Zealander kicked off her season with victory in Saudi Arabia on Sunday.
Ko won her second Saudi Ladies International title by a stroke from India’s Aditi Ashok, firing a final round four-under 68 to finish with a 21-under total at the Royal Greens Golf & Country Club.
Ko won the Ladies European Tour-sanctioned event at the same venue two years ago.
“I’m two for two on this golf course,” said Ko, who claimed a $701,000 winner’s cheque.
“Clearly something is going for me.”
Ko has started the season as she finished the last one.
In November, the 25-year-old gave herself early wedding presents as she won the LPGA’s season-ending CME Group Tour Championship in Florida to reclaim the world number one ranking, while scooping the tour’s Player of the Year award and a $2 million winner’s cheque.
It was her last tournament before tying the knot with Chung Jun, the son of a prominent Korean businessman, in her birth-place Seoul during the off-season.
“I played a lot of golf, maybe a bit too much golf, on my honeymoon,” said Ko.
“But my husband loves golf and that’s something that we can mutually do together, so we took advantage of that.
“And actually, thanks to him it made my transition into off-season practice a lot easier.”
Starting Sunday a stroke behind American Lilia Vu at the Red Sea-adjacent course, Ko had an erratic start, bogeying the par-four second hole to cancel out a birdie on the first.
However, she was flawless thereafter and seized the outright lead on the 17th by rolling in a 12-foot putt for birdie.
With Ashok unable to birdie the last hole, a tap-in par on the par-five 18th was enough for Ko to underline her status as the top women’s golfer.
“A lot of great things (are) happening, especially in the last few months, again and again,” she said.
(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
