Ko Jin-young plays bogey-free to win CP Women’s Open

South Korean golfer Ko Jin-young played bogey-free during the entire 72 holes to win the CP Women’s Open Championship.

The final round of the CP Women’s Open Championship was held on Monday in Aurora, Canada. The 24-year-old finished the tournament at 26-under 262, five shots ahead of Nicole Broch Larsen of Denmark. The world No. 1 golfer captured a total of eight birdies in the final round without any bogey in the tournament.

A bogey-free win of a 72-hole event has not happened on the LPGA Tour since Park In-bee did it at the 2015 HSBC Women’s World Champions. Foreign media outlets described Ko’s play “flawless performance” and Ko also said she felt she was doing amazing this week. What also drew the attention of the audience was Ko’s scorebook given by her caddie David Brooker. The scorebook Ko kept in her pocket had the Korean flag drawn on it.

Ko is running her bogey-free streak to 106 holes since she last played a bogey on the second hole of her third round at the AIG Women’s British Open. Ko finished the tournament on Monday at 26-under 262, her personal record for a 72-hole event and also a new CP Women’s Open tournament scoring record.

The highlight of the day came when Ko saved a par at the ninth hole. Her second shot was declared unplayable as the ball went wide right into the woods. But she managed to avoid a bogey by chipping the fourth shot to within 1.2 meters of the pin. Ko added six more birdies, including consecutive ones on the 10th and 11th holes to win the tournament.

With Monday’s win, Ko has won four tournaments this season, the highest among LPGA players. She now aims to win four major titles as she is currently the leader in the categories of prize-money earnings with 2.618 billion U.S. dollars, scoring average (68.81), and the player of the year (237 points).


ysahn@donga.com