Lydia Ko Wins 1st Major Since 2016 Just 2 Weeks After Gold Medal

it's been a crazy past few weeks um you know something that was too good to be true happened and then I honestly didn't think it could be any better and here I am as the AIG Women's Open Champion here uh this week and obviously that being uh you know here at the old course at C Andrews it makes it so much more special and I just loved being out there this week you know I had a lot of family members here with me and you know when I player when I was 16 in 2013 I I think I was 16 yeah I was 16 um I don't think I got to really enjoy and realize what an amazing place this is and know now that I'm a little older and hopefully a little wiser you know I just got to realize you know what a historic and special place uh you know this this golf course is and um it's it's honestly been you know such a fairy tale and yeah I it's uh I'm on cloud n really yeah yeah I said um you know what a time for it to you know what a time for us to play that 17th hole um and for both Alexa and I to have parred uh that hole in those conditions um it was probably one of the best shots I've hit uh you know on on 15 I thinned my three-wood um into the green and hit Into the Bunker so my biggest goal was to make solid contact and honestly it was so windy and rainy I saw that the ball was heading towards the pin um but I had you know no idea that it was you know on that second tier um but yeah in ways because it was because of the conditions I could only hit one club uh it was three-wood or 3-wood and um the back was completely out of play cuz I couldn't reach it so it was nice to just be a to HD an uh make an aggressive swing at it but yeah that's probably one of the best um you know punch shots or shots I've hit you know coming down this stretch you know I said he's one up on me he won in Cari with uh with Anna and now here um he's just a Paul is a very positive person and I think when the conditions are tough or things aren't going your way it's very easy for all of us to kind of just spiral down and and be not a little bit negative but he's always got a um positive outlook on things and obviously he has a lot of experience you know growing up playing in Scotland and he was telling me that one of the rules officials joked last week that um they don't know how they could be any professional golfer in Scotland you know with the weather um nobody would want to play golf uh so it's um been great to have somebody like a veteran like him to help me and um you know for us to have I think three wins together it's it's been great and I know that you know when we first started I wasn't playing my best and I think the first event uh we worked together I shot an 81 on the third round and if I was in his shoes I would have had not as much of a belief in my player um cuz it's it's not really a common score that you know I think all of us shoot on a dayto day uh but you know he's you know stuck it out with me and you know he has really believed in me and um you know I'm very grateful to have a team that has kind of been on this journey no matter if if I'm playing really well or not I honestly like the only bit I remember of winning the Chevron Championship um the Ana at the time is jumping into Poppy's Pond and holding my nose going down cuz I didn't want to get water up you know up my nose and that's about it you know it feels like it was such a long time ago I've had my fair share of ups and downs you know in between 20156 to 2024 and a lot of things have happened and I think when things are going well it's kind of hard to think about when you're not playing well because all you're really doing is just enjoying that moment but and on the other hand when things aren't going well you feel like you're never going to get out of that lull and I've you know been in both of those um positions and know I thought you know what i' very fortunate to say that I am am a major champion and a two-time major champion and so I've got nothing to lose um in that in that sense and um my husband I remember asked me this like last year and he said it was a very like like aggressive question but he was like would you rather you know have our dog and not win a major again or uh or like uh not have him and win a major and I said no I want to have Kai and um cuz I'm I'm really proud to say that I've won a major championship like he's a new know love of my life um so it's like I said you know I won't like I even though I'm a golfer and you know to win a major championship is you know probably the biggest thing for for all of us um I said I wouldn't trade it you know just even if that guaranteed me my third major win and now I can say I have both um which is which is pretty cool but yeah it's it's difficult and um to try and we're all trying to peek at the five Majors but you know that's it's hard to kind of time that and how do you time that you know you're just waiting for that moment and um you know of all the majors I didn't think this one would be the one that I'd win for my third third time just cuz I've really been in contention very much I you know I said in my I I told money P ch yesterday um that I haven't really teed off at two something uh p.m. at this championship before cuz she asked me like do you guys always tea off this lay and I said I don't know I I don't I haven't really teed off this lay before so it's just of them all I probably thought my chances would be the slimmest um but I had so much fun this week and I just really enjoyed it and sometimes when I hit like bad shots I just laughed cuz that's all I could do and um just was trying to you know Salvage the par from there so it's I think I had a different um perspective on how I played um this golf course whereas normally I think if it was this windy I would be complaining about the drill or the wind or or all of that I uh it's just you know so many things have happened I was I'm pretty sure I was still in my teens when I won um at Mission Hills uh and you know I my mom I said it in another interview my mom says I was so much better when I was like 15 I was a better golfer when I was 15 than when I'm now but now I can say hey maybe that that stepen is wrong um but yeah you know it's been a whirlwind of the past you know three weeks and um you know it's just it's been crazy you know to like get into the Hall of Fame by winning the gold like these are things that no I could have never imagined cuz they were just too good to be true and is to say oh like what are the odds that that's going to happen at the Olympics and you know a couple weeks later I'm going to win the AIG Women's Open I would have thought somebody was like honestly messing with me um but here I am and it's it's just been unreal I feel very fortunate um but I think one of the coolest things about actually winning this week is um you know having Stacy won here in 2013 and now I'm I'm the next champion here at St Andrews uh it's um I think that's one of the coolest things for me cuz she's always been um her and her parents actually have you know always given me advice and words of wisdom and to say that you know I've won the woman's open at a CH at a venue that she has won I think that makes it very special that I feel like I'm following in the footsteps of somebody that I really respect um and yeah it's just uh I don't think there's a word in the dictionary that um can explain what just happened uh but somebody put into the perspective of before I won the gold they said try and think of like getting into the Hall of Fame is just like a like a gas station on the way to my final destination and not like my final destination and I think for a while cuz that was my my goal I was making it seem like okay that was my end point and I think after hearing that that put it into perspective of saying you know what it's not like I'm going to get in the Hall of Fame and say bye-by you know buy golf um you know I'm still planning to play so I think that just made it easier to say you know if it's going to happen it's going to happen and then I'm going to also focus on what's in front of me and I think these past three weeks was kind of like a a I think good representation of you know that uh kind of scale