Lydia Ko looking for tartan tonic after last-hole catastrophe on LPGA

Kiwi hands Marathon Classic title to Danielle Kang

Lydia Ko squandered a five-shot lead which she held with six holes to play. Picture: Getty.

Lydia Ko is looking for a tartan tonic after letting victory slip from her grasp in the Marathon Classic, the second leg of the LPGA Tour’s double-header in Ohio to mark the circuit’s restart, writes Martin Dempster.

The former world No 1 from New Zealand held a four-shot lead heading into the final round at Highland Meadows Country Club in Sylvania and had stretched that advantage to five with six holes to play.

However, she dropped shots at the 14th and 16th before running up a double-bogey 7 at the last, opening the door for American Danielle Kang to come out on top for the second week in a row on the US circuit.

The damaging finish stemmed from Ko, once a clinical finisher, spraying her approach to the right then, after taking relief from a cart path, sending her next one across the green into the rough.

Her fourth shot caught the fringe and trickled back into a bunker, leading to a catastrophic ending that handed the title to her close friend Kang.

“It’s tough,” admitted Ko. “When you look back afterwards you are like, maybe I should have done this, maybe I should have done that. But, I mean, what can you do. Obviously not the finish that I had envisioned, but Danielle played great today.”

Ko is now in Scotland, having been on the LPGA’s direct charter flight over the Atlantic on Sunday night for this week’s ASI Ladies Scottish Open at The Renaissance Club then next week’s AIG Women’s Open at Royal Troon.

In-form Kang, who has also made the trip for the Scottish Swing, admitted she felt Ko’s pain, saying: “It was a bit rough watching how it ended for Lydia. But it happens. It’s golf.”

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