‘It Is Frustrating’: World No. 3 Lydia Ko Opens Up For the First Time Since Her Bizarre Penalty Encounter Took the World by Storm
LPGA icon and 2-time major winner Lydia Ko entered the 2023 Dana Open following a string of not-so-memorable outings on the greens. In the nine starts preceding the tournament, Ko had finished in the top 10 only once and had missed cuts twice! So, when the Kiwi golf sensation descended upon the Highland Meadows Golf Club last week, her one big goal was to turn things around and return to her winning ways. And for a while, it all seemed possible until the final round came around.
In a bizarre turn of events, the former World No. 1 was hit with 7 penalty strokes following an embarrassing misunderstanding on her end. Amidst growing chaos related to the incident, Ko has now taken to social media to put all speculations to rest. So, what did the golfer have to say? Let’s find out!
Before the last round of the 2023 Dana Open kicked off, Lydia Ko sat comfortably in the 24th spot on the leaderboard. After rounds of 67-68-72, she was in a good position to surge up the leaderboard on the final 18 holes. But Ko’s hopes were soon dashed after being informed on the 11th hole that she had improperly played preferred lies at several points during the day!
Preferred lies were actually in place on the fourth day, but just on holes 1 and 10. The 19-time LPGA winner, meanwhile, ended up playing them on the 3rd, 4th, and 9th! An LPGA spokesperson revealed to Golf Digest that she had “played from a wrong place on each of those holes” and received three two-stroke penalties. On No. 11, Ko’s ball was lifted, following which she called for a ruling. It was then returned to the original spot, and she ended up incurring a one-stroke penalty.
