If history is any indication, the winner of this week’s Lotte Championship will enjoy even more success in 2022.
Since 2012, the champion of the Lotte has gone on to win multiple titles in the same year. For last year’s champion Lydia Ko, that second title came in Saudi Arabia last fall on the Ladies European Tour.
Ko’s seven-stroke victory last year on Oahu broke a near three-year victory drought on the LPGA for the former No. 1.
“I think it was more proving to myself that I can be back in the winner’s circle,” said Ko ahead of this week’s title defense. “I actually finished my season out pretty well. Started my season well in 2020 and 2021. To kind of win here was a confidence booster.”
This year’s Lotte will be held for the first time at Hoakalei Country Club, located 20 miles outside of Honolulu. The tournament starts Wednesday and will conclude on Saturday.
Jennifer Kupcho, the 2022 Chevron champion, joins Ko as a headliner of the event along with fellow 2022 winners Danielle Kang, Leona Maguire and Atthaya Thitikul.
With the course’s close proximity to the ocean, Ko is bracing for a windswept week. Hoakalei’s tighter fairways and sticky rough demand precision.
“There are some tougher holes where the wind is the opposite way to how the green sits,” said Ko, “so that makes the greens a little bit smaller. “I think having like strategic target style in that kind of holes, and then the holes that are going to be a little bit easier or shorter, to really take advantage of those.
Masters inspiration
Brooke Henderson, a two-time winner at the Lotte, said she took inspiration from Masters champion Scottie Scheffler’s post-tournament news conference when he talked about how Sunday morning was so rough that he “cried like a baby.”
An overwhelmed Scheffler told his wife that he didn’t think he was ready for the moment.
“She told me, ‘Who are you to say that you are not ready? Who am I to say that I know what’s best for my life?’ ” said Scheffler.
“And so, what we talked about is that God is in control and that the Lord is leading me; and if today is my time, it’s my time. And if I shot 82 today, you know, somehow I was going to use it for His glory. Gosh, it was a long morning. It was long.”
Henderson, a major champion who also possesses a strong faith, appreciated Scheffler’s vulnerable answer.
“I just really loved a lot of the things he had to say and how he approached the Sunday after feeling not his best in the morning time,” said Henderson. “I really learned a lot actually, so that was pretty cool.”
