“Fore right!” cried the volunteer ball-watcher as A Lim Kim’s drive soared to off-line at the long 16th on the second day of the HSBC Women’s World Championship at Sentosa. In fact, there was no need to panic. The yell was directed at a referee driving down a cart path. He escaped unscathed, as did the Kim ball which finished well enough placed to pave the way for a stress-free par and the 69 which left her one clear of Lydia Ko after the latter’s 67.
Kim’s putting was not as stunning as it had been in her opening 68, but a few skips as she headed to the scorer’s cabin suggested all was well in her Singaporean trip so far: “Still my shots are good and putting is good but still greens read hard for me.” What’s more, though the first day’s wind did not seem to be bothering Ko any more, it seemed to have attached itself to her. “It’s still swirling a lot so I stick to controlling me.”
This is Kim’s fifth HSBC Women’s World Championship. Her memory is coming into play, along with the confidence she picked up when she won a major — the US Open — in what was her first event on the LPGA tour.
It’s easy to see why Ko could not bring herself to retire at the end of a ’24 season in which she made off with a gold medal at the Olympics, won Women’s Open at St Andrews, and took her place in the World Golf Hall of Fame. The pressure has lifted but, as she said, there will never be anything to beat the feeling of being on the receiving end of a famous trophy, such as the one on offer this week.
The look of expectation on her face as she hit one more lovely wedge was the same as ever, as was the charm with which she signed autographs and posed for pictures on her way to handing in her card. “I’m definitely having more fun…. I can go for my shots more than I did and I have a little bit of a different mind-set,” she explained.
Hyo Joo Kim had the round of the day — a 66 — to be sharing third place with Charley Hull, who added a 70 to her opening 69. Hull is looking forward to tomorrow but, typically, had not given it too much thought. She was going “to chill” for the rest of the day but, when asked about her third round game plan, she explained, “I don’t really think… I just go out there and play, yeah.”
She is so like Laura Davies… In which connection, the commentators made mention of how, when Hull played in a mini tour event at the start of the season by way of warming up, she told the lad who carried her bag that he could have her prize-money. On a similar note, when Davies was playing in the Middle East some years ago, she saw all the caddies waving at the players as they took off for their next destination and stopped the bus. She wanted to give her lady caddie the necklace she had just won.
Hull’s orange skirt and navy top would have given Anna Nordqvist, the 2026 Solheim Cup captain in Holland, ideas for a uniform. Even if the Dutch national flag is red, white and blue, the Dutch Royal family is known as The House of Orange.
Golf attire is where the women have it over the men. Nowadays, every one of them looks the part on the golf course. So much so that you can only think that they glean as much confidence from their outfits as they do from their clubs.
