{"id":353935,"date":"2025-12-17T13:12:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T13:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/353935\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T13:12:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T13:12:08","slug":"lydia-ko-to-defend-hsbc-womens-world-championship-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/353935\/","title":{"rendered":"Lydia Ko to defend HSBC Women’s World Championship title"},"content":{"rendered":"

SINGAPORE \u2013 Former world No. 1 Lydia Ko boasts an extensive list of achievements that few can rival, and in 2026 she will be aiming to add another milestone to her glittering resume when she returns to Singapore to <\/p>\n

defend her HSBC Women\u2019s World Championship crown<\/p>\n

<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Only Ko Jin-young has won back-to-back titles (2022 and 2023) in 17 editions of the tournament, while Park In-bee lifted the trophy twice, in 2015 and 2017.<\/p>\n

But world No. 6 Ko will be hoping to change that.<\/p>\n

Not one to back down from a challenge, she said: \u201cWinning this event, \u2018Asia\u2019s Major\u2019, has always been a goal of mine and to finally achieve it was an incredible moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe course, the fans and the atmosphere in Singapore make it such a special tournament and I feel so proud to have my name on the trophy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited to come back next year and give it my all in defending the title.\u201d<\/p>\n

In March, Ko finally claimed her breakthrough in her 11th appearance here, having come close previously in 2015 when she finished second, two strokes behind Park.<\/p>\n

The three-time Major winner produced a steady display on the final day to grow her lead as her competition faltered, registering a four-shot victory over Japan\u2019s Ayaka Furue and Thailand\u2019s Jeeno Thitikul to claim her 23rd LPGA Tour title.<\/p>\n

It was the latest accolade in the New Zealander\u2019s career that also includes a trifecta of Olympic medals.<\/p>\n

In 2024, Ko also became the youngest inductee into the World Golf Hall of Fame at just 27.<\/p>\n

While the 28-year-old did not win again after the Singapore event, she has recorded four other top-10 finishes in 2025.<\/p>\n

The 2026 tournament, which takes place from Feb 26 to March 1 at Sentosa Golf Club, will see an increased prize purse of US$3 million (S$3.86 million), up from US$2.4 million in the previous edition.<\/p>\n

The field of 64 players will also be increased to 72.<\/p>\n

This comes after HSBC, which has been the title sponsor of the event since its inception in 2008, recently renewed its agreement for another five years till 2030.<\/p>\n

HSBC Singapore chief executive Wong Kee Joo said:\u00a0\u201cWe are proud to continue our longstanding partnership and commitment to women\u2019s golf with the renewal of our title sponsorship of the HSBC Women\u2019s World Championship through to 2030.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis reaffirms our dedication to \u2018Asia\u2019s Major\u2019 and to showcase Singapore as a stage for world-class sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of the event\u2019s 17 past editions, 15 have been won by Major champions. The 2025 field featured players from 22 nationalities, including 19 Major winners and nine of the world\u2019s top 10.<\/p>\n

Wong added: \u201cThis tournament continues to play a pivotal role in highlighting the strength and global appeal of women\u2019s golf and we look forward to welcoming the world\u2019s best golfers, including defending champion Lydia Ko, back to Singapore for the 18th edition of the HSBC Women\u2019s World Championship next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tickets for the 18th edition of the HSBC Women\u2019s World Championship go on sale on Dec 18 at 10am, with an early-bird discount of 20 per cent on weekend seasonal and four-day passes.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Women’s golfLydia KoGolf tournamentsGolf playersLPGA Tour<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SINGAPORE \u2013 Former world No. 1 Lydia Ko boasts an extensive list of achievements that few can rival,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353936,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-353935","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}