Nature<\/a> has in store, it will take something to top the engrossingly awful conditions that she conjured in this neck of the woods for the men\u2019s Senior Open in 2023.<\/p>\nWith lashing rain and 40mph cross winds, it was links golf in all its grisly glory.<\/p>\n
Alex Cejka\u2019s five-over winning tally was the highest in the event for 30 years, Colin Montgomerie was blown away with a closing 88 and the prize giving ceremony resembled a roll call on the deck of a galleon in the midst of a raging tempest.<\/p>\n
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\u201cAs much as I love sunny weather, when I’m coming to play the Women’s Open, I expect it to be rainy and windy, and that’s what I really enjoy about this championship,\u201d said Ko.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope it brings all those elements. I would rather it be tough than calm. Maybe not as crazy as what the seniors had, though.\u201d<\/p>\n
Porthcawl has a fine pedigree in hosting various events down the seasons. As well as three Senior Opens, it has staged seven Amateur Championships, the British Masters and a Curtis Cup.<\/p>\n
Thirty years ago, in 1995, it was the scene of GB&I\u2019s victory over the USA in the Walker Cup when Gary Wolstenholme beat a young whippersnapper by the name of Tiger Woods in the Saturday singles.<\/p>\n
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This week\u2019s affair will be the biggest women\u2019s sporting event to be held in Wales. And the AIG Women\u2019s Open continues to get bigger and bigger.<\/p>\n
The prize fund has been increased again and now sits at a mighty $9.75 million, with the winner carting off a record first prize of $1,462,500.<\/p>\n
Much of the attention over the next few days will be on the rising Surrey star Lottie Woad, who won on her professional debut in the ISPS Handa Women\u2019s Scottish Open last weekend.<\/p>\n
Woad has been grouped with Ko for the opening two rounds. Ko herself is\u00a0looking forward to getting a glimpse of Woad\u2019s talents at close quarters.<\/p>\n
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Ko may have seen it, done and acquired an attic load of t-shirts along the way but you never stop learning in this game.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe (Woad) is coming in with a ton of momentum,\u201d said the world No 3. \u201cIt’s going to be really cool for me to see things that I could possibly learn from her.<\/p>\n
“Just because I\u2019m a higher ranked player, it doesn’t mean that there’s something that I can’t learn from somebody else.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe’s obviously playing great golf. I’ve seen her swing, and my coach has sent me a video of her swing as well because there are aspects that I’m kind of going for that she has. I\u2019ll pick her brain a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Ko\u2019s AIG Women\u2019s Open success in 2024 ended her eight-year major drought.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t think there is more pressure just because I am the defending champion,\u201d said the 28-year-old, who has been winning on the LPGA Tour since the age of 15 and knows how to handle expectation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not something that can be taken away from me. I don’t have to prove to anybody that I can win the AIG Women’s Open.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for settling into the Welsh way of life for a week? \u201cI’ve heard there’s a lot of sheep here and that’s what New Zealand is known for,\u201d smiled Ko. \u201cIt feels somewhat like home.\u201d<\/p>\n
At this rate, she\u2019ll be speaking the language come Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome to Porthcawl. Or, as they say in the parish, Croeso i Borthcawl. \u201cThis might be one of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34633,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[18302,5904,20660,20662,20661,101,56,54,55,20663,20664],"class_list":{"0":"post-34632","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-aig-womens-open","9":"tag-golf","10":"tag-lydia-ko","11":"tag-porthcawl","12":"tag-royal-porthcawl","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-unitedkingdom","17":"tag-womens-open","18":"tag-yani-tseng"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}