Death of Jin Young Ko’s grandmother saddened, motivated her

Jin Young Ko had never thought about not playing on the LPGA Tour before.

After all, she’s become a young star playing it, achieved status as the top player in the world, and won a bevy of awards. She also won the CME Group Tour Championship last year in Naples.

But that all changed in March.

Ko, 26, was in the United States when her grandmother died.

“I really want to go to Korea to meet her, because I couldn’t go (to) Korea because quarantine is two weeks,” Ko said Tuesday at Tiburón Golf Club at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort, where she will start defending her title Thursday and leads the Race to the CME Globe. “I heard grandmother is passed away from my mother before the ANA.

“I had FaceTime with my mother and she showed the grandmother and I saw Grandmother on the phone.”

Ko knows that if she had stayed on the Korean LPGA Tour she could’ve seen her grandmother.

“I would say I don’t really want to play golf in this tour,” Ko said, “because if I did play in KLPGA I could meet her, but this tour, I love this tour, but it’s too far from Korea to here, so I couldn’t get to Korea before when she passed away.”

Ko’s grandmother always wanted to see her putt well, and let her know if she didn’t.

“She really wants to see I made a lot of putts,” Ko said. “If I missed a lot of putts, after the tournament she call me, ‘Why did you do that?’”

Partly due to the 2020 season-ending in mid-December, and then the 2021 season starting back up in January, Ko already was feeling the effects. Her grandmother’s death just added to it.

“In March I was really tired so I don’t have motivation for the golf on the course as well,” she said. “But I had — but still I had a good year, so I’m happy for that. Yeah, she will be looking down on me from the sky.”

Ko put fatigue out of her mind, and focused on doing something her grandmother enjoyed to see her do — win tournaments. She comes into this week with four victories this season.

“After (she) passed away I was thinking, yeah, she really wants to see a lot of wins from the heaven, so I work hard and I won four tournaments,” Ko said. “So she’s going to be happy, yep.”

Ko is happy to be back where she won last year. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, Ko didn’t arrive until late in the year — as in three events remained to qualify for the CME. She did just that, then went on to win it.

“I’m really happy to be back here and I can’t believe it’s past one year, last year and here,” she said. “And I play some holes today and I can remember every hole, and every shot each day.”

Liu plays way into field

Yu Liu sat outside the top 60 on the Race to the CME Globe points list heading into the final event, the Pelican Women’s Championship in the Tampa area last week.

But Liu tied for 16th to move up to 56th from 62nd and earn a spot in the field this week at Tiburón.

“I did some swing changes starting off the week,” Liu said on Golf Channel on Tuesday. “I didn’t really have too much expectations long-game-wise, but I feel like I made some great adjustments.”

Greg Hardwig is a sports reporter for the Naples Daily News and The News-Press. Follow him on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter: @NDN_Ghardwig, email him at ghardwig@naplesnews.com. 

CME Group Tour Championship

When: Through Sunday
Where: Tiburon Golf Club at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort (Gold Course)
Who: The top 60 golfers in the season-long Race to the CME Globe competing for a $5 million purse

Schedule: Wednesday, pro-am (no fans allowed); Thursday-Saturday, gates open, 7 a.m.; Approximate tee times, 7:55 a.m.-12:45 p.m.; Sunday, gates open, 8 a.m.; Approximate tee times, 8:45 a.m.-10:30 a.m.

Other events: Friday, Women’s Leadership Day presented by Versant Health, 11 a.m.-3 p.m., Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort. Former Olympian Summer Sanders will be the keynote speaker. To purchase tickets, go to cmegrouptourchampionship.com.

Saturday, Family Golf Clinic, 2-4:30 p.m. Registration from 1:30-2 p.m. Parents need to register at cmegrouptourchampionship.com to reserve a spot for junior(s) to participate. All juniors and their chaperoning adult will receive free tournament admission. Parking for clinic attendees will start at 1 p.m. on Saturday at no charge. Equipment will be provided but juniors are encouraged to bring their own.

TV: Thursday-Saturday, Golf Channel, 3-5 p.m.; Sunday, NBC, 1-4 p.m.

Info: cmegrouptourchampionship.com