KAWAGOE, Japan – Lydia Ko became the first golfer to win multiple individual Olympic medals on Saturday, but her accomplishment went well beyond her play at Kasumigaseki Country Club.
The New Zealander, who finished with a final-round 65 and lost a playoff to Japan’s Mone Inami to earn the bronze medal, told Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis that her grandmother died last week.
“I was playing for her,” an emotional Ko said. “I just wanted to make our family really proud and our country proud and to be able to win a medal for them means so much to everyone who has been on this journey with me.