RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. -- Long after everyone else had left the course Saturday evening and the mowers were adding their final touches in the dark for Sunday's final round of the ANA Inspiration, Jin Young Ko hunched over her putter to roll a few more putts on the practice green.
Standing by her side in the gloaming was veteran caddie David Brooker, who made the victory plunge into Mission Hills Country Club's Poppie's Pond by the 18th green with former tour bosses Grace Park and Lorena Ochoa. They won this major championship in 2004 and 2008, respectively.
Ko knew that Brooker knows what it takes to win this event. And his second-year player was listening, learning, working and even praying.
"I still can't believe it," Ko said.
She squandered a five-stroke lead on Saturday to enter Sunday's final round with only a one-shot cushion. But Ko, from South Korea, held on to win by three strokes with a final-round score of 2-under 70 on Sunday to finish at 10-under 278.
If she also found comfort in an earthly presence, it was with Brooker, a 20-year caddie with 31 tournament wins on his watch who has instilled in the hearts of many of the game's best that they could execute the right shots at the right moments. Brooker was in Ko's ear on Sunday, and she was listening.
"I worked for Lorena, who was the No. 1 player in the world, and we pretty much felt like we had it on cruise control when she won here, but it felt the same way with Jin Young today," said Brooker, who has worked with Ko for the first six tournaments this year.
"Jin Young plays a very different kind of game than Lorena, but it felt like I was working for someone who had complete control of the golf tournament," he added. "She was calm, and when she was challenged, she would make birdie. It felt like a Lorena-esque performance."
Ko never relinquished her advantage Sunday. She built her lead to three strokes but watched it slip to two and then one following bogeys on holes 13 and 15.
Late in the final round, it was clear that this year's ANA rested on Ko's performance on her last three holes. Would she succumb to the pressure of a major, the punitive rough and the firm, quick greens at Mission Hills, or would she respond as she had done for 10 wins on the Korean LPGA Tour and three wins in the United States on the LPGA Tour?
Ko answered that with a birdie on the 16th to regain a two-shot lead with two holes to play, adding a par on 17.
With her heart pounding on the final hole, she stroked a lob wedge into the 18th green to set up the slow-rolling, 15-foot birdie putt that followed to win her fourth tournament in two years, her second tournament this season and her first major championship in convincing fashion.
"It is a really great honor to me," said Ko, 23, who tied for 64th at last year's ANA and missed the cut in 2017. "Fifteen years ago, I watched [this tournament] on TV [and saw] all the players high-five all the fans. I cried a little bit on the bridge [to the 18th green]."
With her win, Ko became the 15th South Korean player to win an LPGA major championship and the fifth South Korean to win at Mission Hills, joining So Yeon Ryu, Inbee Park, Sun-Young Yoo and Grace Park, dating to when the championship was staged as the Kraft Nabisco Championship. In all, South Koreans have won 29 majors since Se Ri Pak's first major championship wins (two) in 1998.
Ko is projected to move into the top spot in the Rolex World Rankings on Monday, going from No. 5 to No. 1.
While Ko's third-round stumble was more about two bad holes late in her round, in which she lost three strokes on two of her last five holes before a birdie on No. 17 helped her hang on to a one-shot lead, Sunday's return to the Dinah Shore Tournament Course was more about building on her lead than looking over her shoulder.
Sure enough, Florida's Lexi Thompson was gunning for her second ANA title. Thompson mounted a formidable charge from seven shots off the lead in Sunday's final round. The last time a player came from that far back to win this event was Karrie Webb in 2006 and, before that, Patty Sheehan in 1983.
Thompson stormed back from an out-of-bounds ruling for bogey on the third hole to play the back nine at 4-under 32 on Sunday, with an eagle chance on the final hole.
But while it was a gallant chase, the American finished with a par and a final-round score of 5-under 67 to finish third at 6 under.
"I knew I needed a low round to have any kind of chance today," said Thompson, who posted her score and waited two hours to see if Ko could sustain her lead.
Spain's Carlota Ciganda also made a Sunday charge with her bogey-free round of 68 that moved her up the leaderboard, with a 5-under 283 finish. Texas LPGA rookie Kristen Gillman carded a sparkling 6-under 66 to finish her first ANA Inspiration as a pro at 4-under 284.
Mi Hyang Lee remained within striking distance of Ko and carded a 2-under 70 to finish two shots behind at 7-under 211, but she wasn't able to add another birdie after the 12th hole.
Still hoping to win the tournament that slipped away from her in 2012 with a heart-breaking, one-foot missed putt, In-Kyung Kim suffered a double-bogey 7 on No. 11 to fall out of the chase. Kim was able to make a birdie on the 15th but carded a 2-over 74 to finish at 5-under 283, five shots behind Ko.
As the LPGA's top rookie in 2018, Ko -- daughter of a retired Korean boxer -- brought a steadiness into this year's ANA Inspiration. She cruised into the California desert with the confidence that comes with four top-10 finishes this year and a win at the Bank of Hope Founders Cup in late March. She arrived as the tour's leading money winner and leader in the player-of-the-year race.
She had the confidence of a woman who had figured out how to make the most of her Sunday performances, with a tour-leading final-round scoring average of 66.83 for 2019.
"Two wins, two seconds and a third so far this year," Brooker said with a smile. "What an unbelievable start."
Ko also brought to this event a level of preparation that preceded even her Saturday evening twilight practice that had the maintenance crew mowing around her. She spent five weeks in Palm Springs this winter, thinking about this week and planning for her success. She wanted a comfort at the LPGA's first major.
She had it on Sunday, holding off the nerves, holding off the challengers and leaning on an experienced caddie who prodded her to use what she already had within her to win her first major championship.
Lisa D. Mickey has covered golf for Golf World, Golf For Women, The New York Times, the U.S. Golf Association, LPGA.com, Virginia Golfer Magazine and various other publications and websites. She is based in Florida.
