‘Accept, think, move on’: Jin Young Ko still battling wrist injury after BMW Ladies Championship WD

Accept, think, move on. 

That’s the advice world No. 1 Jin Young Ko gave to herself on Instagram after her return to competition last week didn’t go as she hoped. 

Ko opened the BMW Ladies Championship Korea, her first event since late August, shooting 80 and carding a quintuple-bogey 10 on her last hole of Round 1. Then, following a second-round 79, she withdrew. 

Ko almost lost the world No. 1 throne to 19-year-old Atthaya Thitikul, but Thitikul shot a final-round 74 and placed sixth, needing at least a fourth-place finish to become No. 1. 

The 27-year-old Korean hasn’t yet fully recovered from her wrist injury and is still receiving treatment, according to Golfweek. However, Ko is hoping to play in Florida next month and defend her CME Group Tour Championship title. 

Ko sits 15th in the season-long Race to the CME Globe standings. Her only win of the season came in March at the HSBC Women’s World Championship, her first LPGA start of 2022. 

Last year, Ko won the CME Group Tour Championship despite battling a nagging wrist injury. The pain was bad enough during the opening round that Ko’s caddie told her she could WD. However, Ko gutted out an opening 69 and went on to win the event. 

It will be an uphill climb, but she hopes in a few weeks it’ll be deja vu. If it’s not, though, Ko will take her own advice and move on to 2023.