ST. ANDREWS, Scotland – Jiyai Shin won her first AIG Women’s British Open 16 years ago. At age 36, she’s the winningest player left in the field on the Old Course, where she leads defending champion Lilia Vu by one stroke, World No. 2 Nelly Korda by two and the LPGA’s newest Hall of Fame member, Lydia Ko, by three.
Sunday in St. Andrews will be a generational battle. Shin has won more than 60 titles worldwide. She left the LPGA at the peak of her game in 2014, taking her talents to Japan, where she’s now won 30 times. Her career began close to home on the Korean LPGA, where she won 21 times, and kicked into another gear when she won 11 times from 2008-2013.
A rookie on the LPGA in 2009, Shin set goals for the next decade, but reached them all in short order. She struggled to find her next step and motivation.
That’s when she decided she needed a change, and joined the Japan LPGA to be closer to family. She worried about disappointing her fans, but then she met new fans.
“I had a great decision,” said Shin, who wants to be a mentor to younger players the way so many were for her all those years ago.
South Korea’s Jiyai Shin smiles on the 17th tee on day three of the 2024 Women’s British Open Golf Championship, on the Old Course at St Andrews, in St Andrews, Scotland, on August 24, 2024. (Photo by ANDY BUCHANAN / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE (Photo by ANDY BUCHANAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Count Ko, 27, among those who look up to Shin, marveling at her 6:30 a.m. practice round earlier this week and the way she pushed herself in the gym.
It was Shin who played alongside Ko when she won the Canadian Women’s Open at age 15, a dozen years ago.
“I think that takes not only a lot of work ethic but passion towards the game in what she does,” said Ko, who called Shin’s decision to leave the LPGA in her prime courageous.
Ko comes into Sunday’s final round a little lighter than most, given that she played her way into the Hall by virtue of a storybook victory at the Paris Olympics. That’s not to say she isn’t still “greedy” about wanting to win more, but there’s certainly nothing left to prove.
“It’s definitely nice to know that I can go back to my room, and even if I have a bad day, there’s a gold medal, you know, waiting for me,” said Ko, who smiled and then quickly added, “and my husband.”
Korda closed with a birdie to stop the bleeding on a back nine that included two bogeys and a double. She led by as…
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