Lydia Ko's 'Cinderella-like story', wins British Open after Olympic gold

Lydia Ko covered her face with her hands and cried tears of joy.

An Olympic gold medal. Entry into the Hall of Fame. And now another major championship title at the home of golf, no less.

Summers don't come much better than that.

Ko completed what she described as a Cinderella-like story by breaking free from a logjam of world-class talent to win the Women's British Open by two strokes at St. Andrews on Sunday, securing a third major title and a first in eight years. Just two weeks ago, the 27-year-old New Zealander took gold at the Olympic Games in Paris.

This is almost too good to be true, Ko said.

She rolled in a left-to-right birdie putt at the storied 18th hole on the Old Course to shoot 3-under 69 for 7 under overall and then had to wait to finish ahead of top-ranked Nelly Korda, defending champion Lilia Vu and two-time champion Jiyai Shin.

That quartet of past or present No. 1s shared the lead at one point down the stretch of an engrossing final round played mostly in