So Yeon Ryu had planned to relax after her first practice round of the week at Ko Olina Golf Club, but instead found herself immersed in a second straight tense Sunday.

A week removed from winning her second career major, Ryu was among those riveted to the drama unfolding in Georgia, where Sergio Garcia was pursuing his first.

“I was so nervous when he had a birdie putt on 18,” Ryu said of Garcia’s 5-footer to win the Masters in regulation. “Then when he missed it, I felt like I missed it.”

Ryu could also relate to the adrenaline rush no doubt coursing through Garcia when he dropped a birdie to win a playoff.

Seven days prior, Ryu won the ANA Inspiration with a birdie on the first hole of a playoff, claiming the first major of the LPGA Tour season, albeit amid a controversy not of her making.

Unlike Garcia, Ryu already had a major championship on her resume with her 2011 U.S. Women’s Open victory. Although she distinguished herself among the LPGA’s most consistent players upon joining the tour in 2012, victories have proved elusive since 2014.

So the leap into Poppie’s Pond helped wash away the frustration that had mounted even as she rose in the world rankings.

“When you fail, actually you learn more,” Ryu said. “I felt like I learned a lot when I couldn’t really win a tournament or I was in contention and I couldn’t make it. I definitely learned a lot.”

The win elevated Ryu to No. 2 in the Rolex World Rankings entering this week’s Lotte Championship at Ko Olina.

A field featuring the top three players in the world — Lydia Ko, Ryu and Ariya Jutanugarn — opens the four-day tournament on Wednesday, with defending champion Minjee Lee and 2014 winner Michelle Wie also returning to Ko Olina.

Ryu will report for her tee time with a streak of eight straight top-seven finishes and has made the cut in 60 consecutive events. Prior to the ANA Inspiration, she’d gone 62 events between wins, a run that included six runner-up finishes.

“I tried not to be frustrated about ‘I cannot win a tournament,’ ” said Ryu, who credited the support of her family, coach and caddie for helping sustain her confidence. “I really wanted to think about, ‘How can I improve myself?’ instead of, ‘How can I win the tournament?’”

She went through a swing change early last year to generate more distance and eventually ironed out the old wrinkles that tended to reappear when she was in contention.

“I struggled for about five or six months and now I can say it’s not my new swing anymore. It’s just my swing,” said Ryu, whose best Lotte finishes were a tie for fourth in the inaugural event in 2012 and a tie for fifth in ’14.

As Ryu prepares for Ko Olina’s shifting breezes, she couldn’t have forecast the wild swing that thrust her into contention at the ANA Inspiration nine days ago.

Her 72-hole total of 14-under-par 274 tied for the tournament’s second-lowest winning score since 2000. But the post-tournament narrative centered on the four-stroke penalty assessed to Lexi Thompson in the final round.

Based on an email from a viewer, tournament officials determined Thompson had improperly replaced her ball during the third round for a two-stroke penalty. Two more strokes were added for signing an incorrect scorecard.

“I told myself I don’t know exactly what’s going on, but all I can do is just focus my game,” Ryu said. “That’s the only thing I was able to do and that’s the thing I just kept telling myself.”

Thompson skipped this week’s tournament and Ryu said she hasn’t had a chance to speak with her since winning the playoff. But she was appreciative of her Instagram post in which Thompson said in part “I don’t want anything that happened … to take away from So Yeon’s victory.”

“That was a really unfortunate situation,” Ryu said. “It definitely hurts me as well because I know how she feels about it. … All that she did after what happened was really professional, so I really admire how she handled it. “

In that way, the conclusion to the Masters duel between Garcia and Justin Rose also reminded Ryu of the previous Sunday.

“I was able to see really great sportsmanship,” she said.