MINUTES after finishing her remaining spherical within the HSBC Girls’s World Championship in Singapore, Lydia Ko stood behind the 18th inexperienced, chatting together with her followers, signing hats and clothes, and posing for selfies with admirers of all ages and gender.
The session was a dedication she had made early within the day, earlier than teeing off, and nothing – not even victory in one of many LPGA’s most essential tournaments, an occasion identified extensively as ‘Asia’s main’ – was going to maintain this exceptional sportswoman from her admirers.
Over 4 days’ play at Sentosa Golf Membership, Ko’s group attracted the most important galleries, a gaggle of supporters together with one man sporting a shirt proudly proclaiming him to be a member of ‘Crew Lydia’.
Ko appreciates and acknowledges the assist. “There’s a lady who comes with an indication yearly,” she mentioned, “and her mother is pulling her in a cart all the way in which across the golf course.
“Individuals have shirts with an image of me – even I don’t need to personal a shirt with an image of me. For them to assist me, whether or not it’s right here in Singapore or wherever we play, clearly we’re very grateful.”
The assist is nicely positioned. Ko is a exceptional athlete, an excellent golfer and a totally respectable individual, somebody who sees her rivals as mates moderately than foes.
Charley Hull, the British star who performed within the remaining group alongside Ko, mentioned: “I like enjoying with Lydia. She’s a extremely, very nice individual; so down-to-earth, so sort.”
And golf commentator Sandra Mackenzie mentioned: “You by no means hear anybody say a nasty phrase about her. And, definitely, you by no means hear her say a nasty phrase concerning the others.”
We’ve grown up with Lydia Ko, been conscious of her since she and nice rival Minjee Lee slogged it out in junior occasions throughout Australia and New Zealand, thrilled at her victories as a teen in tournaments all through the world and, simply maybe, took her success a little bit as a right.
So it’s well timed to replicate on a golf profession that has, merely, been extraordinary.
With the US$360,000 she gained at Sentosa, Lo’s official profession earnings rose to US$20,595,105, pushing her previous Karrie Webb’s US$20,293,105, and placing her within reach of cash checklist chief Annika Sorenstam on $22,583,693.
There’s little question she’ll attain that concentrate on within the subsequent 12 months or two – definitely nicely earlier than her thirtieth birthday, when she’s already hinted she’ll give the sport away.
Ko was solely 15 and nonetheless an beginner when she gained her first LPGA Tour occasion, the 2012 Canadian Girls’s Open. When she gained the identical occasion 12 months later, Ko utilized to LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan for tour membership, one thing usually not allowed for women aged underneath 18.
How, although, are you able to say no to a participant who has already gained twice on the hardest ladies’s tour on the earth?
Ko instantly turned skilled and in her first season gained three LPGA tournaments and was named Rookie of the Yr, the youngest golfer to have ever gained the award.
Since then her tally of victories on the LPGA Tour has reached 23, together with three majors, and she or he’s additionally gained eight instances on the Women European Tour, 5 instances in Australia and as soon as in Korea.
Although she’s not but 28, Ko has been to a few Olympics, successful a gold medal final 12 months in Paris, including to her assortment of silver (Rio de Janeiro) and bronze (Tokyo).
She’s topped the Race to the CME Globe, the LPGA’s official Order of Advantage, 3 times (2014, 2015, 2022) and has completed prime 10 on the LPGA tour 113 instances.
Her document is phenomenal and has led to Ko incomes a bunch of honours, notably turning into the youngest participant to be inducted into the LPGA Corridor of Fame. She’s solely the second, after Karrie Webb, from Australasia to obtain the honour, and the primary to be inducted since Lorena Ochoa in 2022.
In 2016, Ko was named Younger New Zealander of the Yr. She was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Advantage in 2019, and was made a Dame Companion on this 12 months’s New Yr Honours, the youngest dame or knight of the trendy period.
Ko’s caddie Paul Cormack, a Scot who performed golf professionally within the US for 10 years, was named this 12 months’s Caddie of the Yr in the course of the HSBC Girls’s World Championship. He mentioned: “I believe she’s among the finest gamers on the earth, if not the perfect participant on the earth.
“To work together with her, she goes out and works arduous daily. Everyone sees it. It’s straightforward to go to work when someone works that arduous. It’s enjoyable, and final 12 months was extraordinarily enjoyable. It was good to be a part of one thing primarily that historic which may by no means be performed once more. Yeah, it’s neat.”
And, as for the rumours of retirement at 30, Ko is vaguely non-committal. “Thirty is a protracted solution to go,” she mentioned. “I’m simply making an attempt to actually take it daily.
“My schedule has modified. I’ve gone from pondering I used to be going to play 10 or 15 occasions this 12 months to now enjoying over 20, after which additionally form of reassessing in the course of the center of the season the place I’m with my vitality ranges.
“I’m clearly very grateful for every part that I’ve gotten via the game, and I need to play the perfect golf whereas I’m nonetheless enjoying, and that’s clearly the most important aim for me proper now,” she mentioned.
Born in Seoul, she migrated together with her household to New Zealand when she was 4. She retains robust hyperlinks with Korea and studied psychology at Korea College. Ko married Korean Chung Jun, the son of the Hyundai Card vice-chairman Chung Tae-young in 2022.
