Ko rediscovers her inner child
When Lydia Ko turned 21 last Tuesday she came of age. But weirdly, perversely, gloriously, her coming of age meant that Ko became a child again. She could hardly have emerged new-born as an adult. She’s been an adult on and off since she was five. So the New Zealand phenom went the other way.
Believe it or not it was Ko’s first birthday for 10 years that has not been entirely populated by family and other golfing animals. Swimmer Daniel Hunter, a finalist in the Commonwealth 50m and
100m freestyle, flew out for the celebrations. The top of Ko’s head just about reached Hunter’s shoulder. She was giggling like the teenager she never always was.
It is quite amazing how such moments can refresh the golfing soul. Suddenly Ko was playing like a girl. We remembered that youthful genius again. She remembered it again. The ability to hit the most extraordinary shots, at the most important times, with the joie de vivre of youth. There was one moment when Ko went skipping off the green, whirling her arms as if she was dancing across the chamomile lawn.
Every time that sport transcends, it is as if for the first time. I think of books like the Narnia Chronicles or Harry Potter, which are touched almost by a kind of magic in the heads of children. It was like that for Ko. She went through the wardrobe or the King’s Cross barrier into another world.
In the space of seven holes she hit four shots that seemed to crack open the sky that has loured over her previous two years. It started with the chip on the 13th. Ko, who had gone into the final round with a one-stroke lead, had played some pretty shabby golf on the front nine, turning in 38, a score that included a three-putt and one absolutely wretched iron shot.
The former world No 1 then followed a birdie on the difficult 10th with another dropped shot on the
11th. And after a fine drive down the 13th fairway, she had dunched an 8-iron. The ground exploded, the ball bounced way short of the green, and we waited for Ko to fall into the crater she had made.
Coming off the 11th green she had been grumbling about her choice of driver on the tee, saying she should have hit 3-wood. She had been here before. Ko’s fall had begun in June 2016 when she came to the 9th hole of the final round at CordeValle with a one-stroke lead. From a heavy lie she tried to hit her second shot onto the green of the par five. It was a ridiculous choice of shot, and one that she seems to have blamed every caddie since for.
Ko’s ball went into the creek. Ko’s mind went into the creek. She just couldn’t shake that shot for the rest of her round. Maybe for the rest of the year. There she was one minute on the top of the world, looking down from the Santa Cruz mountains, California dreamin’. And the next she was just another silly hacker, failing to play the big percentages.
Maybe Ko had to come back to California to find redemption. Maybe Ko had to come back to Lake Merced, a course where she had won twice before and where she had reached the semifinals of the 2012 US Girls Junior when just 14-years-old.
When Ko walked towards the 13th green, she could have slipped away. She could have shrugged away a bad day in the life of a pro. These things happen. The commentator said there was a time when Ko would have expected to hit her upcoming little pitch on the 13th to within a foot from the hole.
Ko clipped the ball off a bare lie and the sound was ethereal. You could have stood there with your eyes shut and known the shot was a thing of beauty. It didn’t go to a foot. It went in. Ko raised her arms for the joy of the game.
She then hit a 3-wood on the 15th that danced off the clubface. She would have holed the putt for eagle if her ball hadn’t snagged a bit of poa a foot from the hole. Every drive since the 11th was finding the fairway. Ko was hitting every green. Her putting stroke was pure, her eyes and head as still as mountains.
Only she was up against Minjee Lee, the girl who had won the 2012 US Girls at Lake Merced. A roar went up. Lee had holed out of the bunker on the 17th for birdie. Lee also birdied the 18th. Now Ko needed a birdie just to force a playoff.
She scorched another drive (she averaged 258 in the final round, monstrous for her). Her 5-wood came up a few metres short of the green. And then we heard that sound again. No-one else would have dared to clip a floated chip off that lie. The ball was in for eagle. And then at the last minute it veered off. Ko’s caddie, who was looking right down the line, put his hand to his head in disbelief.
Ko had to play the hole again, the first hole of the play-off against Lee. The Aussie from Korea belted her drive 20 metres past Ko. Who cares? Ko was 21. She hit the 3-wood of her life. The ball soared over the branches of an overhanging tree like a freebird. It bounced just short of the green and almost went in for an albatross.
Even then Lee made a gnarly 12-footer for birdie to force Ko to putt out for victory. The 44-tournament drought was over.
But don’t now expect Ko to go on a tear. So far this year every tournament on the LPGA Tour has had a different winner. That’s how much depth there is. But Ko may just have banished the demons of CordeValle. She may just have found her heart again in San Francisco, the city that she loves.