KO AWESTRUCK BY STAR PRESENCE

SHE may be only 18, but Lydia Ko has had to grow up quickly playing on the LPGA Tour. The New Zealander is tipped to become the next superstar of women’s golf but has retained a charming teenage innocence, judging by her delight at mixing in the company of film stars this week at the Aberdeen Asset Management Ladies Scottish Open. Ko was bowled over when she spotted Cardiff-born actor Andrew Howard at Dundonald Links ahead of the £360,000 pro-am style tournament. Movie buffs will be aware that the 46-year-old Welshman first came to prominence playing the part of a Russian gangster in Limitless, alongside Bradley Cooper. One suspects that Ko was at least mildly disappointed not to be paired with Howard after he was drawn to partner Sophie Giquel-Bettan of France. ‘I walked past him yesterday and I was like, “do you look like what you are on TV?” and I think, “yep!”,’ she revealed. ‘To get to see him here is pretty cool.’ Ko, it seems, also becomes instantly awestruck when she spots fellow sporting personalities, including her male counterparts on the PGA Tour. ‘I was at the US Open last year and Bill Haas said hello, and I didn’t know what to do. It was really cool that he knew me,’ she said. ‘When I play on the LPGA Tour I’ve seen them on TV and in magazines, and now I get to be beside them.’ Her only previous experience of golf in Scotland was two years ago when she played in the Ricoh Women’s British Open at St Andrews. She added: ‘It’s great to be back at the Home of Golf. But I’ll have to work hard to beat the best out here.’