Ko rakes in cash and kudos

WARNING to all professional women’s golfers: Lydia Ko believes she can get better.

That’s a frightful prospect for her contemporaries given the incredible 18-year-old world No 1 has won almost everything that matters in 2015.

She’d already won five LPGA Tour events including a first major championship, and spent 24 weeks as world No 1, before heading to Naples, Florida, for the season-ending Tour Championship.

She ended the week with a tie for seventh in the tournament itself but, much more significantly, secured the three major awards for the year – Race to the CME Globe champion for topping the season-long points race (which earned her a US$1 million bonus), LPGA Tour Player of the Year, and the LPGA Tour Money Title for earning the most prizemoney (US$2,800,802).

World No 2 Inbee Park was the bridesmaid in all three cases, though the South Korean did edge Ko for the Vare Trophy for lowest scoring average. That award was also enough to get her into the Hall of Fame at the age of 27.

Ko won the inaugural points race in 2014, too, and has become the youngest Player of the Year in the 49-year history of the award. She’s also only the fourth to win rookie of the year and player of the year in successive seasons, the last being the incomparable Annika Sorenstam.

Ko had a rare show of emotion; she wasn’t aware she had won the major spoils till informed by her older sister, Sura, outside the scorer’s hut. Cue some celebratory tears, the 18-year-old later joking it’s the most anyone will ever see her cry on TV.

‘‘I think after my putt lipped out on 18, I didn’t really know what to think. Just a lot of emotions, a lot of thoughts, kind of the mind went blank also,’’ said Ko, who signed for an even-par 72 to finish the Tour Championship at 11-under, six shots behind winner Cristie Kerr. ‘‘I didn’t know if [seventh] place was good enough or whatever.’’

It was good enough. Park finished sixth, one shot ahead of Ko at 12-under, but one shot short of winning the overall spoils.

Winning the Player of the Year title meant more to Ko than all the cash for the points race, as did having her family and support team on hand. She mentioned ‘‘team’’ multiple times in a press conference, at pains to give them as much credit as was being attributed to her.

‘‘Just having my team there and my coaches, my trainer, my family, it’s a very special moment. I’m so thankful to my team. I’m still emotional,’’ Ko said.

‘‘It wasn’t only me that was working hard, it was the whole team. Everybody was working so hard to get better and have that more of a consistent season. For them to be here with me, just a lot of emotions.’’

Ko felt ‘‘very fortunate’’ to have a team around her that includes everyone from her mum, Tina, and other family, to caddie Jason Hamilton, coaches David Leadbetter and Sean Hogan, to her management team and credited them for helping to keep her grounded in what was been another whirlwind year for the recordbreaking teen.

‘‘They always say, ‘hey, even if I win one week, it’s a whole new week and let’s go in fresh, obviously confident’. Not being like, ‘hey, I’m the champion and world No 1’ and all that. My team has really been helpful in that aspect.

‘‘I know the team I have around me now and the team I had back in New Zealand, they have definitely helped me to get in this position. That’s why I kind of talk about my team a lot, put up photos. It’s not one individual’s effort.’’

She said Leadbetter and Hogan were not just technical coaches, but helped with all aspects of her game.

Having a regular caddie in Hamilton had also provided her with a lift this year, Ko said. In 2014 she rotated through multiple caddies but appears to have found a long-term partner in the Australian.

‘‘I would never imagine myself to be spending so much time with an Australian, but it’s been a lot of fun. We are pretty much like brother and sister kind of relationship.’’

Perhaps Ko’s most interesting insight came when she was asked about how she can improve in 2016.

‘‘I always feel like you can always get better. I shot 11-under (61) earlier in the year at the New Zealand Open and I felt 11-under is great. I still felt like, ‘hey, I was that close to maybe shooting a 59’. I think there’s always a lot I can learn from.

‘‘I can learn from this week and this year in general. It’s not only just my game. I think scheduling and how to balance things is all it was something I learned during the last two years.’’