POISED AND PLAYFUL, A TEEN FINDS HER WINNING BALANCE
Player of the year Lydia Ko’s achievements already eclipse those of many of her esteemed older peers, and, at only 18 years old, there’s still a lot more expected to come from the Kiwi sensation
ydia Ko’s mother, Tina, was walking the first hole of Tiburon Golf Club during the second round of the LPGA season finale last week when two men stopped her in her tracks. “Your daughter’s awesome,” one said as the other nodded enthusiastically. The speaker expounded his thought. “She hits a bad shot and seconds later she’s laughing. She is so relaxed,” he said.
To fully appreciate what makes Ko special, it helps to see her in person, because her charisma cannot be captured in the quick cutaway shots that make up televised golf coverage.
In the seconds before and after she hits, her face is locked in concentration, like that of a pirouetting dancer focused on her spotting point. She has the same expression as the next golfer to appear on the screen, and the next.
Ko’s playfulness overrides her poise in the moments that are anathema to people in the production truck.
Standing next to her caddie on the green or walking down the fairway alongside one of her playing competitors, Ko will laugh or make a funny face or gesture so animatedly that fans in her gallery, magnetised by her personality, will lean in her direction.
“If they could just stay with her,” LPGA commissioner Mike Whan, said, referring to the cameras. “The audience would see that she’s different.”
The only athlete this year to have accomplished more, and at a younger age, than Ko, 18, was a threeyear-old named American Pharoah.
Although Ko finished tied for seventh at the Tour Championship on Sunday, six shots behind winner Cristie Kerr, she become the fourth woman, after Nancy Lopez, Beth Daniel and Annika Sorenstam, to win the Player of the Year Award the season after being named the Rookie of the Year.
The teenager also claimed the US$1 million Race to the CME Globe jackpot for the second year in a row.
Ko was 17 in January when she became the youngest women’s world No.1. With a recent victory in Taiwan, Ko became the youngest LPGA player to record her 10th Tour victory.
Lopez, who finished with 48 titles, was 3½ years older than Ko when she won her 10th.
To put Ko’s precocity in perspective, Serena Williams was a month shy of her 20th birthday when she won her 10th professional tennis title.
Roger Federer was 22. Tiger Woods was 23 when he won his 10th professional golf event worldwide, the same age as swimmer Michael Phelps when he won his 10th Olympic gold medal.
Williams, Federer, Woods and Phelps are perhaps the greatest ever in their sports.
Ko already has been named one of Time magazine’s most influential people, but in her mind she is a Minion — her favourite animated character — among Mesdames.
She described 2015, her second season as a professional, as “a steppingstone” and added, “I’m very fortunate I’m going in the right direction.”
She was the youngest ever woman to win a major with her triumph at the Evian Championship in September.
Last Wednesday, Ko was awarded the keys to a car from a Tour sponsor, Kia, for collecting the most top-10 finishes, 16 (ahead of the Tour Championship).
Truth be told, she would have preferred a puppy. Ko has been too busy to take the classes needed to obtain her driver’s licence. Youth is driving women’s golf. In 2011, a 22-year-old, Tseng Yani from Taiwan, became the youngest player, male or female, to secure five major titles.
In 2013, 25-year-old Park In-Bee of South Korea became the first player, male or female, in the modern era to win the first three major championships of the season.
Stacy Lewis was a relatively advanced 29 last year when she became the first American since Betsy King in 1993 to win the Player of the Year Award, record the lowest season average and lead the Tour money list.
And now there is Ko, who has promised to retire by age 30. Perhaps the LPGA should not bother with a book for its records. A whiteboard might be more practical.
Ko, a South Korean-born New Zealander, has a whiteboard for a memory.
As soon as a round ends, she erases it from her mind.
“You don’t hear her at dinner talking about the seven-iron she hit at 16,” said Whan.
After Ko collected her second title of the season, at the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic in April, she played in four consecutive tournaments without a top-10 finish.
Included in the slump was a missed cut, her first in 54 Tour appearances as an amateur or pro.
“I did not play good golf at all,” Ko said. “It was like I was out there just because I was a golfer, and a golfer needs to be at the golf course.”
In her first tournament after the missed cut, Ko was paired in the final round with Jessica Korda, a good friend.
Not coincidentally, she ended her mini-drought with a tie for sixth. She has since added three victories.
“Playing with Jessica, I just started having so much fun again,” Ko said.
“She has such a fun character, very positive. She gives good vibes to the people around her.” Korda was surprised to hear of her assist. “I’m going to ask for a percentage of what she won after that,” she said, joking, “or at least a Christmas present.”
That Ko briefly lost her mojo did not surprise Korda, who said: “You’re playing so much and it’s not like you can take a bunch of weeks off. Especially with her and Inbee and Stacy playing so well, I think, every week counts for her, especially.”
After winning for the first time on the LPGA Tour, as a 15-year-old amateur, Ko talked about studying psychology at Stanford.
Instead, she has become a student of the world, majoring in golf while taking classes, most of them online, at Korea University.
“It’d be cool to meet friends on campus and just get to mingle,” Ko said. “How cool would that be to expand your knowledge and expand your friendships, too? But I’ve really been enjoying it out on the tour. And all the girls have been so nice, so I feel like in a way we’re all classmates.”