“My mother says I cry a lot,” said Lydia Ko after not shedding a single tear, of “turning off the tap,” after winning the Tournament of Champions and banishing the ghosts of a discreet 2023, as she was left without titles in the LPGA Tour, although she did win in Saudi Arabia (LET) in her first tournament of the season and perhaps she was expecting a special year and it was not so. Missing the cut at the Chevron took its toll, “I started to walk on quicksand,” and she stopped performing solidly on the field. She vented her frustration through crying, but she was recovering and in December she proved it with the title at the Grant Thornton Invitational alongside Jason Day. Things were getting back in place.
A month and a half later she has been crowned with her twentieth LPGA Tour title. In Lake Nona, where she resides (green of hole 9), they joked about having more victories than the age of her playing partners, Alexa Pano (19). Being so close, only two points away, from entering the Hall of Fame of the LPGA, considered the toughest Hall of Fame in sport (to Laura Davies still missing two points), surely meant extra stress for the oceanic star, who has been left at the gates of such a select club, where she will enter as soon as she adds one more victory.
At 26, she is the active player closest to such a milestone. Inbee Park, on maternity leave, with 27, was the youngest to join the Hall of Fame in 2016. The South Korean also leads the ranking of active golfers with the most LPGA trophies with 21. Lydia Ko now has 20, the same as Davies and Christie Kerr. “I think last year I chased the Hall of Fame with too much desire,” said the New Zealander. “I felt that, the way I was playing in 2022, I could have backed it up with another great year. And look where it put me,” she revealed.
She is now the seventh LPGA player to reach twenty victories in the LPGA before the age of 27, joining a list that includes Nancy López, Karrie Webb, Se Ri Pak, Mickey Wright, Lorena Ochoa and Kathy Whitworth. However, no one is going to steal the simplicity that has always characterized the great champion. She is an absolute star of golf but in no way does it appear so no matter how many victories she achieves.
“I am struck when you come to events like this and see so many girls who want your autograph or to take a selfie with me. I wonder, why do they ask me for an autograph? I feel like I’m just like anyone else. I don’t think I’m that special. I’m lucky to be able to do what I love and golf has given me a lot. I like taking pictures and signing autographs, in some way I want to contribute because I have received a lot. And if I can inspire one more of these girls to dream of playing here at the Tournament of Champions in the future, that’s my job too. I am greatly inspired by the women I play with and those who came before me. Thanks to their work we can play in such impressive tournaments in such fantastic places. It’s part of the job, but it doesn’t feel like a job. It’s the best part of what we do,” concludes Lydia Ko. The simplicity and humility of a champion.
