For U.S. Women’s Amateur co-medalist, Lydia Ko, Tuesday was a day to shoot a low score and sit back and reflect about her lost youth.
“I enjoy [golf],” Ko told Golf Digest after firing a 5-under 66, the low round of the day at Rhode Island Country Club, “but when I was six I’m pretty sure I enjoyed it more. It was less stressful.”
Indeed, Ko, who’s playing like the world’s top female amateur golfer that she is, believes players who start young have an advantage over older golfers.
“It’s good to start at an early age,” said Ko, who began playing at the age of five. “I think it’s easier to learn when you’re younger.”
Did we mention that Ko, who shares medalist honors with Jihee Kim, is a wise old lady of 14? That would be eight years removed from those halcyon days as a pressure-free six-year-old.
For someone of such tender years, the New Zealander is well-traveled and accomplished. Two years ago, she was the youngest ever to make a cut in a Ladies European Tour event. In April of this year, Ko won the New Zealand Stroke Play and Match Play championships in the same week.
More recently, Ko qualified for this week’s tourney with medalist play at Brae Burn Country Club outside Boston, Mass., on July 20. She then jetted off to California to visit Stanford and play some more golf (she carded a 1-over 73 from the 6,536-yard championship tees at Cypress Point, according to the USGA’s David Shefter), before hopping the return flight to Rhode Island.
Of course, youth is hardly a news flash in women’s golf, especially with 16-year-old Lexi Thompson making headlines as she tries to play her way onto the LPGA Tour. Thompson, after all, qualified for a U.S. Women’s Open at the age of 12.
While you may not have heard of Ko, she could be the next big thing in women’s golf. Born in Korea, Ko and her family moved to New Zealand eight years ago. She teed it up in that country’s national amateur contest when she was nine, according to Shefter.
Ko has competed in junior events in this country but her coach Guy Wilson believed it was time for his young charge to take the next step. After Ko became the youngest to win New Zealand’s Stroke Play and Amateur competitions, Wilson determined to introduce Ko to the U.S. in a big way.
To that end, Ko’s goal for the week was straightforward: be the youngest to win the U.S. Women’s Am, Wilson told Shefter. After a solid debut Monday, opening with a 70 on the 6,399-yard Donald Ross course, and her lights-out play on Tuesday, Ko could well be on her way to the winner’s circle.
Should she continue her stellar ball striking into the match play tilts that begin today and lift the trophy on Sunday, Ko would be the youngest Women’s Am champ by eight months. Don’t be surprised, either, if the young Kiwi makes her LPGA Tour debut next year. Her coach hopes to cadge a sponsor’s exemption for the 2012 Kia Classic, according to Shefter.
Ko, who would like to play next year’s U.S. Women’s Open as well, had to decline an invitation to compete at last month’s Evian Masters in France as qualifying for the U.S. Women’s Am took precedence.
“She just needs to get out there and represent herself,” said Wilson, who noted that Ko’s $25,000 round-trip adventure was critical for a golfer of her abilities.
“The reality of this is it needs to be done for a player like this,” Wilson told Shefter. “You can’t play anywhere else and get seen like this.”
In the first round of match play, Ko will take on Lauren Dobashi on Wednesday at 11:40 a.m. EDT. Click here for a complete listing of tee times for the Round of 64.
(Emily Kay is a regular contributor to New England Golf Monthly. Check her out on the Waggle Room, Boston Golf Examiner, National Golf Examiner, and GottaGoGolf websites. You may also follow Kay on Twitter @golfexaminer.)
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