TALENT: 16-year-old golfer Lydia Ko declared her intention to renounce her amateur status and join the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) circuit.
By Skylar Rains, Sports Writer
Lydia Ko has been the talk of the golfing community ever since she broke Lexi Thompson’s record for youngest winner of an LPGA tournament. At just 15 years, four months and three days old, this New Zealand native quickly became one of the most talked about women golfers after her amazing performance at the Canadian National (CN) Canadian Women’s Open in August 2012.
Ko also holds the record for the longest number of consecutive weeks as the Women’s world number one amateur (130 weeks). Until October 23 of this year, Ko remained an amateur, despite her great potential and success. Because of her status, Ko could not recieve over $1.2 million dollars in prize money. Ko said in numerous interviews that she would stay an amateur until 2014, but in a YouTube video with Israel Daggs, uploaded on October 23, Ko confirmed that she would become professional.
Ko was born in Seoul, South Korea, but she and her parents immigrated to Auckland, New Zealand. She began playing golf at the age of five when her mother took her to the Pupuke Golf Club on New Zealand’s North Shore. Her golf coach is professional golfer Guy Wilson.
She boasts five professional wins: the 2012 CN Canadian Women’s Open, the 2013 CN Candian Women’s Open, the 2013 New Zealand Women’s Open, the Bing Lee Samsung New South Wales (NSW) Open and the 2013 International Sports Promotion Society (ISPS) Handa New Zealand Women’s Open. She is the only amateur to win two LPGA tour events, and is currently fifth in the Women’s World Golf Rankings.
Despite all her success, Ko has faced challenges in her career: the most pressing being the LPGA’s minimum age requirement of 18. In order to obtain professional status in the LPGA, one must abide by this age restriction. Ko filed a petition against the organization, and on October 10, the LPGA allowed her to officially be considered “professional.” She will now be able to claim her prize money and officially compete with women double her age.