Blog: Lydia Ko's unrivalled maturity at the tender age of 18
Lydia Ko has already reached double figures in terms of LPGA Tour wins. It’s a figure Paula Creamer can only match and just one short of America’s No 1 Stacy Lewis.
When I was Lydia Ko’s age, I was a shambles. I might have played my best golf, getting down to the heady heights of 6 for all of one week.
Otherwise I mumbled too much, (a skill I have managed to continue ever since), was uncomfortable with members of the opposite sex, (a skill I have.. etc etc) and, too often, described myself as ‘tired’.
Lydia Ko, like Charley Hull and, until recently, Lexi Thompson has lived her teenage years through the glare of the media and public. Ko has handled it all seamlessly.
We were at Dundonald Links in the summer and asked, hopefully, if she could spare five minutes for a quick video Q&A. She was on her way back to the hotel but agreed in an instant and was charm personified.
She laughs easily, is natural and, take away the near $5m she has already earned, is like any ‘normal teenager’.
Coaches love working with her, she is like a sponge apparently at taking on new information, and her peers love playing with her. I once asked Charley Hull what they most talked about, the answer was food.
How refreshing, and so is the fact that she is winning events without relying on length, as Catriona Matthew mentions in our interview.
Ko is a lowly 64th in driving distance. Then you look at the numbers for the money list, greens in regulation, putts per GIR, scoring average, rounds in the 60s and the player of the year – hey presto, the New Zealander is top of the pile for every one.
So what about her Sand Saves? Second. Rubbish.
