The New Zealander now seems ready to regain her throne, having become the youngest world No. 1 on February 2, 2015 at the age of barely 17 years and 9 months! She will keep her place as queen until June 2017, notably winning two majors, the 2015 Evian Championship and the 2016 ANA Championship.
Then followed a period of drought at the highest level, not counting any victory on the LPGA Tour for three years. Lydia Ko, however, will return to success in 2021, before becoming world no. 1 again for 6 months… then giving way to a Nelly Korda in a state of grace.
Triple Olympic medalist
The reigning Olympic champion has won almost everything, gold being the last metal missing from her collection even though she had already won the silver medal in Rio and the bronze medal in Tokyo. She now has to achieve her personal Grand Slam, having won three times at this level while having won 27 professional titles, including more than twenty on the American LPGA Tour. Remember that she won her first professional victory at the age of 14, during the 2012 NSW Open Golf Championship in Australia, also being the youngest winner of a major during her success in Evian at the age of 18 years and 4 months.
Having returned to the highest level, Lydia Ko has reached her full maturity, while no longer being the carefree young golfer of ten years ago. Her marriage with great fanfare to the Korean Jun Chung, at the end of 2022 in the Myeongdong Cathedral in Seoul, could portend an early end to her career, with possibly one or the other happy event to come. His latest performances, however, demonstrate the opposite. “I still plan to play! My year has been crazy, including this Olympic coronation and this major victory on the Old Course at St. Andrews. I’m on cloud nine and I don’t want to come down,” she commented, with a smile on her lips. It’s up to her to maintain her motivation and her level of play for many years to come, in order to leave her mark even more on the history of women’s golf.
By Hugues Feron
