Silver in Rio, Bronze in Tokyo, there was one medal missing from the Lydia Ko collection as she arrived in Paris, but it’s missing no more, and as a two-time major winner and now Olympic Gold medallist, she’s secured her place in the Women’s Golf Hall of Fame.
The career span of a top female golfer is typically much shorter than their male counterparts, and though the Kiwi is only 27 years old, it’s almost a decade since she reached the top of the world rankings, it’s 12 years since she became the youngest LPGA Tour winner at 15, and she’s amassed 28 wins across all professional circuits.
But she knows time is running out, as back troubles have marred the last 18 months and thoughts of hanging up the clubs start to bubble towards the surface, and coming into the Paris Olympics and needing one more of women’s golf’s most prized titles, she said that winning Gold, completing the medal set, and wrapping up her Hall of Fame status would be a “hell of a way to do it.”
“I repeat those words,” she said in her post-tournament press conference, Gold Medal around her neck. “It’s a hell of a way to do it. You say those kind of things and until it really happens, it’s not really factual. You know, it’s something that you keep going towards, too.
“Being tied for the lead going into today, I knew that the next 18 holes was going to be some of the most important 18 holes of my life. One of the things that I had said earlier in the week was I don’t know if there is like another Olympics for me, and I will say there is no — this is my last Olympics. I’m going to say it in front of everyone.
“I think that was at the back of my mind. I just didn’t want to like publicly tell anyone because I knew that being in this kind of position, it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. So I tried to stay patient out there and I don’t know if it was actually a good or bad thing that the wind was really calm today because it could potentially bring out some really low scores from people that were a few shots behind like Esther and Janet. I just tried to focus on my game.
“I kept telling myself, I get to write my own ending and that Simone Biles had said and I had heard in her documentary. I kept telling myself that, and I wanted to be the one that was going to control my fate and the ending to this week. To have ended this way, it’s honestly a dream come true.”
Actual retirement is a bridge that’ll be crossed later, after taking time to reflect, and there is still much to be played for in 2024.
“I mean, I know I’m playing The Scottish Open next week and the British Open the week after. There’s still so much golf to be played this season. You know, I have great days and I’m like, I want to play as long as I can, and then I have days where I wake up with a sore low back and I’m like, I don’t think I can make it anymore,” she said.
“So I don’t think there is a specific date and now that I’ve got in the Hall of Fame, I don’t know if that affects anything.
“But for now, I just want to enjoy this moment. But you know, golf has given me so much, and I know that my ending is sooner than when it first started. So I wanted to really enjoy it, and while I am competitively playing, I want to play the best golf I can.
“I think this takes a little bit of weight off my shoulders but at the same time, I’ve seen a lot of progress these past couple months, and I’m excited to see how I can finish in my last major and finish this season, and assess and see where it goes from there.”
Scottie Scheffler shed tears as the Star Spangled Banner rang out at Le Golf National last Sunday, and after twice being on the podium to hear the Korean and American anthems played, to finally hear the New Zealand anthem was a virtual guarantee that the waterworks would be turned on for Ko as well.
“I got emotional listening to the Korean National Anthem in Rio and then the American National Anthem in Tokyo so I knew that I was probably going to be a little bit of an emotional wreck on the podium listening to ours,” She said. “We don’t have our National Anthem on repeat on our play list, well, I don’t. So it’s not something that you listen to every day.
“But when you do listen to it, it makes you feel so connected to home, and I saw so many Kiwis out there with the New Zealand flag and I know so many people back home rooted for me, even though the time difference is not super ideal. But listening to that, I was able to take all these things in and I tried really hard to not try too much on national or worldwide television.”