Lydia Ko: From Teen Star to Veteran Superstar

If it seems as if all the records in women’s golf that begin with the word “youngest” end with the name “Lydia Ko” that’s because it’s pretty much true. Some of those records have been broken, but many still stand. And the list is a mind-boggling compilation of accomplishments that chronicals a career that burned white-hot for five years, cooled a bit for the next five and now seems poised for another run of domination as, at the tender age of 28, Ko is competing in the U.S. Women’s Open presented by Ally for a remarkable 14th time.

Ko comes into Erin Hills Golf Club one year removed from earning her way into the LPGA Hall of Fame in dramatic style, getting the 27th point she needed to qualify by taking Gold at the 2024 Olympic Games, making her the only competitor – male or female – to sweep the bronze, silver and gold medals in golf and the only player to medal in all three competitions since golf returned to the Olympics in 2016.

Olympic Gold and the Hall of Fame would seem like the culmination of a career but for Ko it is merely the continuation on the road to greatness that began in 2012 when, as a 14-year-old amateur, she became the youngest player, male or female, to win a professional golf championship. That was just the beginning:

• At 15, she became the youngest winner ever on the LPGA and the first amateur to win a Tour event in 43 years.

• At 17, she was the youngest to reach No. 1 in the Rolex Rankings, another mark she holds for both men and women.

• At 18, she was the youngest to 10 career wins on the LPGA Tour, the youngest to win a major at the Evian Championship and the youngest to be Rolex Player of the Year. The next spring, she became the youngest to win two majors at the Chevron Championship.

From 2012 through 2016, Ko won 14 times on the LPGA, including two major championships. The lull came from 2017 through 2020 when she had only one victory, falling to No. 40 in the Rolex Rankings by the end of 2019. Since 2021, Ko has won eight times on tour, including her third major at the 2024 AIG Women’s Open and the HSBC Women’s World Championship this year.

Ko is No. 3 in the Rolex Rankings and looking to add the U.S. Women’s Open to her bulging collection of trophies. She first played the championship in 2012 and at 15 was the low amateur, finishing T-39. Her best finish was T-3 in 2016. She was fifth in 2022 and missed the cut last year at Lancaster Country Club.

A triumph this week would give Ko victories in four of the five LPGA majors, adding the U.S. Women’s Open to the Evian Championship, Chevron Championship and AIG Women’s Open. Only Karrie Webb, the U.S. Women’s Open champion in 2000 and 2001 – and the last to successfully defend her title – has won five different LPGA majors.

“I’ve never been here, so learning the course,” said Ko, who began her practice rounds at Erin Hills on Sunday with Yani Tseng, following that on Monday with Jiyai Shin, a two-time winner of the AIG Women’s Open, and Emily Odwin, who qualified at The Olympic Club in San Francisco to become the first players from Barbados to compete in any major championship, male or female.

“You have such an incredible year, and you kind of think, is it going to be another good year, the following one?” Ko said about the daunting prospect of backing up her 2024 season in which she won LPGA titles, including a major, with Olympic Gold and the Hall of Fame as icing on an already delicious cake.

“But I think I just kind of came to peace with it that if I have a good year, you know, that's great,” she said. “But I'm not trying to prove anything to anybody else, and who is to say that, you know, I had a great year, and I can have an even better one.”

That word “peace” might provide an insight into the revival of Ko’s game. She has long said she might retire at 30 and certainly playing at her current level for another two or three years would only enhance her place in the history of the game. Ko’s interests have always extended beyond the golf course. She is a player director on the LPGA Board and in December, 2022, she married Chung Jun in Seoul, Korea, where she was born, her family emigrating to New Zealand when she was four.

If Ko does walk away from the game at the age of 30 it will not be a record. Bob Jones and Lorena Ochoa both retired from competition at 28, making it one of the rare occasions when the word “youngest” is not followed by “Lydia Ko.”

But no matter what the future brings, Ko is very much rooted in the present, with a quiet eye on adding to her resume. And the first step on that path begins Thursday, when the 80th U.S. Women’s Open begins at Erin Hills.

Ron Sirak is a Massachusetts-based freelance writer.