Lydia Ko | |
---|---|
— Golfer — | |
Personal information | |
Full name | Bo-Gyung "Lydia" Ko |
Nickname | Lyds |
Born |
Seoul, South Korea |
24 April 1997
Height | 5 ft 5 in (1.65 m) |
Nationality | New Zealand |
Residence | North Harbour, New Zealand |
Career | |
College | Korea University |
Turned professional | 2013 |
Current tour(s) | LPGA Tour |
Professional wins | 19 |
Number of wins by tour | |
LPGA Tour | 14 |
Ladies European Tour | 5 |
LPGA of Korea Tour | 1 |
ALPG Tour | 5 |
Best results in LPGA major championships (wins: 2) |
|
ANA Inspiration | Won: 2016 |
Women's PGA C'ship | 2nd: 2016 |
U.S. Women's Open | T3: 2016 |
Women's British Open | T3: 2015 |
Evian Championship | Won: 2015 |
Achievements and awards | |
Mark H. McCormack Medal | 2011, 2012, 2013 |
Halberg Supreme Award | 2013 |
New Zealand Sportswoman of the Year |
2013, 2014, 2015 |
LPGA Rookie of the Year | 2014 |
LPGA Player of the Year | 2015 |
LPGA Tour Money Winner |
2015 |
Best Female Golfer ESPY Award |
2015, 2016 |
Race to the CME Globe | 2014, 2015 |
GWAA Female Player of the Year |
2015 |
Medal record | ||
---|---|---|
Representing New Zealand | ||
Olympic Games | ||
2016 Rio de Janeiro | Golf |
Lydia Ko | |
Hangul | 리디아 고 |
---|---|
Hanja | 리디아 高 |
Revised Romanization | Ridia Go |
McCune–Reischauer | Ridia Ko |
Ko Bo-Gyung | |
Hangul | 고보경 |
Hanja | 高寶璟 |
Revised Romanization | Go Bogyeong |
McCune–Reischauer | Ko Po-gyŏng |
Lydia Ko (born 24 April 1997) is a Korean-born New Zealand professional golfer who became the No. 1 ranked woman professional golfer on 2 February 2015 at 17 years 9 months 8 days of age, making her the youngest player of either gender to be ranked No. 1 in professional golf. She is the current No. 1 golfer. Upon winning The Evian Championship in France on the 13 September 2015, she became the youngest woman, at age 18 years, 4 months and 20 days, to win a major championship. Her closing round of 63 was a record lowest final round in the history of women's golf majors. On 3 April 2016, she won the ANA Inspiration, where she also became the youngest player to win two women's major championships. Since turning professional in 2014, Ko has career winnings of $7,341,477 as of 31 October 2016. Additionally, she is the first LPGA Tour player to win at least $2,000,000 in each of her first three full seasons on Tour.
She had been the top-ranked woman amateur golfer in the world for 130 weeks when she announced she was turning professional on 23 October 2013. She became the youngest person ever to win a professional golf tour event and youngest person ever to win an LPGA Tour event. In August 2013, she became the only amateur to win two LPGA Tour events. As an amateur she never missed a cut in 25 professional tournaments, and by September 2013 had risen to fifth in the Women's World Golf Rankings in only 23 professional tournaments. Ko played her first LPGA Tour event on 9 February 2012 (14 years, 9 months, 16 days) and made the cut in her first 53 consecutive LPGA Tour events through 4 June 2015 (18 years, 1 month, 11 days) until she missed the cut at the 2015 KPMG Women's PGA Championship. Since that lone missed cut, Ko has made the last 36 consecutive Tour events and counting (as of 28 November 2016).
On 23 April 2014, one day before her 17th birthday, Ko was named as one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people. The same month she advanced to world No. 2 in the Rolex Rankings when she won the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic. It should also be noted that Lydia would go on to win the 2015 Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic as well, marking the second time she defended a title but her first as a professional.