The LPGA Tour’s ‘Race to the CME Globe’ sounds more like some sci-fi tale about a futuristic escape from a dying earth to a new planet but it’s Lydia Ko, the 18-year-old New Zealander, who seems to be, well, out of this world.
Her seventh place finish in the season-ending Tour Championship in Florida on Sunday was enough to give this astonishingly talented and modest young woman the LPGA Tour’s Player of the Year award, another honour that burnishes her shimmering cv.
Already the youngest winner of an LPGA event (the 2012 Canadian Open as a 15-year-old amateur) and a women’s major (this year’s Evian Championship), Ko, in just her second full season on the main circuit, became the youngest to be named Player of the Year as she joined a stellar roll of honour that includes LPGA greats like Nancy Lopez, Beth Daniel and Annika Sorenstam
"Awesome," said Ko with a typically teenage reaction. "Beth, Annika, Nancy, they are legendary players. Their legacies are here with us. What they have done for the women's golf and LPGA, what they are still doing, they are an inspiration. To put my name along with those three amazing players, it's a huge honour. In a way, I'm still thinking, 'Hey, am I deserving to be along those names?'”
Given all her accomplishments during her rapid rise to stardom, Ko, is more than deserving. With 10 LPGA Tour wins to her name, folk are almost running out of superlatives when it comes to documenting her global conquests. She became the youngest golfer, both male and female, to rise to world No 1 and this is the position she will finish the season at.
While Ko captured the Player of the Year prize, and the $1 million bonus, there were a trio of winners in the LPGA’s closing event as Cristie Kerr took the Tour Championship title and the prolific Inbee Park, a two-time major winner this season, won the Vare Trophy for the lowest scoring average over the season. That prize earned her a place in the LPGA Tour’s Hall of Fame.
There continues to be plenty to celebrate for the LPGA Tour as a whole. Led by Ko and a posse of other young, talented, highly marketable forces, the circuit is going from strength to strength. In 2011, there were 23 official events, the lowest in 40 years. Next season, there will be 34 with prize money of over $63 million.
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