Teenage Fame Forced Lydia Ko To Miss Out on the High School Experience: ‘I Liked Spending Time With My Friends’
Lydia Ko created history back in 2012. At 15, she became the youngest player in history to win a major (Canadian Women’s Open) and became the fifth amateur champion since 1969. However, this was not it for the golfing prodigy. She turned pro at the age of 16, and at the age of 17, she bagged the No. 1 position on the Women’s World Golf Rankings. This record helped her replace Tiger Woods, who topped the list when he was 21!
Following the feat, she became the youngest player to reach World No. 1. “To have that honor by my name, I can’t believe it. Tiger Woods, he’s amazing,” she said in disbelief. Ko entered the Rio Olympics just the following year in 2016 and won the silver medal on the first attempt. Despite all these accolades, well, playing golf was not the priority of the teenage Ko.
Lydia Ko just wanted to spend some time with her friends.
A 6-year-old Lydia Ko walked into the Pupuke Golf Club in Auckland, with her mother Tina, back in 2003. It was there that she met her coach, Guy Wilson. After that, there was no turning back from golf for her ever since. Ko attended the Mairangi Bay Primary and the Pinehurst School in Albany, and she also had to attend her golf practices, as her parents insisted.
However, Ko enjoyed her time in school so much that she hated it when she had to go to practice. In a recent interview with Golf.com on their YouTube Channel, the 27 YO sat in conversation with Claire Rogers. In the interview, she revealed, “But I think I loved time at school that I kind of didn’t like when 3:30 came along and I had to go practice. I liked spending time with my friends.”
She further added that she did not mind going for practice sometimes during her breaks or in between her classes. But she preferred having them during the weekend or after her school got over so that she could spend most of the time with her friends, which she loved doing! Well, it was not just spending time with her friends that she enjoyed in her high school. Lydia Ko was also an elite student and excelled in her academics.
Ko even got accepted into an elite Souel college!
Lydia Ko was born on Jeju Island in South Korea, but the entire family had to move to New Zealand. This was why she had to enroll herself in schools in the same country. When she was a student at Pinehurst School, she was loved by her teachers. One of them even stated that she was excelling in school projects even while on Tour. “She is one of the most level-headed girls you’ll ever come across,” a teacher told Sports Inc. TV.
Even her classmates claimed that she excelled in her studies. The all-rounder finally shifted to her place of birth, as she got into one of the top universities in Seoul, the Korea University, where she pursued psychology. She was among the pool of overseas Korean candidates and became part of it in 2015. Lydia Ko is exceptionally sincere about whatever she does, be it her education or her sport. Nonetheless, she also has a great personality, and is fun to hang out with!
