Olympic champion on why she's been reluctant to show off gold medal en route to Scotland

‘I hope that many more juniors get inspired, not only by myself but by seeing the Games’

Lydia Ko isn’t the the bragging type, as the new Olympic women’s champion acknowledged on what she described as a “welcome to Scotland” day as wind and rain sweeping in from the west sent players gearing up for this week’s ISPS HANDA Women’s Scottish Open scampering for cover in the cosy clubhouse at Dundonald Links.

“It's been in my backpack,” said the Kiwi in reply to being asked by The Scotsman where her gold medal has been since completing a full collection of them at Le Golf National near Paris on Saturday as she added to a silver in Rio in 2016 then a bronze in Tokyo in 2021.

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“I haven't gone in the case yet, so I haven't been able to fully treasure it,” she added, smiling, though isn’t that how she’s always been since being destined for stardom in her chosen sport from the moment she became the youngest-ever player to win a professional event at just 14?

New Olympic champion Lydia Ko speaks to the media ahead of her apperance in this week's ISPS Hand Women's Scottish Open at Dundonald Links. Picture: National WorldNew Olympic champion Lydia Ko speaks to the media ahead of her apperance in this week's ISPS Hand Women's Scottish Open at Dundonald Links. Picture: National World
New Olympic champion Lydia Ko speaks to the media ahead of her apperance in this week's ISPS Hand Women's Scottish Open at Dundonald Links. Picture: National World

“I haven't actually looked at it in a couple of days,” continued Ko, who had joked about missing this week’s $2 million event in Ayrshire if she became the Olympic champion but, to her credit, is sticking with her plan to use it to prepare for next week’s AIG Women’s Open at St Andrews.

“When I was flying with it, it was weird to kind of take it out because not everybody knows that I'm an athlete nor an Olympian or that I had won a medal. So it's kind of awkward at times. I don't really want to feel like it's bragging, but I have to. It's just, yeah, I haven't seen it. But I haven't seen my Rio or Tokyo medals since the day I got them, either. Now that I have three, I think I need to find a good place to put them all together.”

The 27-year-old, who won by two shots from German Esther Henseleit at the 2018 Ryder Cup venue, became the youngest inductee into the LPGA’s Hall of Fame on the back of her latest feat, which she admitted felt like a “dream” and “pretty surreal”.

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Asked about the sort of people who’d sent messages of congratulations over the past two days, Ko said: “A lot of the ladies that are already in the Hall of Fame reached out, and especially somebody like Nancy Lopez, every time I see her, she gives me good vibes. You know, always words of wisdom, and for somebody like her to take me under her wing and support me means a lot. There's been just so many people, like Meg [Mallon] and Beth [Daniel] said they had cried watching me. It means a lot.

New Zealand's Lydia Ko shows off her gold medal at Le Golf National in Paris on Saturday. Picture: Pierre-Philippe Marcou/AFP via Getty Images.New Zealand's Lydia Ko shows off her gold medal at Le Golf National in Paris on Saturday. Picture: Pierre-Philippe Marcou/AFP via Getty Images.
New Zealand's Lydia Ko shows off her gold medal at Le Golf National in Paris on Saturday. Picture: Pierre-Philippe Marcou/AFP via Getty Images.

“I've seen some of my good friends here, as well. I was talking to one of the moms yesterday and nearly brought tears to my eyes again. I think as a player and like somebody that's involved, we all know how hard it is. So like we are all going on this journey together, and so many of the people that I play alongside, and to see them support me like this is the most grateful thing about all of this.”

Ko, who is among 34 Olympians teeing up at Dundonald Links as the Irvine venue stages a tournament co-sanctioned by the LET and LPGA for the third year running, has been a hugely popular figure throughout her career, but does she feel her latest triumph is perhaps the biggest thing in terms of inspiring a new generation of female golfers around the world?

“After golf returned to the Olympics in 2016 for the first time in over a hundred years, we had some unusual circumstances with Zika and COVID in the past two Games, and this one is kind of the first one before it's back to normal,” she said. “We had 30,000 fans every day, and I think it was truly a celebration of sport and finally golf was fully integrated into the Games.

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“So I do hope that many more juniors get inspired, not only by myself but by seeing the Games and get the dream of hoping to become an Olympian and represent their country one day. Playing in the Olympics and representing New Zealand was one of the biggest honours of my life. I think it's definitely a big dream that I think many juniors, not golfers, but in other sports, should dream of becoming because if I can do it, they can do it, too, for sure.”

One of the few things missing from Ko’s CV is a win on Scottish soil and where better for that to happen than St Andrews, where she played in the AIG Women’s Open as an amateur in 1997 and will be teeing up there for the third and almost certainly last time - though not now necessarily set to retire at 30, she won’t go on “cluelessly playing on tour” and that decision won’t be an “overnight thought” - in The R&A event next week.

“I haven't personally played that well at an Open Championship very much,” she admitted, having fared best when finishing joint-third in 2015 but only ending up in the top ten on one other occasion at Muirfield in 2022. “Yeah, I would love to be in contention, and I think playing this week will get me more accustomed to this style of golf.

“One of my coaches was asking me, ‘oh, then what's your goal now, even if it's a small goal?’ I said it would be really, really cool to win another major championship before I'm done competitively playing. I don't exactly know when that time is, but I think it's good to have another goal, and that's definitely a goal of mine. I mean if it happens next week, I'd be pretty shocked, especially because it's two of the biggest events in my season.”

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