Lydia Ko announces she'll turn professional
10/23/2013 | by Golfweek
Lydia Ko announced on Twitter Oct. 22 that she has turned professional. A two-time winner on the LPGA, Ko made a YouTube video with Israel Dagg of New Zealand's World Cup-winning All Blacks rugby team, who jokingly offered to caddie for Ko
By Beth Ann Baldry, Golfweek
Lydia Ko announced on Twitter Oct. 22 that she has turned professional. A two-time winner on the LPGA, Ko made a YouTube video with Israel Dagg of New Zealand's World Cup-winning All Blacks rugby team, who jokingly offered to caddie for Ko.
“It will be a full-time gig though,” Ko said. “You might have to leave the All Blacks.”
In Ko’s 14 starts in the last 52 weeks, she has lost to an average of only 10.9 players per event. She has nine top-9 finishes in 14 starts and has posted a round in the 60’s in 10 of her 14 final rounds.
Ko has petitioned the LPGA to join the tour because she does not meet the tour’s minimum age requirement of 18. The decision is at the sole discretion of the commissioner, and an LPGA spokesperson told Golfweek that Mike Whan has yet to decide.
Ko’s victory in Canada in August gives her a spot in the season-ending CME Group Titleholders in Naples, Fla., where she is expected to make her pro debut.
“A long time coming, but definitely the right time,” Ko’s instructor, Guy Wilson, tweeted.
Ko has proved herself against the LPGA's top players in 2013. She is 6-2-3 against Stacy Lewis. Although Inbee Park is 6-4-1 versus Ko, the Kiwi is 3-0-1 against Park in the last four common starts.
Needless to say, she’s ready.
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