Lydia Ko Looking To Rekindle Vancouver Love Affair
New Zealand's Lydia Ko Is Trying Win Her 3rd CPKC Title In Vancouver & 4th Overall - Image Credit Bryan Outram/BC Golf
By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf
Lydia Ko is back in Vancouver and that got her to thinking about how important the city has been to not only her golf career, but her life.
Ko won her first LPGA Tour event at the age of 15 way back in 2012 at Vancouver Golf Club and then returned to the same course three years later and won again.
“I had my first LPGA Tour win in Vancouver and I think that is where everything kind of started,” Ko said Wednesday after playing in the CPKC Women’s Open pro-am at Shaughnesy Golf & Country Club. “Who knows, if I didn’t win or play that event maybe I might have not got the opportunities along the way. It’s always going to be a very special place for me.”
Ko, now 26, also won the Canadian Women’s Open in 2013 in Edmonton. So she’s had three wins in Canada, all as a teenager.
“Maybe if I win a fourth I would be like an honorary Canadian,” she said with a laugh. “I mean I love it so much here that at one point I think I was like Googling, do New Zealanders get any like privileges in getting permanent residency or visas in Canada. That’s how much I love it.
“One of my favourite Korean restaurants outside of Korea is also in Vancouver. I used to have a relationship with Lululemon. It’s a place I have a lot of good memories, and I think a lot of people here just really appreciate seeing us and are like true golf fans — and like not in a weird way.”
Ko is hoping a return visit to Vancouver, albeit at a different golf course, can help kickstart what has been by her standards a disappointing season.
She enters the tournament 87th on the LPGA’s Race to CME Globe points list. Since opening her season with a tie for sixth at an event in Thailand, Ko has not finished better than tied for 31st in her last 11 tournaments. She is trying to stay positive.
“Obviously, when you’re struggling it’s really hard to see the good side of things,” she said. “But my team has kind of kept me walking with my head high and I think we are moving in the right direction.
“So I’m just trying to stay patient, and as long as I know I’m getting better and I’m doing my 100 per cent to get better, then that’s all I can do.”
Ko said Shaughnessy might be the toughest test she has faced in a CPKC Women’s Open. “Not super small greens, but they’re sectioned off and have a lot of run-off,” she said. “So even though the number might say 30 yards, you can’t use all of that. So it is tricky, and I think the front nine and back nine are a little different. They have their own different personality.
“I think it is going to be a lot of fun, and it seems like a golf course that will be a good one for a lot of players. There are a lot of holes that are like draw, fade, so it’s not suited for (just) one shot…I think that is what is going to make it exciting. I’m sure it’s going to be a very mixed and exciting leaderboard on Sunday.”
Speaking of Sundays, Ko reminisced about that Sunday final round way back in 2012. She said the moment that has stuck with her all these years was playing partner Stacy Lewis encouraging her late in that round. “After the 15th hole we were walking to 16 she said like, ‘hey, you’re playing really great, finish strong,’” Ko said. “I was like, oh, my God, Stacy Lewis just gave me this amazing advice.
“For her to say that and one of the best golfers in the world to give me their advice and support me, I was like, wow, like I want to be alongside these players one day and I want to be a role model like her. . .Winning and everything was awesome, but I just remember that to this day.”
CHIP SHOT: Ko and playing partners Lexi Thompson and Andrea Lee tee off at 8:06 a.m. Thursday on the 10th hole.