New Zealand's gold medallist Lydia Ko celebrates on the podium after the women's golf event at the Paris Olympics. Photo: AFP/PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU
New Zealand's Lydia Ko won a gold medal in the women's Olympic golf competition in Paris on Saturday and immediately qualified for the LPGA Hall of Fame.
That's an impressive turn of events, so much so that the 27-year-old wasn't sure if her fairy-tale story was real or a dream.
"I actually don't know if it has sunk in yet," Ko said Tuesday, two days ahead of the Women's Scottish Open in Ayrshire, Scotland. "I didn't sleep Saturday night just because of travel logistics and all that. So I went to sleep for the first time on Sunday night. It was pretty surreal. I woke up, like, was that a dream? Did that just really happen?"
It did, and the gold for the South Korean-born Ko gave her the remaining point she needed to enter the LPGA Hall of Fame.
"Super exciting," Ko said. "I've gotten an overwhelming amount of support from the players and the people that I know, and just very grateful for literally this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."
So where does Ko have her gold medal?
"It's been in my backpack. (It hasn't) gone in the case yet," she said. "So I haven't been able to fully treasure it very well. But it's right there now.
"I haven't actually looked at (the medal) in a couple of days. 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 like don't really want to -- like I don't feel like it's bragging but I have to."
New Zealand's Lydia Ko celebrates winning the gold medal, with Rose Zhang of the US. Photo: AFP/PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU
It's not bragging to note that Ko has 20 LPGA Tour victories to her credit, however her last major title was the 2016 ANA Inspiration.
Ko is looking to build off her momentum in Paris when she plays the links-style course ahead of the Women's Open next week.
"I said it would be really, really cool to win a major championship before I'm done competitively playing," Ko said. "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 mean, I'd be pretty shocked to say, especially because it's like two of the biggest events in my season."
- Reuters
