Lydia Ko says she wants to retire while she is still playing well and loving the game. Photo: AFP/EMMANUEL DUNAND
Golfer Lydia Ko says her plan remains to retire within three years, before hitting 30, despite recent wins.
Fresh off an Olympic gold medal in Paris, Ko became the British Golf Open champion earlier this week.
Her Olympic win was enough to win her a spot in the LPGA Hall of Fame, and the combined wins have seen her jump to number three in the latest world golf rankings.
Ko, 27, told RNZ's First Up programme the past few weeks were like a dream but haven't changed her thoughts on retirement.
"I know for a fact I'm probably never playing past 30. And you know what has happened in the last few weeks doesn't change the my I think timeline of things."
The exact timing was an ongoing discussion with her family, she said.
"I still need to keep thinking more about (it) because it is a big one... I want to leave the game while I'm still playing well.
"I want to leave it still feeling like maybe I could have done more and still with the love of the game."
Lydia Ko poses with the trophy after winning the 2024 Women's British Open Golf Championship. Photo: AFP
It was eight years since Ko last won a major. She said her life had changed a lot in that time.
"I got married to an amazing person that, you know, now that I can call my husband. And and I'm a dog mum. Just so you know, so many crazy things on and off the golf course."
Ko said 2023 was her worst ever golf season and it was hard to come back from that low.
"I'm definitely the type where I kind of sit on my feelings and all that and not always super vocal about, I guess about, you know what I'm going through, but my family has always been there for me, and especially my sister."
Gold medallist Lydia Ko celebrates on the podium after the women's golf event at the Paris Olympics. Photo: AFP/PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU
And meeting her husband had helped to realise golf was only a part of her, she said.
"To know that golf doesn't complete me golf, it's just part of me, but that's not like me as a whole."
But for now, there's still several months of golf left to see out this season.
Then "hopefully" she'll get to make a trip home to New Zealand for a visit.
