Former teen phenom embracing more mature approach to game

SHANGHAI - Lydia Ko made global headlines as a bespectacled 15-year-old amateur in 2012, capturing the Canadian Women's Open to become the youngest winner of an LPGA Tour event.

Still, most spectators in Shanghai, where Ko finished tied for second in the inaugural Buick LPGA event on Sunday, probably had some difficulty recognizing the Seoul-born New Zealander.

Now 21 and with the glasses long-since ditched in favor of contact lenses, Ko has dyed her hair blond and lost some weight over the past year.

Is the new look - she first sported the striking hair color two weeks ago - an attempt to break with the past?

"If I keep comparing myself to when I was player of the year or I was doing this or that, it makes it so much harder," the personable Ko said after the Shanghai tournament.

"Rather than say, 'Hey, I did this back then, I'm just not up to that standard' ... I'm just trying to play the best golf I can and I think that's a better mindset to put myself in."

Ko's stunning win in Canada was the start of a run that saw her surge to No 1 in the world at 17, the youngest golfer - male or female - to achieve that standing.

In 2014 she was named by Time magazine as one of its 100 most influential people, and majors followed in 2015 and 2016, along with a silver medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Then came leaner times.

In 2017, Ko endured her first year without an LPGA victory since joining the US-based tour in 2014, and she twice changed her coach and caddie.

But this April she snapped the drought by winning the LPGA Mediheal Championship in California.

She was a modest No 17 in the world rankings going into Shanghai, where she finished in a seven-way tie for runner-up, two strokes behind Danielle Kang of the United States.

"The things that happened when I was a teenager were very fortunate for me," said Ko, who thinks women's golf is improving every year.

"Sometimes you can get too carried away by the things that happened or you worry about what's in front of you.

"I can only focus on the now."

Eclipsed $10 million

Ko has been in the public eye for six years now and has already eclipsed $10 million in career earnings, but it's easy to forget she is still barely into adulthood.

For anybody tempted to write her off as already past her prime, she reminds that golf is a sport that lends itself to long careers.

"In golf, you are not just trying to play for tomorrow, you are trying to play for the next 10 years or so," said Ko, who was 5 years old when she first swung a club.

"You've got to move on and improve the things that need to be worked on," added the Kiwi, who happily signed autographs with cake still smeared on her face after Taiwan's Hsu Wei-ling playfully rubbed it on her cheek.

Ko's mantra - formed after speaking to All Black rugby star Israel Dagg - is "just embrace it".

That's not something she feels she did in the past, when success came so fast.

"Back then I felt like there were a lot of high moments for me, a lot of things happened and I was, 'Oh my... wow!'

"Now if those things happened, maybe I would be able to embrace it a bit more."

It is a message that she is keen to pass on to other young sports stars saddled with the same "phenom" title that she once carried on her teenage shoulders.

"I would say embrace it and everything is a learning curve and a learning experience," she said.

"I am always trying to learn."

Agence France - presse