Lydia Ko keeps the Olympic gold medal in her backpack. She hadn’t looked at it in a couple days though because the humble Ko didn’t want to draw attention.
“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,” she said at a pre-tournament press conference in Scotland. “So it’s kind of awkward at times.”
Ko pulled an all-nighter after winning gold, noting that travel logistics made it too hard to sleep. She got her first night’s rest on Sunday evening.
“It was pretty surreal,” she said. “I woke up, like, was that a dream? Did that just really happen?”
She’s now at the ISPS Handa Women’s Scottish Open at Dundonald Links, a fine tune-up before next week’s AIG Women’s British Open at St. Andrews. The 27-year-old Kiwi accomplished so much in one spectacular afternoon at the Paris Olympics that it’s going to take some time for the feat to sink in.
Ko’s gold-medal performance made her the only golfer in the modern era to earn three Olympic medals, one of each kind. It also qualified her for the LPGA Hall of Fame, the toughest Hall in all of sports. Ko became the 35th player to qualify for the Hall.
She was touched by all the LPGA Hall of Famers who’d already reached out, like Nancy Lopez, who always has a good word. Meg Mallon and Beth Daniel told Ko that her gold-medal performance brought them to tears.
“It’s pretty surreal,” said a grateful Ko. “I was talking to one of the moms yesterday and nearly brought tears to my eyes again.”
Ko said one of her coaches asked about her next goal, and she noted that it would be “really cool” to win a third major. She’s only had two top-10 finishes at the British Open, with her best coming at Turnberry where she took a share of third. She was low amateur at the British at St. Andrews in 2013, taking a share of 42nd.
At the Old Course, she’ll be joined by her husband, mom, sister and brother-in-law.
“It’s great because it will probably be my last time playing the British Open at St. Andrews,” said Ko. “I’m excited that we can all enjoy it together.”
As for long-term plans, Ko said she hasn’t settled on any quite yet. She was asked if the British could be her final event, and Ko said probably not.
“I kind of want to get through this year first and then assess,” she said.
And then the player who has long maintained that she won’t be out there past 30, left the door open to more, saying that 2024 will “probably” not be her last competitive year.
“I have bad days and good days, and (on) bad days, I want to quit that day,” she said. “And good days, you feel like you could go and do this forever, and it feels like that moment is going to last forever.”
