WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Olympic champion and Girls’s Open winner Lydia Ko says current success hasn’t modified her thoughts about retiring from skilled golf earlier than she turns 30.
The 27-year-old Ko advised Radio New Zealand that her victories in Paris and at St. Andrews wouldn’t affect her long-held plan exit on prime and pursue different pursuits.
“I do know for a truth I am in all probability by no means enjoying previous 30,” the New Zealander mentioned. “What has occurred in the previous couple of weeks does not change my timeline. … I wish to go away the sport whereas I am nonetheless enjoying effectively.”
Nonetheless, the South Korea-born Kiwi mentioned she would seek the advice of household earlier than reaching any last determination.
Not too long ago married, Ko mentioned golf is now not the one factor in her life. She additionally famous that she’s a “canine mother.”
“To know that golf does not full me,” she mentioned, “golf, it is simply a part of me, however that is not me as an entire.”
In January 2012, at age 14, Ko turned at the moment the youngest participant male or feminine to win knowledgeable match when she received the ladies’s New South Wales Open in Australia.
Final 12 months was considered one of her hardest in skilled golf — she did not win any LPGA tournaments and no majors, although she received the profitable Saudi Women Worldwide and the Grant Thornton Invitational blended groups match with Australian Jason Day.
Her Olympic success after beforehand profitable silver and bronze medals marked the top of a tough interval, which she had largely endured in silence.
“I am undoubtedly the kind the place I type of sit on my emotions and all that and never all the time tremendous vocal about … what I am going by,” Ko mentioned. “However my household has all the time been there for me, and particularly my sister.”
