Lydia Ko takes to heart the good advice she’s gotten from Stacy Lewis over the years.
“You can’t try to be someone that you were,” Ko said in reciting a line delivered from a former World No. 1 to Ko, who had come to occupy the position for the first time as a 17-year-old.
“I think that really resonated with me, and that made me realize, you know what, I can’t try and be somebody who I was before, and I’ve just got to be the best possible person of me today.”
Ko is the latest LPGA player to tell her story for the tour’s Drive On campaign. She has arrived at a beyond-her-years wisdom when it comes to pleasing others and trying to recreate the magic of the early, teenage years of her golf career.
“One thing I’ve learned throughout the journey these last few years,” she says in a short video, “is that you can’t make everyone like you. All you can do is make the best decisions you think at the time for yourself.”
"If we can make a little bit of a good difference in other people's lives, it makes the whole thing worth it."
Lydia Ko | #DriveOn pic.twitter.com/WrwFCSTXiy
— LPGA (@LPGA) July 16, 2020
In a corresponding letter the now 23-year-old Ko wrote to her 15-year-old self, Ko reveals an interaction between herself and Lewis at the CP Canadian Women’s Open, which Ko won as an amateur. It was her first of 15 LPGA titles and one of two she would win as an amateur, both in Canada.
Ko recounts Lewis walking beside her at that event telling her, “You’ve got this. You’re playing well. Now, finish strong.”
She encourages her former self to soak up that moment and to remember, “you’re a kid.” The moment will take your breath away, Ko tells her younger self.
These past few years, Ko has felt more than ever that she has the ability to take a step back and see the bigger picture. The tough moments – the ones that have forced her to grow – have also created a turning point.
“Your golf swing may come and go, but your family and friends, the people who care about you, will love you no matter what you shoot,” Ko wrote farther down in the letter. “Trophies are symbols of what you’ve accomplished in the past. Your family and friends represent who and what you can be in the future. Their hugs, their presence, their laughter is life’s greatest victory.”
At 15, Ko also won the U.S. Women’s Amateur, and even now names that as a career highlight. Asked at what point she began to soak in her many accomplishments as an adult, rather than a kid, Ko pointed to a recent coming-of-age moment: getting her driver’s license. Ko took the test just last week, in fact, in Orlando, where she lives.
Drive On thus has taken on a different meaning lately. Ko spent the down time forced by a global pandemic taking driving lessons. The test itself brought a familiar kind of pressure.
“I was very nervous,” she said. “I was like sweating, getting really sweaty in my hands. It kind of felt like what it feels like on the 18th hole when you’re coming in with like a one‑shot lead.”
Otherwise, Ko’s social media during the LPGA’s long break has featured plenty of sports content, if not always golf content. She’s kept herself occupied with other hobbies, like tennis. Rock climbing has always been a way to stay active while offering fitness benefits for upper-body and grip strength.
Filling her platforms with the good things in life has become a way she feels like she can make a difference. Her Drive On campaign spot furthers that effort.
Suddenly, it’s not just time spent atop the Rolex Rankings that puts her in the same category as players like Lewis.
“I want to be the next Se Ri Pak or the next Annika Sorenstam, the next Brooke Henderson,” Ko said. “But at the end of the day all you can do is really, like I said earlier, be the best version of you.”
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