There’s something raw about the Olympic podium. Cameras get so close to the athletes that fans a world away can watch as a single tear spills out of the eye, rolls down the cheek and hangs at the bottom of a chin. That was the scene for Lydia Ko, who was overcome with emotion at the weight of the moment. The tears appeared to start before she’d even holed her final birdie putt.
Ko didn’t just win Olympic gold, she played her way into the LPGA Hall of Fame, arguably the toughest Hall in all of sports, accomplishing her ultimate goal.
Eight years ago, when she won silver in Rio, she wanted to cry, but then looked over at Inbee Park, who’d won gold, and didn’t see any tears. How could she cry if Inbee wasn’t crying?
Ah, but it was Ko’s party this time. Let it rain.
“I mean, Cinderella’s glass slippers are see-through and my podium shoes are also see-through,” noted Ko. “I guess that’s something that we have going for us. I feel like I’m part of this fairytale.”
When Ko won the U.S. Women’s Amateur a dozen years ago, she told the press that she wanted to play college golf. Her idols at the time were Michelle Wie and Lexi Thompson, but she didn’t want to follow their career paths.
Two weeks later, Ko won on the LPGA as a 15-year-old and that college golf dream went poof. She was far too talented for that route. Instead, golf fans watched the bespectacled Ko break records and wins hearts as a young teen, making the game look breathlessly easy.
So much life has transpired for Ko since she earned her first LPGA Hall of Fame point as a wunderkind. Now married and perhaps on the verge of retirement, Ko played her way into the LPGA Hall of Fame at age 27 in perhaps the coolest way possible.
While it looked for a while on Saturday at Le Golf National that it would be a runaway victory, the fight for Ko’s 27th Hall of Fame point went down to the wire on what she called the most difficult Olympic test yet. She won by two over Germany’s Esther Henseleit with a birdie on the 72nd hole.
Now a three-time Olympic medalist, having won silver in Rio and bronze in Tokyo, Ko’s podium sweep might not ever be repeated in the modern game.
Ko becomes the 35th player to qualify for the LPGA Hall of Fame and the first since Inbee Park in 2016. Lorena Ochoa got in two years ago after the tour removed the stipulation that required 10 years on tour, but she reached 27 points in 2008.
How tough is it to get into the LPGA Hall? Consider that legends like Laura Davies, Hollis Stacy, Sandra Palmer and Dottie Pepper aren’t in it.
JoAnne Carner, an eight-time USGA champion who won 43 times on the LPGA, remembers well the difficulty of playing her way into the LPGA Hall.
“I think I choked either three or four tournaments where I had the lead,” said Carner, who remembers one event in particular that she led by eight after 36 holes and couldn’t get it done.
“Then I finally got mad and said I’m going to get this over with.”
At 27 years, 3 months and 17 days, Ko is now the youngest to enter the Hall under its current criteria. Karrie Webb actually reached 27 points at age 25, but had to wait until 2005 (age 30) before she reached the 10-year requirement.
Prior to the final round in France Ko, who’d deleted her social media accounts for the week, re-watched the documentaries of Simone Biles and Mardy Fish. She’d written down a quote from Biles in her yardage book – “I get to write my own ending” – and repeated it throughout the round.
The fairytale in France won’t be the mic-drop ending it could’ve been. Ko still plans to compete in the Scottish Open next week followed by the AIG Women’s British Open at St. Andrews.
But then what? Ko has said from the start of her career that she won’t play past the age of 30. She told Golfweek last fall that she’d like to finish the psychology degree she started nearly a decade ago, perhaps at Stanford. Her sister and manager, Sura, has noted that Ko enjoys interior design.
Perhaps Ko doesn’t even know herself yet when she might end her career. What she does know is that this is her final Olympics and she doesn’t want to come to the end of her time on tour and ask herself, what’s next?
“I want to have my second chapter, whatever the career may be, like, ready before I retire from competitive golf,” she said last year, “so that I’m not lost.”
Ko hasn’t won as many majors as one might expect, two in all, but in addition to her 20 wins on the LPGA, she has amassed an incredible record of historic feats, including the youngest to win on the LPGA, the youngest woman to win a major, youngest to get to 10 LPGA victories and now the youngest to enter the Hall.
But more than that, players, fans and media will note that the way she has carried herself as she’s grown in the fish bowl is nothing short of remarkable. So much poise, humility and grace. She cheers for the competition no matter what’s on the line – even the Hall of Fame.
Earlier this year in Bradenton Florida, LPGA officials set some champagne and roses next to the grandstand on the 18th at the Drive On, ready to celebrate Ko’s entrance into the Hall. While Ko’s ball nestled down next to the bubbly, Ko never got the chance to imbibe. Nelly Korda spoiled that party for Ko in a playoff.
Several weeks later in China, it looked like Ko might enter the Hall while much of the world was sleeping, in front of a small contingent of fans. That didn’t seem quite right.
No, Ko needed to enter the Hall on such a grand stage, in front of some of the best crowds these players have ever seen. She deserved to have fans chanting her name as she walked up the 18th.
She was meant to have a golden moment that won’t likely be repeated. For there will likely never be another player quite like Ko.
