Kid thumps professionals, refuses money, 15 yr Old Amateur Lydia Ko Wins Canadian Open

[joekelly]

Yes, the 15 yr old amateur Lydia Ko took the women's Canadian Open by 5 strokes. Either the pros are over-rated or Miss Ko is some phenomenal golfer. She ain't big neither but very calm and secure. Way to go, girl. She deserves an invite to the Master's in 2013.  After all, don't the boy amateur winners get invites?  She also won the US am open match play.

Have got to wonder why the Korean girls do so damn well in the golf world.  Ko is ethnic Korean who moved to New Zealand as a young child. Michelle Wie also ethnic Korean.

[colin007]

Good for her. Unless she looks like Wie, unfortunately not many people are going to care.

[0ldblu3]

I'll put on my asbestos underwear now and make this statement. Talking to a Korean co-worker of mine and she confirmed to me that Koreans tend to glom onto activities and participate in them in a methodical way. They seem to me to have a high degree of parental involvement, and participate in lessons. This will naturally filter the top talent up. The local driving range is Korean owned and heavily patronized by Koreans, and I see the same kids in there working on their swing with the pro watching them (and chain smoking...is that another Korean tendency?). The sex of the participants looks to be more females than males. Maybe it's just that the success of some golfers (Wie) have encouraged participation of more, therefore that cycle is feeding itself.

Anyway, I agree with you...invite her to the Masters, and congratulations on the win.

[sean_miller]

This title is very misleading. Do they even have a choice when they enter the event as an amateur. Refuses money? Wtf?

Anyway, great golf course, horrible coverage, and quite possibly the least compelling leaderboard of the season.

[Jeffrey71]

I enjoy watching the females play. It seems easier to see the fundamentals of a good swing at work. One of the things I've taken from the females is to slow my back swing up some.

[clubchamp]

Good for her looks like she has a promising future but I'm not sure why she would deserve a masters invite?

[iacas]

Originally Posted by joekelly

She deserves an invite to the Master's in 2013.

No she doesn't.

[Shorty]

What an annoying and ridiculous title.

She didn't "refuse money", so why have you said that she did?

Why didn't you add ".....and doesn't throw trophy in the garbage bin."?

It's bad enough when professional journalists embellish things and make them up, but this is not only annoying, it simply isn't true, so why say it?

15 year old Amateur Wins Canadian Women's Open

Oh...... and by the way, she is the number 1 ranked amateur in the world.

And the pros you refer to are too busy tweeting, getting breast implants and trying to make their hair look like that of 11 year olds and doing modelling shoots to worry about their golf.

Grumpy enough for you?

[Mr22putt]

I was at the CN CWO for 7 days and had a blast.

Congrats Lydia.

This is no fluke....this gal has game.....Lydia has a very proven Am record at the age of 15.....she's not tall or big but does not suffer for length....besides these gals can hit a hybrid more accurately vs. 95% of member's 7 irons on this site.

I'm honored to have witnessed history 1st hand.

The crowds were absolutely huge all week......I believe the fans on Monday out numbered some Thursdays at US events.

Lydia went from 20 people following her on Thurs/Fri to 12000 and 20000 on Sat & Sun.

Lydia is so down to earth....no prima donna so far.

After a late putting practice on Saturday.....she sat down on the grass next to me with her Mom and another gent eating watermelon from Tupperware and sushi from tin foil.

She could have chosen to eat in the clubhouse with table clothes, cloth napkins and silverware and ordered off the menu.

[Mr22putt]

Originally Posted by sean_miller

This title is very misleading. Do they even have a choice when they enter the event as an amateur. Refuses money? Wtf?

Anyway, great golf course, horrible coverage, and quite possibly the least compelling leaderboard of the season.

Maybe not compelling for US fans....but the HUGE crowds in Vancouver were very excited and rooted heavily for Lydia and the Canucks were biased for an Asian win...but ultimately we applauded loudly for great golf from all pros and would have cheered for the best golfer of the week.

I'm a Canuck and yes the coverage was brutal....unless a Canuck was charging hard to contend....who cares about some one shooting +10.

I have never had a Canuck pro to cheer for...I like pros from many nations.

[joekelly]

OK, Erik.  Who does 'deserve' an invitation to the Masters?  I can fully accept those that play their way through the door but recall the varied opinions this past March as to whether Ernie Els was somehow fit for a 'courtesy' invite.  I can only suppose that your opinion is not based on golfing ability but rather on equipment between the legs. Perhaps next year some 12 yr old Italian boy wins the British Am Open and is thus, according to current Masters guidelines, is 'entitled' to an invitation to the 2014 Masters.  So any argument that the boy could never win, or even compete at Augusta, goes towards the girl too. Neither could win, and both may look foolish. But why only the boy is given that opportunity?

[Willie Malay]

Awesome for her. She deserves to be talked about unlike MW. Refused money? Only when wshe entered the tournament. Invite to the Master's...Evian Masters, yeah. The REAL Masters, no way. Annika was a joke playing playing on an easy men's course. What do you think this kid could do at the Masters? She wouldn't break 100.

[iacas]

Originally Posted by joekelly

OK, Erik.  Who does 'deserve' an invitation to the Masters?

Well, there's two ways to answer that.

1) My opinion.

2) The way Augusta National has historically given out the invitations.

Neither get her there. She doesn't deserve an invitation. She deserves all she can get with the LPGA.

And there's a third way, actually, to answer that. By flipping it around and putting you on the spot: what's she done TO deserve it? I haven't seen anything. She's beaten men or even boys at something? No. She's won on a course measuring 7000+ yards? No. She wouldn't make the cut in a Nationwide Tour event and you want to send her to the Masters?

And if a 12-year-old boy can win the U.S. or British Am, then clearly he has the game to compete at a pretty high level.

It's not misogynistic or sexist to point out that there's a difference between someone who hits hybrid from 155 and someone who hits wedge. In fact, to deny otherwise would be the stupid thing to do. Men hit the ball farther than women, by and large, and thus play a different version of the sport.

I've supported women playing against men in the past. But Michelle Wie at her home-town Sony Open is an entirely different beast than a 15-year-old girl at the Masters (or any men's major). She's more than welcome to try to qualify for the U.S. Open or British Open. She won't (try to), though.

[sean_miller]

Originally Posted by Mr22putt

Quote:

Originally Posted by sean_miller

This title is very misleading. Do they even have a choice when they enter the event as an amateur. Refuses money? Wtf?

Anyway, great golf course, horrible coverage, and quite possibly the least compelling leaderboard of the season.

Maybe not compelling for US fans....but the HUGE crowds in Vancouver were very excited and rooted heavily for Lydia and the Canucks were biased for an Asian win...but ultimately we applauded loudly for great golf from all pros and would have cheered for the best golfer of the week.

I'm a Canuck and yes the coverage was brutal....unless a Canuck was charging hard to contend....who cares about some one shooting +10.

I have never had a Canuck pro to cheer for...I like pros from many nations.

I'm a Canadian and a Canucks fan, since you mentioned the word 'Canuck" twice. Any real Canuck fan would be disgusted at the thought of Ron McLean on the broadcast. He was worse last year. I switched channels between the very boring Barclays and the Canadian Open though. Both lacked any excitement but the Barclays was actually worse.

[x129]

Why doesn't the girl go out and win the British Am Open (or US one or any of the other tournaments that normally get invites)? Last I checked most of the "mens" events are really open events.  Then she could get in on her golf skill.

Originally Posted by joekelly

OK, Erik.  Who does 'deserve' an invitation to the Masters?  I can fully accept those that play their way through the door but recall the varied opinions this past March as to whether Ernie Els was somehow fit for a 'courtesy' invite.  I can only suppose that your opinion is not based on golfing ability but rather on equipment between the legs. Perhaps next year some 12 yr old Italian boy wins the British Am Open and is thus, according to current Masters guidelines, is 'entitled' to an invitation to the 2014 Masters.  So any argument that the boy could never win, or even compete at Augusta, goes towards the girl too. Neither could win, and both may look foolish. But why only the boy is given that opportunity?

[reedf]

Originally Posted by iacas

Well, there's two ways to answer that.

1) My opinion.

2) The way Augusta National has historically given out the invitations.

Neither get her there. She doesn't deserve an invitation. She deserves all she can get with the LPGA.

And there's a third way, actually, to answer that. By flipping it around and putting you on the spot: what's she done TO deserve it? I haven't seen anything. She's beaten men or even boys at something? No. She's won on a course measuring 7000+ yards? No. She wouldn't make the cut in a Nationwide Tour event and you want to send her to the Masters?

iacas, you are WRONG and I finally have a chance to correct YOU! It's the web.com tour!

[Dave2512]

I saw her on Morning Drive today and she seems like a real nice kid. Congrats on her impressive win.

[RonTheSavage]

Originally Posted by Shorty

What an annoying and ridiculous title.

She didn't "refuse money", so why have you said that she did?

Why didn't you add ".....and doesn't throw trophy in the garbage bin."?

It's bad enough when professional journalists embellish things and make them up, but this is not only annoying, it simply isn't true, so why say it?

15 year old Amateur Wins Canadian Women's Open

Oh...... and by the way, she is the number 1 ranked amateur in the world.

And the pros you refer to are too busy tweeting, getting breast implants and trying to make their hair look like that of 11 year olds and doing modelling shoots to worry about their golf.

Grumpy enough for you?

Thank you for pointing this out, I totally agree with you on this.