Golf wunderkind unwinds in Korea

Golf prodigy Lydia Ko, 17, will most likely find this waning year of 2014 a memorable one. This year she debuted in the U.S. Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) and won three competitions and some two million dollars of prize money. She even got a one million dollar bonus in reward for her victory in the last tournament of the season. She was the youngest winner of the Rookie of the Year award, which is available only once a lifetime for winners.

Korean immigrant to New Zealand Ko is also creating unforgettable memories this year-end vacation she is spending in Korea. After arriving in early December, she has stayed for some three weeks in Seoul and her father’s home province, Jeju Island. She will leave on Tuesday for Florida, the U.S. to resume training.

Ko has not attended any public events during the stay in Korea, spending time all for herself. An aficionado of Korean entertainment, she attended the recording site of the Gag Concert, a Korean sketch-comedy TV show, last week. She said, “It was fascinating to see the comedians live, whom I’d only seen on TV. It was even more fun to be at the site of action,” expressing her teenage curiosity. A fan of Korean traditional food, she ate to the full her favorite menus of soy sauce marinated crab and Jeju black pork. Being a teen with high interest in looks, she got skin care and went to the dentist and oriental doctor as well.

The teenage golfer will become a college freshman in 2015, having been accepted to study psychology major in Korea University, via a special admissions policy of accepting a certain number of students who had studied abroad. She cited a wish to “understand myself and other people from a more psychological aspect” as the background of her choice of major. She plans to play in the LPGA tour and take distance classes and submit assignments to get her credits. Ko recently went to Korea University and met with school officials and professors and heard advice on her studies. On December 29 she completed a photo shoot for an apparel spread for Callaway, her sponsor company, in a studio in Gangnam, Seoul.

The golf wunderkind’s ranking in December three years ago was 295. Now it is 2. Ko plans to play in the Coates Golf Championship as the LPGA Tour’s 2015 season opening event, on January 28. Next year, her competitors will be the Korean field heavyweights such as Kim Hyo-joo, Baek Kyu-jung, Jang Hana, Kim Sei-young, and Korean Australian Lee Min-jee. Intense competition awaits her but the rejuvenation in her homeland is serving to drive her new quest.