She’s not gone simply but

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — 5 days in the past, 27-year-old Lydia Ko was requested a private query. Once you determine to retire, would you do it shortly, after an epic achievement, or would you play out the remainder of the season and do it then?

The implication was apparent. We’re in St. Andrews, and he or she was readying to play an historical golf course and pose for photographs on the Swilcan Bridge, two weeks after successful Olympic gold and punching her ticket to the LPGA Corridor of Fame. When you win this week, will you retire?

That was Wednesday, and what she stated mattered for the subsequent 5 days. The concept of a walk-off win circulated across the grounds. However on Sunday night what she had stated didn’t matter anymore. As a result of Ko did win this Outdated Course Open, and he or she simply stored proper on chugging. Her alarm is about to ring earlier than daybreak. On Monday, she has a 5:50 a.m. flight to Boston. The present goes on. 

WE’LL MISS LYDIA KO when she’s gone. Each time that day is scheduled to return, we don’t know. Nor does she — or if she does, she hasn’t instructed us. However no fashionable participant has thought-about an early finish at as younger an age as she has. 9 years in the past, when Ko was simply 17, the golf world gasped as she revealed her plan to stop when she turned 30. 

Rather a lot has occurred since then. Rather a lot. Ko regrets placing her retirement ideas out within the open. However the questions persist as a result of these ideas have been actual as soon as, they usually haven’t gone away. She continues to be severe about leaving the sport, and shortly…ish. Sooner than most of her contemporaries would. Ko thought Suzann Pettersen’s retirement after holing a successful putt on the Solheim Cup was “so cool, the mic drop.” Simply this week, Ko was asking 36-year-old Jiyai Shin, who left the LPGA Tour 10 years in the past on the peak of her powers, for particulars about how she did it. Shin has served as a mentor for Ko, which is ironic as a result of Shin rattling close to received this Ladies’s Open herself — ending tied for second, simply two pictures again — after which raced over to hug Ko earlier than even signing her personal scorecard. Shin doesn’t need Ko going anyplace.

“I’m nonetheless going, so I say to her, ‘Take a look at me,’” Shin stated Sunday. “I simply preserve saying, ‘Take a look at me.’ She says she desires to maneuver to the subsequent step. However I say ‘We have now the subsequent step right here as properly.’ That is my third time in St. Andrews. If she retires, there’s no probability to return again … I simply preserve saying, ‘Don’t go away.’” 

It’s a predicament: How do you retire, and retire early, making peace with what you’ve achieved whereas attempting to nonetheless do a bit extra? Ask Andy Murray, the British tennis participant whose singles profession ended on a two-day, five-set match at Wimbledon final month, after he’d rushed again to compete after one closing again surgical procedure. Like Ko, Murray had surfaced the concept of an early-ish retirement, and he was requested concerning the R-word a lot he needed to implore reporters to cease inquiring. His retirement misplaced a little bit of grace. His mom’s opinions on the subject made headlines. Identical for his opponents. It will probably get ugly, the late levels. Each bodily and mentally.

As was mentioned at size after her Olympic glory two weeks in the past, Ko’s 2023 was the worst season of her profession. A 20-win profession had her on the doorstep of the LPGA Corridor of Fame, however nonetheless needing two extra factors to get in. She toiled in proximity of that achievement, particularly when her type soured, crying in resort rooms from Arkansas to Oregon. 

“I bear in mind I missed the lower in Portland final yr,” she stated Saturday. “I used to be having Texas barbecue however I couldn’t style something as a result of I used to be crying a lot with my sister. Speaking about What’s occurring? What’s forward? I really feel misplaced. I don’t know if I’m going to have the ability to win forward. You realize, all these form of ideas have been going via my thoughts.”

Ko broke via in January, within the first occasion of 2024, the Match of Champions, pushing her only one level away from Corridor of Fame enshrinement. Per week later, a 72nd-hole birdie would have booked her place in historical past, however she missed the inexperienced along with her strategy and misplaced to Nelly Korda in a playoff. That tease — Ko’s ball actually rolled up towards celebratory roses and champagne the LPGA had introduced greenside — despatched her reeling once more. Ko missed a number of cuts and didn’t end within the prime 10 for 4 months. How soul-crushing wouldn’t it be to complete a profession one level shy of the Corridor? But additionally, how a lot of a waste wouldn’t it really feel like grinding on for years and nonetheless come up quick? It took two folks in her camp to step in and set her straight: her mom, Hyeon Bong-sook, and her husband, Jin Chung. 

“What I instructed her was, ’Hey in case you are truly going to cool down in your profession, that is the final time to get pleasure from this a part of your life,” Chung stated Sunday evening. “I feel that’s the place that mentality got here from. I feel that eased plenty of anxiousness on her facet.”

To achieve a spot of acceptance with the unchecked bins on her pre-retirement to-do listing — not solely the Corridor of Fame but in addition successful a significant for the primary time in eight years — Ko needed to invert her future and envision an excellent longer path. 

“Anyone put it into perspective earlier than I received the gold,” Ko stated. “They stated, ‘Strive to consider entering into the Corridor of Fame as a fuel station on the best way to my closing vacation spot, and never my closing vacation spot. I feel for some time, that was my purpose. I used to be making it look like, OK, [the Hall of Fame] was my finish level, and I feel after listening to that, that put it into perspective of claiming, , it’s not like I’m going to get within the Corridor of Fame and say, ‘Bye-bye, Golf.’

“I’m nonetheless planning to play. I feel that simply make it simpler to say, , if it’s going to occur, it’s going to occur, and I’m additionally going to concentrate on what’s in entrance of me. I feel these previous three weeks was form of a illustration of that scale.”

Ko’s caddie, Paul Cormack, who picked up her bag one yr in the past, stated her boss appeared relaxed on the Olympics like he hadn’t seen earlier than. And after successful in Paris, Ko bounced round St. Andrews in simply as breezy a style, even posing for a household photograph on the again of the driving vary Sunday afternoon. When in St. Andrews… 

However there have been no podiums in Scotland. Just one participant would win. And Ko appeared destined for second. 

WHEN SHE WALKED OFF THE sixteenth tee Sunday, Ko was six underneath and two pictures behind the perfect participant on this planet, Nelly Korda, who had summoned the perfect golf of her week to shoot three-under on holes 7 via 13. However improbably, Korda short-circuited from the 14th fairway and made a double bogey on a gettable par-5. On 16, Ko had chipped to 3 ft, pausing to make sense of what she noticed on a leaderboard.

“The three-footer form of appeared just a little bit longer at the moment,” she stated. “As a result of I believed it was a simple putt, however then I used to be taking a look at it from all types of instructions.”

It could have been full coincidence — the form of mini-stretch in a wild and windblown 72-hole match that confirms handy narratives (i.e., that when Ko knew she was within the lead, that’s when her greatest golf arrived). Coincidental as it could sound, although, the proof of Ko’s excellence will exist in perpetuity, throughout the road referred to as Golf Place, on the R&A Museum.

From that nervy 3-footer to the home, Ko wanted simply eight strokes. On 17, she hit an ideal tee shot proper on her line — the “Course” printed on the facet of the Outdated Course Lodge. Then defied the sideways rain smacking her face with a low-launching 3-wood that chugged up onto the inexperienced, leaving her a straightforward two-putt. On 18, she zipped a lob wedge to eight ft and rolled within the birdie. Her sister, Sura, a former participant herself, supplied commentary: “That’s additional significant to her. She hasn’t birdied 18 all week.”

For the second time Sunday, Ko reached seven underneath — leaving her half-hour of nail-biting on the placing inexperienced to see if Lilia Vu, the defending champion, may do any higher. The situation produced a setting you don’t usually see on this recreation: the clubhouse chief standing close to the 18th inexperienced however with an uninhibited view. Between Ko and Vu have been a white fence and 65 yards of hyperlinks turf. Surrounding them have been shaky iPhones and eyeballs. When Vu’s putt missed, Ko dropped her head into her fingers. She was formally a three-time main champion. 

KO’S TEAM WAS READY TO PARTY. Her caddie is a Scotsman; he’s going to get pleasure from himself tonight. Once I caught up with Ko’s husband, he was readying to crack his first celebratory beer. However his spouse’s celebration? It received’t be something particular. No less than not simply but. A burger for dinner, her Sunday evening custom, earlier than that dawn flight to Boston. This profession strikes on. However it doesn’t cease educating us issues.

“I performed right here once I was 16 in 2013,” Ko stated Sunday evening, the trophy on the desk in entrance of her. “I don’t suppose I bought to actually get pleasure from and understand what an incredible place that is. And now that I’m just a little older and hopefully just a little wiser, I simply bought to appreciate what an historic and particular place this golf course is, and it’s truthfully been such a fairytale.”

It could sound cliche, however it’s additionally true. Profitable an Open is one factor, however successful an Open in St. Andrews is one other. The sport was constructed and usual right here. Sand was dragged from the close by seashore to create the mounds that outline essentially the most iconic {golfing} enviornment on earth. The best champions of the game all have triumphed right here. You see them within the greystone buildings that line the streets. Cam Smith’s image is up on the wall within the R&A, holding the Claret Jug. Jack Nicklaus’ swing and signature is across the nook, hanging close to the doorway of St. Andrews Golf Membership.

Ko’s husband, Chung, has spent the week absorbing the scene. He’s a golf nerd of the best order, and this was his first journey to Scotland. You higher imagine he introduced his sticks, grabbing tee occasions at Kingsbarns, down the coast, and Dumbarnie, down the coast much more. A spherical on the Outdated is excessive on his bucket listing. Per week of watching the Ladies’s Open will try this to you, particularly when your bride is the victor.

“When she was taking part in, I’d go tour the R&A and St. Andrews Golf Membership and simply have a look at the historical past,” he stated, a smile of pleasure, pleasure and who-knows-what’s-next on his face. “Simply to win at this place is fairly wonderful.”

The subsequent time he visits, a well-known face shall be on show.