Thursday, May 1, 2014

Lydia Ko is changing coaches.

Why?

As silence spreads itself around the lush green green's of a stunned golfing world, many ponder the fickle winds of professional sport's razor edge. One minute so serene . . . The next, so mean.

Such a successful pairing with Guy Wilson, her coach: together for so long. A bond so entwined within the psyche of a kindred. A Coach, a mentor and a protector all in one.

Yet after a decade of moulding the delightful Ko into a smiling assassin, that assassin turned on him. Such cruelty. A decade of dedicated service savagely blindsided in one stroke by this seriously stubborn young lady. What an ace.

She's no diva, though. What is best and what is next to be the best. It is a hard grind out there, and like all the greats she is constantly searching for ways to improve.

Friendships fray at the seams, the innocence of amateur sport is lost within the depths of a tangled forest, with those mere mortals of the Woman's tour struggling to see the wood from the trees, let alone set the World alight. They fight and they fight, but a one-off talent radiates such fright.

There was criticism, it came thick and fast. The media, golf followers and the public alike . . . they all knew best.

That is what sets our Lydia apart, the relentless pursuit of all things great. The ability to take no notice of the masses and forge ahead all-knowing in what it is she wishes to achieve. And which is the best way to accomplish this is.

It didn't end there, though. Just recently, this wonder kid was slaughtered for receiving hand-outs from Sport New Zealand. Or, at least, supposedly so. Did she really go on the hunt for more dough? Strange, when one considers the multimillion dollar sponsorships she receives. Perhaps it could be Sport New Zealand announcing a grant without Ko's knowledge. After all, why would she require such funds?

Sure enough, the barbs began before breakfast's beginning. Or a practice shot had been fired that day. But that is life in the all seeing eye of the public sphere when one is so richly endowed with talent. And money.

Destiny, it is her destiny. This is the lass that practiced day and night from the age of five. Dedicated - She knew what she wanted out of life - full of energy, a work ethic to shame second best, this lass never ran out of gas. Such sass. It is her destiny to fight with might and strike the height of night's leading light. O what a sight, and such bite to her game. To clamp the claws of petty spite and ring the rounds of change as change did charge amongst the hovering tides of titles waiting to be claimed.

She's sixteen, sweet sixteen, oh heavenly sixteen, she was a girl, just a girl, though a girl with the game of the mightiest of women. From the time of turning pro to now and all the way back into her amateur endeavours, her talent sure did glow.

Already a name and surging toward worldwide fame, now seventeen and on her game.

Number two and already a slew of opposition down to a few. Such is her dominance, and only pro for six months with a mind that is far from slow. Such is the way with the very best, a cerebral mind leads to an even sharper game. This is the girl, that as an amateur - And studying part time - scored ninety-seven percent in her math exam. Most of us would be happy to score this over eighteen holes, let alone in Math.

As an amateur, amazing feats flowed freely from her heightened talent.

Advice would come from every direction. Most knew best. Turn pro, they would say. Stay an amateur, others would bray. There is money to be made, rotate your bent into a fortune and turn pro. Fifteen is too young, live life some. You'll burn out.

Lydia Ko is turning pro.

But not all knew best.

Michelle Wie, a head so young and a head beyond her years. Such a pity she and Ko are destined to be long-term foes, for Wie is exactly the level headed type the youngster would do well to befriend.

While others thought not to mind their own business, Wie produced the most level headed response of all as to whether Ko should go pro.

*** “I have no advice for her,” Wie said. “Turning pro or not turning pro, going to college, not going to college, it’s a very personal decision. It’s not something someone can say: `I think you should turn pro. I think you should stay an amateur. I think you should do this or that.’
“It’s her life; it’s her career. When I turned pro, I really wanted to turn pro. That was a very personal decision for me. I really wanted to do that, and I have no regrets. I hope she makes the right decision for her. Whatever decision she makes, it has to really just be on her and what she wants to do.” ***

Unlike the more flatulent of egos with which the foul stench of pomposity reeks ever-more with each morally high-handed pronouncement on how others should live, here was a woman that had experienced the highs and, of course, the lows who chose to take the entirely reasonable approach of declining to tender advice that had not been requested.

This, of course, is what Ko and her hardened mind did; think for herself. Perhaps this will aid her as she goes forth into an even harder world.

Because gone is sweet sixteen, seventeen - sure to be a passing faze into the killer instinct of a ferocious will forcing itself upon the golfing world. The mind of an adult in the body of a teenager supplemented with the game of the otherworldly. With the hardened steel, rigid in its application, she is ready.

Ready to climb.

For one so slight - such might, she must take flight to her heavenly height. To make light of opposing foes through the day and celebrate long into the night.

Except that is not her way. Celebrations being the cold front of success, randomly wrecking havoc upon any future opportunity to soar to the hoary capped heights of the highest of mountains.

Hard work, hard work, this is all there is, for those mountains are sheer, no matter the bent.

February 27, 2014. A momentous day. A day the seventeen year old made us all forget the number seventeen. A day when Lydia the person blended into adulthood, but Lydia the talent left many an adult behind. A day, this day, when she won her first LPGA Tour event, in California.

You see, Lydia Ko is changing Women's golf.

Why?

Because this is what one does when one can.



***
This quote came from an article by Randall Mell of Golf Channel.com on February 13, 2013





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