Lydia Ko has a unique take on Olympic golf as she looks to complete a medal trifecta

SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France — Lydia Ko, golf’s only two-time Olympic medalist, brings to Le Golf National the perspective of someone whose career has grown as she embarks on her third Olympic appearance, but also the perspective of someone who’s seen the Olympics grow since its return to the program in 2016. That sense of where this event now resides most definitely includes what she saw happen yesterday with Scottie Scheffler’s back-nine 29 to grab gold in the men’s competition.

“I think [Olympic golf] obviously has grown a lot, and with anything, I think there always is going to be that time period where it kind of gets incorporated smoothly,” said Ko, who won the silver in Rio as a 19-year-old and bronze in Tokyo at 24. “I think it's quite hard because both in Rio and Tokyo we had external factors that were affecting maybe players' choices in attending the Games even though they qualified.

“I feel like this is the first one back and it's been, like, boom, this past week, and I think that's great.”

When the IOC announced in 2009 that golf would be an Olympic sport again, Ko was 12, young enough then to dream of representing New Zealand in the Summer Games. At Rio in 2016, she put herself in medal contention with a third-round 65 and then held off Shanshan Feng with a final-round 69 to win the silver by one shot. Inbee Park cruised to the gold with a five-shot victory that year.

“I'm sure there are many other junior golfers that watched yesterday's round from all over the world that are going to get inspiration from them for competing in the Olympics themselves in five or 10 years' time.”

But now at 27, Ko is also old enough to wonder whether this week might be her last opportunity to compete in sport’s biggest worldwide event.

“I'm just trying to play the best I can and try to shoot an under-par score every round I'm out there. If I win gold, I know I can get in the Hall of Fame that way, as well. So it would be a hell of a way to do it.”

Ko, the former No. 1 player in the world, has 20 career LPGA victories and is one win away from automatically qualifying for the LPGA Hall. But with all those achievements, she now feels the Olympics is in a different place for her.

“When I first started golf, I didn't think I would be able to say I'm an Olympian," she said. "I thought that's something that I turn on the TV during the Olympic Games and I see, like, Usain Bolt or a Simone Biles and go, 'Wow, they are Olympians, but I'm just a golfer.' But now I can say I'm an Olympian just like them, and that's something I'm very proud of,” Ko said. “I know for a fact that many junior golfers are going to dream and work towards them representing their countries at the Olympics in the future Games.”

Ko could be that rare athlete to medal in three different Summer Olympics, especially in a sport that awards only three medals at any Olympics. She’s in a distinct place in her career from her time as a young superstar when she was drawing headlines for competing in the New Zealand Amateur as a 7-year-old. And 11-year LPGA veteran, Ko knows the Olympics and her career give her pause to elicit as much pride as it does an awareness that any kind of achievement in this game now for her is special territory. She is one of 15 women this week competing in the Olympics for the third time.

“I think I'm at three very different points in my career, and even where I was ranked in Rio, I played with a lot of pressure just being the No. 1-ranked player in the women's side,” she said. “I had been so eager and excited to play in the Olympics on that first day that I remember the first tee shot, I barely made contact on my driver. That's how nervous I was.

“In Tokyo, I think knowing that I medaled in the previous Games, it put a little less pressure thinking I have one medal, and I think I was just more focused on enjoying the Games. As of now, I've got the most medals both in the women's and men's side in golf, so that's a pretty cool thing to have. And if I can leave Paris with another medal, that will be very special to me because you just never know what's going to happen in the future. I don't know if this is maybe potentially my last opportunity to medal just because I don't know what's ahead. I really want to enjoy it and give myself a good run at it.”

Ko said her medals have been in the hands of family members with her sister getting the Silver and her father the bronze. But the gold might change the storage situation.

“If I win the gold, I'm definitely taking all of them back and find a way to kind of present all three,” she said.