Lydia Ko and the Olympic-size challenge that awaits

SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France — Midway through her six-birdie second round at the Olympics, which put her squarely back in the chase for her third straight Olympic medal, Lydia Ko remembered the important stuff, the things a veteran who at a different point in her career might have missed as she walked between shots.

The 27-year-old New Zealand native noticed a couple of old friends in the gallery and flashed a smile that maybe wasn’t always immediately there on the course in her headier days nearly a decade ago as the No. 1 player in the world. She stopped, exchanged quick hugs and a laugh, and then went about her business. After two rounds at the Le Golf National, that business looks an awful lot like a potential victory that would immediately qualify her for the LPGA Hall of Fame and give her a full Olympic medal sweep of Gold, Silver and Bronze.

“It's been really cool,” Ko said Thursday after her second-round 67 left her solo third place, three shots off the lead of Morgane Metraux. “Obviously played the group behind Celine these past couple days so the people are super excited to support their fellow Frenchmen. But at the same time, the fans here have been so great because they have been supporting each and every one of us. I've honestly loved it.

“It almost brought tears to my eyes yesterday on the first hole because this could potentially be my last Olympics, and to have it in front of this mass amount of 30,000 people, it's an unbelievable feeling.”

Ko, who has battled injuries and slumps that saw her drop outside the top 40 players in the world back in 2019, has struggled since winning the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions and finishing second in a playoff at the LPGA Drive-On Championship at the start of this year. That win put her one point away from the LPGA Hall of Fame. Unfortunately, Ko saw only one other top-10 this year before T-8 at the CPKC Canadian Women’s Open last month.

Ko sees the Olympics as a special opportunity not merely because it might be her last in the quadrennial event, but because the Albatros course demands the kind of precision and focus that rewards a more measured, discerning mind of someone who’s been there before.

“Honestly, this golf course is so hard, it's hard to think about the other things because I'm just trying to shoot the best score I can around here,” said Ko, who ranks in the top 10 so far this week in strokes gained/around the green, strokes gained/putting, greens in regulation, putts per green in regulation and scrambling. “I said earlier in the week, I think this is the toughest golf course we've played in the past three Games, and all of them had very different characteristics. But this one, you could shoot a really low score if you're on, but at the same time it can get away from you, as well.”

Ko’s 18th-hole bogey was a case in point. A poor tee shot in the right rough led to a poor layup in the rough. That was followed by an approach that ended up in a tough lie in the bunker, which was then followed by a two-putt from 20 feet. It was her only dropped shot of the day, but still, there Ko was at the end signing autographs. On the verge of a career-defining opportunity, the 20-time LPGA winner isn’t going to let herself get too far astray, professionally or personally.

“I think there's so many things I need to focus on, like right in front of me, which has been good,” she said. “Because then that has been less on my mind. It's really cool that if I did win the gold, I could get in the Hall of Fame, and it would stop all these questions.

“I feel like if it's going to happen, whether it's in Paris or in Florida or in Scotland, it's going to happen. And I'm just excited that I have this opportunity. If I get to do it here, it would be a pretty cool way to get it done. But I'm playing alongside 59 other top qualified players here, and there's 36 holes for me to go.”

Ko knows Le Golf National can be rewarding and relentless almost in the same breath. For the week, 11 holes are playing over par and the course has biting back if a player chooses to be aggressive at the wrong time. Only three second-round scores were better than Ko’s 66. She’s not sure how much more the course might give up.

So far after two rounds it’s still playing almost a stroke and a half over par, with 451 bogeys and double bogeys or worse for the week, 76 more than the number of birdies and eagles. With scores on the 18th hole on Thursday ranging from a low of eagle 3 to a high of quadruple-bogey 9, it’s clear that the medal-winners may be in large part decided by how aggressive a player feels she can get.

Ko is measured when it comes to that strategy. While she didn’t like the way her day finished on 18, she said getting too aggressive isn’t going to get the job done at Le Golf National. Words that sound like the wise soul that’s been shaped by a dozen years in the spotlight.

“Sometimes pars are just as crucial as birdies,” she said. “People get so excited about birdies because it knocks a score off your total score, but at the same time I think pars are sometimes what kind of gets the momentum going because you're not losing shots, and around this golf course, I think that's so important.

“I wasn't in too many like weird positions, and I think that's just so important around this golf course. Between you being on the fairway and just missing the green and being in the rough, it's really penalizing.”

She also knows that halfway through is a long way from being finished. There’s something awkward about awarding Hall of Fame status based on a number. Ko seems at once content enough with her position to be patient, while recognizing that the chances need to be taken when presented.

“It's just a lot of golf to be played,” she said, talking about the Hall of Fame in a way that makes it clear she’s thinking about it without thinking about it. “I'm just focusing on me right now, and hopefully I do have this opportunity by the end of Saturday. I've had the opportunity to be contending, and it would be really cool, I'm not going to lie, to get that done here.

“I feel like if it's going to happen, whether it's in Paris or in Scotland or in Florida, it's going to happen. And I'm just excited that I have this opportunity.”

There’s a sense that this big moment, as much as it might mean for Ko, is something she’s able to appreciate without being burdened by it all. Just like realizing that you always have time to say hello in the middle of your workday.

“It’s been such a cool atmosphere,” she said. “I'm excited for all [the fans] to return these next couple days because I think this is truly a celebration of golf and a celebration of sport, and it's cool that I'm one of the thousands of people that's here witnessing this.”

In point of fact, though, Ko might very well be the one those thousands ultimately come to witness.