Lydia Ko’s gold medal acquired her into the Corridor of Fame.
EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP through Getty Photos
Verify in each week for the unfiltered opinions of our writers and editors as they break down the most popular subjects within the sport, and be part of the dialog by tweeting us at @golf_com. This week we study what Lydia Ko’s Olympic gold medal actually means, golf’s place within the Video games, LIV Golf’s TV future and look forward to the U.S. Novice.
1. Lydia Ko claimed gold on the girls’s Olympic Golf competitors, ending 10 below to beat Esther Henseleit (eight below, silver) and Xiyu Lin (seven below, bronze) at Le Golf Nationwide outdoors of Paris. What did Ko do higher than everybody else, and will her Olympic success (a gold, silver and bronze) now be larger up on her resume than her two main titles?
Inside Lydia Ko’s tearful journey to Olympic glory and the Corridor of Fame
Ryan Barath, senior tools editor (@rdsbarath): As a lot as the ladies’s majors are a really huge deal, I believe when you think about the time between all three of her Olympic medals, particularly the gold she simply earned in Paris, I imagine when all is alleged and completed in her profession, this may very well be thought of her crowning achievement.
Zephyr Melton, assistant editor (@zephyrmelton): It may not be larger than her main wins, nevertheless it very nicely would possibly equal them. Majors come round 5 occasions a yr for the women — the Olympics solely occur as soon as each 4 years. Securing all three spots on the rostrum in three Olympic begins its a wildly spectacular accomplishment.
Dylan Dethier, senior author (@dylan_dethier): She rode a red-hot putter all week, gaining greater than eight photographs on the remainder of the sphere. Can we name that future? As I perceive it no person else in golf historical past has multiple Olympic medal. Ko has all three of ‘em. That’s unbelievable. That’s historic. Golf nonetheless counts majors greater than golds, however within the eyes of the remainder of the sporting world these medals are value much more.
2. With the win, the 27-year-old Ko turned the thirty fifth participant to hitch the LPGA Corridor of Fame and in addition the youngest to qualify for it below the present standards. Has her consistency — successful at 15, two majors, 20 LPGA titles — obtained as a lot reward because it deserves when so many different younger stars haven’t discovered the identical sustained success?
In Olympic victory, the actual Lydia Ko got here out with 1 gesture
Barath: Inside the recreation I’ve a really laborious time considering of one other LPGA and even PGA Tour participant that’s as well-loved and revered as Lydia. Her profession has spanned over a decade and a half and within the fashionable girls’s recreation that’s virtually extraordinary. A part of what I believe has prevented her from reaching the overall reputation and recognition as others which have been much less profitable is that there is no such thing as a standout a part of her recreation that followers can level to love being overly lengthy off the tee — she’s only a top-to-bottom stable participant.
Melton: Lydia’s profession looks like one which will likely be remembered extra fondly as time passes. She turned a sufferer of her personal success after such a dynamic begin to her profession, and when she couldn’t preserve that tempo it virtually appeared like a disappointment. However together with her spot within the LPGA HOF locked up and her legacy safe, we’ll look again on her profession as one of many best of the trendy era.
Dethier: It’s loopy to say as a result of she’s simply 27 however Ko’s journey has had a number of chapters. Early on she acquired loads of reward and credit score; in down occasions she obtained her justifiable share — possibly extra — of criticism and second-guessing. Corridor of Fame qualification has loomed over this period and there’s no extra dramatic technique to recover from the road with Olympic gold. The up-and-down journey has made this newest chapter really feel that rather more satisfying from the surface and, Ko admits, for her, too.
3. With the boys’s and ladies’s Olympic Golf competitions now full, what was your important takeaway or studying from the occasions?
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Barath: On the ladies’s facet I believe the Olympics is now thought of larger than a significant, particularly contemplating the worldwide broadcast that brings in so many informal followers. As for Olympic golf on the boys’s facet, I imagine this yr has helped to solidify this as a giant occasion for one of the best males’s gamers on the earth.
Melton: Olympic golf is FUN. Enjoying for medals makes for a way more thrilling end and watching gamers rep their international locations is a deal with. I’m all in on golf within the Olympics.
Dethier: I’m biased as a result of I’m an Olympics sicko and I’ve all the time been an enormous proponent of golf within the video games. However I believe what I hadn’t realized till this week is that 72-hole stroke play truly IS the best format for the person competitors. I’d been a proponent of one thing extra inventive, however nah — the unique manner nonetheless delivers. I’m nonetheless dying for an outside-the-box group competitors, however unbelievable crowds on a wild golf course with expertise and storylines in rivalry? This was superior.
4. LIV Golf tees off at The Greenbrier this week for its regular-season finale (with simply its particular person and group championships remaining), and in a current press convention, Phil Mickelson went into element about LIV Golf’s new broadcast course for 2025 and past, which may embrace new companions and extra streaming choices. After a few years of low scores and one streaming associate abruptly shuttering, is discovering a dependable, far-reaching associate LIV’s No. 1 objective this offseason? Or is a cope with the PGA Tour or one thing like signing extra stars extra necessary for LIV?
Phil Mickelson addresses LIV TV ‘negotiations’ as CW rights dwindle
Barath: To date streaming for LIV has been a bust, however then again one in every of its greatest stars additionally occurs to have one of many greatest golf YouTube channels, so I really feel that in the event that they needed, LIV may as soon as once more lean again into YouTube as a broadcast associate. It’s not a significant TV community, however the actuality of reside golf on TV is altering, and the youthful viewers is searching for different choices.
Melton: Discovering a dependable TV associate must be their greatest precedence. They will signal as a lot expertise as they need, but when nobody is watching, it doesn’t matter. If LIV needs to be taken severely, their leaders have gotten to determine a technique to get eyeballs on their tournaments.
Dethier: I’m curious what that TV deal would appear like, who’s within the working and what the extent of curiosity is from nontraditional broadcast companions. Except unreleased streaming and app numbers are big-time, LIV’s viewership continues to be negligible. So I’d say LIV’s greatest precedence is making a deal. LIV Golf wants the PGA Tour’s legitimacy. The PGA Tour wants a few of LIV’s star energy. The followers need it. However the best way Mickelson is speaking, LIV will likely be round the remainder of his {golfing} life so yeah, there’s actually no assure something will occur. (Hoping to report out a narrative on this within the coming weeks.)
5. The U.S. Ladies’s Novice completed on Sunday with Rianne Malixi beating Asterisk Talley at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Okla., which supplies technique to this week’s U.S. Novice at Hazeltine in Minnesota. What’s your storyline or participant to look at?
Rianne Malixi wins rematch for historic U.S. Ladies’s Novice title
Barath: I’m curious to look at three-time U.S Mid-Am champ Stewart Hagestad compete in opposition to the youthful contingent of gamers that appear to make up nearly all of the sphere, together with 15-year-old Miles Russell, who made a minimize on the Korn Ferry Tour earlier this yr. Different gamers that may attention-grabbing to look at because of their household pedigree are John Daly II (son of John Daly), Preston Summerhays (son of Boyd Summerhays) and 17-year-old Trevor Gutschewski, who not too long ago performed together with his dad Scott on the Korn Ferry Tour Pinnacle Financial institution Championship.
Melton: I’ll have my eye on Jackson Koivun, the celebrity teen from Auburn. He was among the best gamers in faculty golf throughout his freshman season, together with main the Tigers to a nationwide title. Let’s see if he can cap the summer time with the most important title in beginner golf.
Dethier: Luke Clanton has been beating principally each professional golfer he’s gone up in opposition to in current weeks; after taking a non-public jet from the Wyndham to Minnesota (beginner golf ain’t what it was) I’m curious how he’ll do in opposition to the ams. There’s critical expertise touching down within the Land O’ Lakes.
