Lydia Ko gets one more honour to end 2024, and this one is huge

How do you cap a year in which you won an Olympic gold medal and earned your way into the LPGA Hall of Fame? Lydia Ko has the answer.

On Monday, the 27-year-old from New Zealand was honoured by the government with the title Dame, the female equivalent of knighthood. In the citation announcing the honour, Ko was acknowledged as the country’s most successful golfer, with 30 professional wins, including three major titles.

In the process, she became the youngest New Zealander ever to receive the civil honor. Previously sailor Ellen MacArthur was the youngest, receiving her honor at age 28 in 2005.

“I did think about it, because you don’t really grow up thinking, ‘Oh, I’m going to become a dame,’” Ko told the New Zealand Herald. “You might say, ‘I’m going to become a Hall of Famer,’ or, ‘I’m going to be the world No 1 in my sport,’ but it’s so above [those] and very different and above what we can control as well.

“I thought about do I deserve it? Is this the right time? But I always feel like to have these kind of opportunities and for someone else to bring it up, it’s not my idea and I’m obviously very grateful that other people are giving me this opportunity … not everybody gets that.”

Ko is the second New Zealand golfer to receive the civil honour, the first being Bob Charles, the first Kiwi to win a major at the 1963 Open Championship, who earned the title of Sir in 1999.

In 2024, Ko got off to a fast start with a victory at the opening Tournament of Champions in January to sit one point away from HOF qualifying. She then had a series of close calls, but ultimately claimed the point in grand style, winning the Paris Olympics, which also allowed her to collect a gold medal to accompany silver and bronze she had won previously.

As if that wasn’t an impressive end to the summer, Ko then went on to win the AIG Women’s Open at the Old Course at St Andrews two weeks later, her third career major. She then followed it up with a third LPGA victory in 2024 in September at the Kroger Queen City Championship, her 22nd career LPGA title.

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