It's Ko Time

LYDIA KO CONTINUES TO ACCENTUATE THE POSITIVES OF A GLORIOUS PAST AND FORECAST AN EVEN BRIGHTER FUTURE AHEAD OF HER HIGHLY-ANTICIPATED DEBUT AT THE OMEGA DUBAI MOONLIGHT CLASSIC

- KENT GRAY

THE CATCH CRY FOR Dubai’s annual Ladies European Tour stop like no other is “Time to Shine”. It’s a clever nod to the unique floodlit component of the $285,000 event with Dubai Inc./open for business undertones. And yet the promotional tune could just as easily have been written exclusively for OMEGA Dubai Moonlight Classic headliner Lydia Ko. For outsiders looking in, the 23-year-old Korean-born Kiwi is a curious golfing enigma whose career has gone strangely off-piste after a warp-speed and unprecedented rise to stardom. From the center of Ko’s universe though, there is nothing puzzling at all about her up and down and slowly up again progression, even if the most eye-catching part of her game in recent years has been the hiring and firing of coaches and caddies at an alarming rate. Publicly at least, the ever-bubbly Ko has always been a glass-half-full kind of girl.

As so it is as she eyes her maiden appearance in the Middle East. For most, 2020 will be remembered for nasal swabs, temperature checks, face masks, hand sanitizer and lockdowns. Indeed, if there is one great pity about Ko’s welcomed Dubai debut is that the Moonlight will be played behind closed doors for the first time due to health and safety precautions designed to counter this pesky virus. A talent so rare deserves galleries but Ko has even found a way to put a positive spin on a pandemic.

“While this year has been difficult for everyone in a lot of different ways, I think it is important to take some of the positives away as well,” she said. “For example, I was able to focus on fitness and strength during the unexpected time off and that has translated to results on the golf course.