Ko 'Honored' to be No. 1

It's been a whirlwind 12 months for Lydia Ko since she made her debut as a professional at the Bahamas LPGA Classic last year. Thanks to three victories during the interim, the 17-year-old from New Zealand has risen to No. 1 in the Rolex Rankings, the youngest player - male or female - to attain such an exalted position in the game.

Ko reached the top after finishing with a 71 at Golden Ocala Golf & Equestrian Club in Florida in last week's Coates Golf Championship. The teenager, who has five career victories - including two in the Canadian Women's Open as an amateur - ended up a stroke out of a playoff with winner Na Yeon Choi.

Ko supplanted Inbee Park - who ended up sharing 13th last week - in the top spot. Ko is pleased with her ascension, but knows she can't get overly concerned about it. "It's obviously a huge honor to be in that ranking position but, yeah, I'm trying to just go with it, just concentrate on my game and, yeah, I mean, I'm very proud to be in that position, but at the same time I'm trying to just kind of block it out and just be like another golfer, being on the course and just enjoying my time out here," she said Tuesday during a Q&A with reporters at the Bahamas LPGA Classic.

The $1.3 million event gets underway Thursday at Ocean Club Golf Course on Paradise Island. In 2014, Ko opened with a 68 to share the first-round lead but ended up T-7 at 15-under 277 on the par-73 layout. She'll be paired in the first two rounds with defending Jessica Korda and Mo Martin.

Ko is looking for a better showing this week. "I'm pretty sure it's going to be windy all four days, so just to get all the distance control and with the wind it's definitely not going to be easy to make a lot of birdies," she said. "So just staying patient and just waiting for the opportunities will be I think the biggest thing in my game plan."

Here's what else Ko had to say during her Tuesday sit-down with the media.

MODERATOR: Lydia, thanks for joining us and I'll start off very quickly and just give us a little recap of how the past couple days have been. I know it's been a little crazy for you, but just talk about how big of an honor this is for to finally have it official in the Rolex rankings that your name is at the top of those rankings officially.

LYDIA KO: I guess I have had time for everything to kind of sink in, especially with the last week's tournament finishing on the Saturday, but I'm just trying to go back to my normal routine, just get used to the weather here and check out the course. Yeah, it's obviously a huge honor to be in that ranking position but, yeah, I'm trying to just go with it, just concentrate on my game and, yeah, I mean, I'm very proud to be in that position, but at the same time I'm trying to just kind of block it out and just be like another golfer, being on the course and just enjoying my time out here.

MODERATOR: I have to ask you, I'm sure you got a lot of congratulations, did you hear from anybody super-special or anybody that's stuck out that maybe reached out to you, texted, Twitter, any of those channels that you thousand, wow, they took notice and somebody congratulated you that you're very surprised by?

LYDIA KO: Well, surprised by probably Lorde. I mean she was Billboard Chart No. 1 with her song "Royals." And I'm a huge fan of her music and she sent me a tweet and she's like, congratulations, very proud. And I was like, oh, my God, I thought, oh, my God, because I'm a huge fan for her and that's somebody and somebody of that status to give me a tweet like that, that was pretty awesome. And also I got a Twitter message from Don Cheadle and that was really cool, too.

Q. Don Cheadle's turned into your No. 1 fan, I think. President of your fan club.

LYDIA KO: Maybe he can be the president of it. (Laughter)

MODERATOR: We'll open it up for questions.

Q. Every year golfers come into January and February and say, this is what's changed in my game, since a year ago, you're No. 1, you probably weren't looking to have a lot of change, but what has changed since 2014 for you, better or worse?

LYDIA KO: Probably the biggest change is my look. Me wearing contacts and just visually, to me everything look as little larger. So that's probably the biggest change for me. We have been trying to work on a lot on my iron game, so that I can be a little bit more consistent and give myself more opportunities, but coming off from last week, I holed a lot of good putts, so I think in an and the short game has improved, too, but it's always a work in progress.

Q. I wanted to ask you if you talked on Saturday night about how you were excited you were to be able to drive home. I wondered if you if you could detail for us kind of what you how you spent the next couple days and that night and maybe what's the best advice you've gotten so far on being No. 1 and how to hold on to it.

LYDIA KO: No, that night, yeah, we stopped by at a Japanese restaurant we had been a couple times during the week there. So I had dinner with my agent Michael and my parents and David Leadbetter. We had dinner there and drove back home. And I flew the next morning here to the Bahamas and I just had a relaxing day on that Sunday and just tried to see the course on Monday and tried to work my way through like any other tournament week. I think some of the best advice I got was from Stacy this morning, she said, concentrate on your game, it's pretty awesome to be there, but you're playing good golf and just don't worry about everything else that goes on. So it was really cool for me to have somebody like her tell me that kind of thing and it really went into my heart and I really want to thank her for saying those things.

Q. Wondering, obviously you had the biggest pay day in LPGA history, just a couple months ago, I was wondering, 17 year old, what do you do with all that money and what kind of did you get to splurge on anything or have you not done anything with that yet?

LYDIA KO: I bought myself some accessories and I got my mom got to buy a bag that she wanted to get and it was just a good year, you get 1.5 million dollars in a week, it doesn't mean you spend it the day after, so, yeah, we haven't done much with it, but, yeah, what I got for myself was really accessories and I got a few cute things in Korea and I've just been I think the biggest present for me was just being able to go back home and just chill out with my friends.

Q. It's often said that golfers learn more when they lose than when they win. You obviously handled Saturday very well, but what did you learn those last few holes and how they played out and some of the shots that you hit?

LYDIA KO: Actually, when I see in my past tournaments, I really finished strong in the last couple holes, and this was just one of the cases where I kind of went the other way. It just made me realize, you just really never know until the last hole, the last putt, and just saying that anything can happen. So you really, you have to stay focused that whole time.

It wasn't like I wasn't focused, but just anything can happen and when you least expect it. So I think it was a good experience for me. Obviously it would have been even better if I came off the green being able to hold the trophy, but just Na Yeon played great that day and I learned a lot seeing her game and how consistent she was and I think she had like 24 putts that last day and that show that is putting is really one of the most important things in the game.

Q. I remember at the Women's Amateur you pointed out that Michelle and Lexi were your role models. You were 15 at the time and two and a half years later you have more titles than both of them and are ranked ahead of them. Do you still look at them as role models, how has your kind of thought process changed on that, now that you're not only one of them, but in a better position than them?

LYDIA KO: Definitely; they're still my role models and they will be. It doesn't matter what ranking I am and what position they are. They inspired me to be in this position and they supported me along the way, too, so, yeah, they will always be my role models and they, and I always learn things when I play alongside them and I always find it really cool whenever I get paired alongside them, too.

Q. Do you still get nervous on the first tee?

LYDIA KO: It is less than before, but I do still get nervous on the first hole.

Q. This week's event. I know you tied for seventh here last year in the Bahamas, talk about your game plan and what you can remember from playing well here last year and what you hope to accomplish coming off of a strong week last week as well.

LYDIA KO: I remember that I had a solid round the first day and then a really solid round on the last day. So it takes a lot of solid shots and patience out there. I'm pretty sure it's going to be windy all four days, so just to get all the distance control and with the wind it's definitely not going to be easy to make a lot of birdies. So just staying patient and just waiting for the opportunities will be I think the biggest thing in my game plan.

Q. I know you took off a lot of time in the off season, you talked about that last week more time off than you have ever taken before, were you surprised at how well you came back and kind of shook the rust off immediately? What translated really quickly in your game coming back from such a long break?

LYDIA KO: Yeah, to be honest, even the week before last week I was worried, I was worried I didn't know how good I was going to hit it, I didn't know if my short game kneel was on, so there were a lot of things that were going through my head. But I talked to Doctor Jim, who I talk a little bit with about what goes through my head and what I'm thinking and what I do, and Doctor Jim said, you know, skills will come in the right amount of time, so you just got to go out there, have fun and just enjoy it.

I think that that statement kind of went with me all of last week and even if I made a bogey, I tried to say that in my head and try and clear things out. Yeah, I was surprised with my result last week, it was a really good result to start the year and definitely gives me a lot of confidence going into the rest of this year.

Q. How long have you been working with Doctor Jim?

LYDIA KO: Well, I haven't actual seen him like face to face, but I have calls in and every time I talk to him, just kind of get the weight off my shoulders and feel I can say anything and it's just been a couple months, it hasn't been a lot, but I would love to like finally meet him and, yeah, it's just great that I was connected through David and it's great to have someone where I can just talk to and just relax and I can pretty much say anything I want.

Q. Is he based in the U.S.?

LYDIA KO: He's based in the U.S.

Q. Now I know you set goals at the beginning of the year, is getting to No. 1, did that change anything in your mindset? Does it now change, you obviously want to stay there for a certain amount of time? Does anything change now in terms of what you want to accomplish the rest of the year?

LYDIA KO: Every tournament is a new week and you just never know what's going to happen, so I'm just going to take it shot by shot, tournament by tournament, and hopefully I'll have a good season. It was an awesome rookie season last year, so to say that, oh, I want to have more top 10s and more wins that would be kind of a little greedy in a way so I just want it pays myself and just enjoy being out on the tour for the second year.

MODERATOR: Thank you for joining us. Have a great day.

The transcript for the above interview is courtesy of ASAP Sports.

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