Do we like Lydia Ko?
Our score: 8 out of 10. No harmful words or acts found, a real act of generosity on record, and a decent public manner; the score stops short of 9 because her public record on causes is thin.
Lydia Ko was born in South Korea and her family moved to New Zealand when she was four. She picked up golf a year later and soon became the best amateur around. By her teens she was winning on the LPGA Tour, and she turned pro at 16.
The trophy cabinet is serious. She has three majors: the Evian in 2015, the ANA Inspiration in 2016 and the AIG Women's Open in 2024. She also has three Olympic medals, silver at Rio, bronze at Tokyo and gold at Paris in 2024, making her golf's first three-time Olympic medallist.
The fresh drama is not of her making. Opposition lawmaker Joo Jin-woo alleged that South Korea's first lady took a private golf lesson from a prominent pro on the day of a Seoul fire, and Ko was named as that pro. Ko says the claims are false and unrelated to her, and that she was at a sponsor's event that day. The ruling party said it would file a complaint against Joo, and as of the latest reports nothing had been resolved.
On the harm check, we found nothing nasty from her. She has no record of campaigning against LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants or the planet in the sources we read, and no court or regulator outcomes against her. She hasn't said much on any of those topics either, so this is a pass on the evidence available, not a ringing endorsement.
The nearest thing to politics is old and mild. In 2017 she said she would be honoured to play golf with the US president, said she doesn't know much about politics, and called him supportive of the golf industry. In 2024 Donald Trump congratulated her on Olympic gold on Truth Social, but the report has no response from her. Keep the two apart: his praise isn't her view, and a polite answer about a round of golf isn't an endorsement.
On the good side, in 2015 she pledged all her prize money from an LPGA event to earthquake relief in Nepal. She said she wanted to give that tournament's earnings to the people affected. It's one clear act, and we found little else on charity in reliable sources, so we won't pad the list.