“My mom [Ko’s caddie] said, ‘Just be aggressive. Jaye’s
probably going to make birdie,’ ” said Ko, the second
youngest Women’s Amateur champion in the event’s 112-
year history. Aggressive she was, almost holing the shot to
a tough pin location on a downhill slope, her ball coming
to rest less than three feet from the cup. After Green narrowly missed her birdie putt, Ko made her par and headed
to the final nine with her 4-up lead intact.
The advantage was not without its small challenges. Ko
admitted to a brief, negative thought down the stretch—
one where she had been in a position similar to Green. “I
thought about a tournament where I was 4 down with four
to play and won in extra holes,” she said.
Fortunately, Ko replaced that gremlin with a different,
more positive thought. “My coach always calls me ‘Champ,’
so I started telling myself I was a champion,” said Ko.
Though Green, whose caddie/dad Donnie is a PGA
instructor at Broken Sound Club in Boca Raton, closed
the margin to 2 down with a two-putt birdie on the par- 5
16th, she conceded the hole and the match on 17 after her
approach came up short and she failed to make par with
Ko about 30 feet from the cup in regulation.
“It wasn’t my time to win,” said Green, who will go to
LPGA Q school this fall. “Lydia’s only 15. That’s kind of
scary to think about. But this has been the best week of
my life. I had so much fun.”
Both girls played solid golf throughout the final match,
but Green’s putter failed her in the afternoon when she
needed it most. “I’m not going to dwell on the loss,” said
Green. “I’ll focus on the fact I made it to the final of the
U.S. Amateur.”
Ko started playing golf when her aunt and uncle gave
her a 7-iron and a putter when she was 5. After fiddling
with the clubs and practicing, she became hooked. Ten
years and thousands of hours of practice later, Ko has
asserted herself atop a list of great amateur golfers—an
achievement built on her 2011 victory in the Australian
Amateur and January’s win at the
New South Wales Open, which made
her (then 14) the youngest player to
win a pro tour event.
Youth served: Finalists
Ko (left and with
trophy on right) and
Green (center) have
a combined age of
33, underscoring the
youth movement
that has ruled the
Women’s Amateur.
