Dana Johannsen: Teen's patience remarkable in picking the right time

Ko has been extremely patient in taking the next step in her career. Photo / Getty Images

Just as in her smooth, unrushed golf swing, Lydia Ko's timing off the course has been impeccable.

The careful management and planning of Ko's career made LPGA commissioner Mike Whan's decision to grant the 16-year-old a tour card for 2014 a bit of a no-brainer. Considering she's already won two tour titles, is fifth in the women's world rankings, and has shown incredible poise and humility in competition, Ko made this an easy decision for Whan.

Ko's rise may seem astonishingly quick, but in reality every step has been methodically planned by her family and her golfing mentors.

It would have been tempting for her to turn pro after she won the Canadian Open when she was 15. She could have filed a petition for a waiver of the LPGA's age restriction after winning that first time in Canada in 2012. Or even when she won for a second time this year. But she waited.

In doing so, she enabled the LPGA to get a good look at her skill-set, demonstrated she can be consistent with nine top 10 finishes in her 14 starts and, more importantly, proved to tour management she had the maturity to deal with the immense external pressures that come with playing professional golf.

For a teenager, Ko has shown remarkable patience in taking this next step in her career. While she bided her time she left more than $1 million in tour earnings on the table this year.

The question is, now that she will be playing for real money and not the theoretical pay cheques she couldn't bank as an amateur, will "our Lyds" remain the same player, and more importantly the same person?

Part of what makes Ko so admired in the sport is her unassuming, happy-go-lucky "is this really real?" nature off the course, and her adult-like self-assuredness and freakish talent on it.

If how she handled the barrage of questions at yesterday's teleconference organised by the LPGA is anything to go by, it appears Ko is unaffected by the worldwide attention her remarkable talent has garnered so far. Taking time out from her exam preparation to speak to local and international media after yesterday's news she had been granted a tour card, Ko said she hasn't yet employed a management company, isn't sure how many tour events she'll play in 2014 or even what she'll spend her first pay cheque on.

What she is sure of, though, is that her allegiance remains with New Zealand. Asked if she plans to represent New Zealand or South Korea at the Olympics, the South Korean-born teen says this is now her home - "I love it here, the culture and the country itself".

When pressed on whether there was the temptation to play under the South Korean flag to attract more lucrative sponsorship deals, Ko replied: "Nothing has changed in the last five minutes, or over the last couple years."

Nothing has changed, and yet everything has changed.