Lydia Ko with a selfie after winning the BMW Ladies Championship in Korea. Photo / Getty
Lydia Ko with a selfie after winning the BMW Ladies Championship in Korea. Photo / Getty
Kiwi golfing great Lydia Ko has revealed she popped the question first in her recent engagement, using a golf theme to ask her boyfriend to marry her.
Talking on the Henni & Hally: Women with Game podcast with hosts Hally Leadbetter and Henni Koyack, the 25-year-old Kiwi said she proposedfirst to boyfriend Chung Jun.
"It's very complicated. I proposed to him as well and then he proposed to me. I was like 'why is it that the guy has got to propose?' So I did it very golf-like. I wrote on golf balls 'will you marry me?'"
Ko said her fiancé then got the chance to propose.
"In Korea we set a wedding date before proposals so you're engaged but sometimes the guy will propose a week before the wedding. Some people do it early and some people do a surprise proposal a few days before - so it's very different.
"He proposed during our engagement shoot. It was really cool. I didn't expect it. He was going on about numbers, of how many days we've known each other and things like that. For a second I was thinking 'why are you throwing numbers at me?' and then I realised what was going on."
Ko said they are set for a winter wedding in Korea - which will take place in the coming months during golf's off-season with the LPGA taking a break after the CME Group Tour Championship on November 17-20.
The win moved her to seventh on the LPGA all-time money list but Ko revealed she still plans to rent her wedding dress and put the money towards their honeymoon.
In the podcast, Ko referred to herself as a KoWi, a Korean-Kiwi, and said she took inspiration from both countries in designing her first golf shoes with Ecco.
She also revealed her fiancé has been dubbed her "good luck charm" after meeting shortly before her Lotte Championship win last April.
"We met through mutual friends. We've been very grateful and he's been understanding because I don't know if I could be with a professional golfer who is in Arkansas one week and then Dallas the week after and then you are in Singapore. It's different time zones and knowing we might not see each other for five, six weeks. I think that would be hard to be in his shoes.
"For a while, people said he was my good luck charm as I met him just before I won in Hawaii last year. We were hanging out and I probably did the least amount of practice before an event and I won there. A couple of players said 'oh he must be your good luck charm', so I'm taking him in as my good luck charm."
Ko has now secured three wins since meeting her fiancé.
Lydia Ko during the BMW Ladies Championship in Korea. Photo / Getty
Also on the podcast, the two-time Olympic medallist talked about her hobbies off the golf course and admitted to a growing infatuation with Netflix.
"Number one is Netflix. I first started a couple of years ago and now I think I'm a complete binge-watch person. After my round whether it's a good day or bad day, I'm looking at it. I think I was watching it so much on my phone my fiancé was like 'I think you need to get an iPad so at least your eyes don't get bad. So that's a work in progress to stop binge watching and doing a little bit more in my free time.
"I love working out. Especially when it's been a tough day, I like to get the sweat going and I feel like the stress also comes out with that."
"I love cooking," said Ko. "I feel like it's very different from golf, and I actually like spending time in the kitchen. Sometimes, my mom or my fiance are like 'Is it okay that you're in the kitchen? Shouldn't you be resting on your days off?' But it's relaxing for me."
"Taking the stalks off beansprouts may be the most boring thing in the world but it's very therapeutic. I really like cooking. It's a different pace of life."
