Golf: Surgery awaits Ko

Lydia Ko will visit a surgeon as soon as she returned to New Zealand this week. Photo / Getty Images

New Zealand's world top ranked female amateur golfer is being forced from the fairways to have surgery on a swollen wrist.

Lydia Ko, the Auckland 14-year-old eliminated in the second round of matchplay at the United States women's amateur championship in Rhode Island last week, is expected to be sidelined for six to eight weeks.

Her coach, Guy Wilson, said the teenager would visit a surgeon as soon as she returned to New Zealand this week.

"It's just a minor operation on her wrist to get of a ganglion, a build up of fluid," he told Sunday News.

"It's part and parcel of playing golf and it's not something that gives her pain.

"It makes sense to get it done while it's still winter in New Zealand. It will give Lydia a bit of a break, too."

- NZPA