New Zealand teenager Lydia Ko will contest the first women’s golf major championship of 2013 in April.

Ko is one of nine amateur players to receive an exemption for the Kraft Nabisco Championship in California from Aril 4-7.

It will be the third major tournament for the world No.1 amateur, with Ko having contested the US Women’s Open and Women’s British Open last year. She finished 39th and 17th respectively at those tournaments, helping her climb to her current berth of 38th in the world rankings.

Fifteen-year-old Ko won the Canadian Open last August, becoming the youngest ever winner of an LPGA event and the first amateur to do so in 43 years.

She is this week contesting the New Zealand Women’s Open near Christchurch.