New Zealand amateur Lydia Ko’s golfing education will continue in Thailand after fading to third place at the Australia Women’s Open at Canberra.
The rising star of the women’s game will have one practice round at Pattaya’s Siam Country Club this week before contesting the $US1.5 million ($A1.46 million) Honda LPGA.
The 15-year-old Auckland schoolgirl said her rollercoaster experience on Sunday was important for her, both mentally and physically.
She dropped three shots in the first two holes to lose ground on fellow overnight leader Jiyai Shin.
After battling back to draw level with Shin, further bogeys on the 14th and 17th holes saw Ko ultimately slip four shots behind the Korean winner and two behind second-placed world No.1 Yani Tseng of Taiwan.
“Obviously there are points and aspects where I do need to learn,” Ko said of her closing three-over 76.
“I think I realised that, you know, after a bad hole it kind of carried onto the next hole.
“With Jiyai Shin (it) didn’t really matter what she had on one hole, the next hole it was pretty fresh. So yeah, those are the kind of aspects I learnt.
“I played with some big names out there this week, so yeah, I was very privileged to play with them.”
Through the first two rounds she played alongside Tseng, who is chasing a third successive win at Pattaya this week.
Staying will be a good challenge for Ko, whose scoring gradually subsided at Canberra following her brilliant opening-round 63.
“I didn’t feel I was tired, but yeah, I guess I might have come a bit tired.
“If I really want to go on tour I’ll be playing three or four weeks in a row, so those are the kind of things I will need to build up to.”
Because of her amateur status, Ko has missed out on nearly $A500,000 in prizemoney over the last two weeks, including the winner’s cheque at the New Zealand Women’s Open.
However, she reaffirmed she won’t consider switching to the professional ranks until after she has finished at secondary school next year.