World No.1 Lydia Ko wants to see more opportunities arise for women to play team golf, with the Kiwi eager for a female equivalent of the Presidents Cup and a team competition at the Olympic Games.
Ko was speaking of her love of team golf ahead of this week’s Aramco Team Series Singapore, which tees off on Thursday at Laguna National Golf Club.
The seven-time Ladies European Tour winner, World No. 14 Danielle Kang and Dubai-based teen sensation Chiara Noja are among the leading names for the three-day US$1 million tournament, where three professionals team up with an amateur golfer.
The event offers a rare opportunity for the two-time Major champion to play team golf, with no Presidents Cup alternative for women and New Zealand failing to qualify for the International Crown since its inception in 2014.
“I love being in that kind of team atmosphere,” said Ko, who is likely to feature in the Grant Thornton Invitational, a new mixed-team event that will see LPGA Tour and PGA TOUR players compete together, later this year.
“I hope that it’s something that gets potentially incorporated in the Olympics. You know, just whether it’s the same, like mixing male and female, we have that different change for us with the new event that’s coming up at the end of the year for us with the PGA Tour that Grant Thornton is holding, which is super exciting.
“I think mixed gender, same gender or team format like we have for Dow on our tour, the more the merrier. I think sometimes it is very different and team match play is very different.
“For me, big picture because I don’t get to play in the Solheim and New Zealand hasn’t qualified in the International Crown as of yet, it would be really cool if there was something like the Presidents Cup. Something I’ve been whispering in the LPGA’s ear.
“So that’s something that I would also like to be involved in.”
