NAPLES, Fla. - In anticipation of her professional debut, Lydia Ko met with Phil Mickelson last week during a visit to the Callaway headquarters in California. Ko, a South Korean-born New Zealander, is ranked fifth in the world and would have made nearly $1 million in prize money had she turned pro at the start of the year.
During their conversation, Ko mentioned that she and her mother, Tina, were looking for a home in the United States to cut down on travel. She said Mickelson, a five-time major champion who lives in California, gave her a valuable piece of advice. 'Phil mentioned that one of his biggest mistakes was staying after college where the taxes are quite high,' she said.
So the 16-year-old Ko will narrow her search, she said, to places where there is no state income tax, although she was quick to add, 'I don't have any money yet.'
Ko's first paycheck is a mere formality. There is no cut in this week's Titleholders event, the L.P.G.A. Tour's season finale, and Ko got off to a solid start at Tiburon Golf Club with a one-under-par 71, seven strokes behind the leader, Sandra Gal. Ko, the winner of this year's Canadian Open, turned pro in October and successfully petitioned the L.P.G.A. to waive its minimum age requirement of 18 for tour membership.
Whenever teenagers are thrust into the grown-up world of commerce, there are fears that their adolescences will be trampled by the adults in their midst. But in Ko's case, by turning professional she is getting both a paycheck and a piece of her childhood back. In her last two years as an amateur, she spent so much time traveling for tournaments that she never had the chance to socialize with her peers at home.
On the tour, Ko can spend time with friends at the mall on off days or go to the movies with them at night, giving her a built-in social scene she did not have.
'Those Friday movie nights or normal teenager things, I kind of missed that many years ago,' Ko said. 'But when I'm on tour, actually I get more time to go to the movies and watch the movies I wanted to watch back at home.'
And if she is hungry for peer companionship, Ko will not have to search far. Joining her in the top 10 in the women's world rankings is Lexi Thompson, 18, from Florida, who has won twice this year. There are also Thailand's Ariya Jutanugarn, who turns 18 on Saturday, and Charley Hull, 17, of Britain, who figure to compete in several L.P.G.A. tour events next year as nonmembers.
In five starts this year, Jutanugarn collected a second and two thirds and did not finish lower than fourth. Hull, who starred for the European team at the Solheim Cup, is sixth on the Ladies European Tour's Order of Merit.
Ko's impact transcends golf. She was recently included in Time magazine's list of the world's 16 most influential teenagers, appearing at No. 2, behind a countrywoman, the pop star Lorde, and two spots ahead of the American swimmer Missy Franklin.
'I don't even know why I'm there, to be honest,' Ko said. 'I don't know what I've really done. I've just done the things I love to do.'
But for Ko, the first seven holes Thursday were as close as golf gets to drudgery. Her strength is her accuracy off the tee, but her third drive landed in pine needles left of the fairway. She tried to hook her second shot around trees but grazed some Spanish moss on her backswing, and her ball clipped a branch before landing in a waste area short of the green.
'I think I was a bit too ambitious,' said Ko, who failed to clear the waste area with her third shot, found the green with her fourth and two-putted for a double-bogey 6.
At the par-4 seventh, Ko three-putted from 12 feet for a bogey that dropped her to three over par. At that point, she was nine strokes behind Gal, who started on the back nine and was six under. Ko made her first birdie as a pro at the par-3 eighth, which she said had a calming effect.
'It definitely helped,' said Ko, who added three birdies on the back to break par.
If anybody could relate to what Ko was going through, it was her first-round playing partner, Michelle Wie, who turned pro in 2005, shortly before her 16th birthday.
'I think she handled it great,' Wie said.
As they made their way around the course, Wie shared with Ko details of her pro debut at the Samsung World Championship, in particular the terror she felt as she stood over her first drive.
Ko recalled hearing the story from Wie but could not remember when during the round the conversation took place.
'It was pretty hectic,' she said, apologetically.
Karen Stupples, a one-time major winner who is reporting on the tournament for Golf Channel, interviewed Ko after she signed her scorecard. While waiting to go on air, Stupples praised Ko for keeping her composure after her wobble on the third hole.
'After that, you could have gotten a little shaky,' Stupples said. 'But you came back strong.'
Stupples laughed. 'See,' she said, 'playing golf's a breeze.'
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