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 The 17-year-old New Zealander discovered it was not just sweaty
palms that golfers have to cope with in the humid Southeast Asian
citystate when she played in the 2012 Queen Sirikit Cup.
"At that time, I had glasses and the moment I opened the door and
went out my glasses just fogged up straightaway," Ko told reporters
on Wednesday.
"I was like, 'man', obviously this is like going to freeze up the
whole time."
The large-framed glasses were ditched at the start of this year in
favor of contact lenses and the switch has coincided with her
becoming the youngest golfer, across genders, to top the world
rankings.
Undeterred by the pressure of the position, Ko has won her last two
events in Australia and at her home New Zealand Open, where she
threatened golf's magical number, 59, in the second round.
The Seoul-born Ko will look to make it three consecutive wins when
she returns to Singapore for the LPGA tournament, which starts on
Thursday and boasts a field that includes 19 of the top-20 women's
golfers in the world.
"I have had such a great last two weeks, so obviously there's
expectation. You're world number one and a lot of people think you
should win every week because you are, but that's really not the
case," she said.
"Hopefully I'm going to keep myself cool. I think that's the big
thing here. You can be playing good golf and then the heat gets to
you and you start making a couple of mistakes. I'm going to keep
myself cool and try and have some fun."
Enjoyment was central for Ko on Wednesday as she spoke about the fun
of appearing in a pre-tournament fashion show, where she blew kisses
to the crowd after taking catwalk tips from fellow LPGA professional
Jessica Korda.
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More pleasure is in store when her name is announced on the first
tee on Thursday with the prefix of "world number one".
"Hearing it on the tee it's pretty exciting stuff but when I'm out
there I'm not really thinking about it," said Ko.
"It's always been my dream so hopefully I can become one of the
world's great female golfers and it feels like I'm right there.
Obviously I have a lot of things to work on."
Her game might appear to lack little work but it will be off the
course where the demands will heavily increase as she starts
university later this year.
Ko, who was named one of the 25 most influential teenagers in the
world by Time magazine in October, will study psychology at Korea
University in Seoul.
"I'm pretty sure its going to be a tough journey, study and playing
golf at the same time," Ko said.
(Editing by Sudipto Ganguly)
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