19 Jun 2012

Ko to play US Open

5:42 pm on 19 June 2012

The world number one amateur golfer Lydia Ko will make her major debut at the upcoming US Open Championship.

Ko earns her place in the US Open field from July the 5th on the notoriously tough Blackwolf Run Golf Club in Wisconsin, by winning the Mark H McCormack Medal as the game's outstanding amateur in 2011.

The 15-year-old becomes the first New Zealand amateur to contest the US Open and the youngest-ever Australian Amateur champion will become only the third player from here to play the tournament, after Lynnette Brooky, who played it six times with a best finish of 12th in 2002, and Susan Farron, who played back in 1995.

Ko's the second-youngest to play the US Open after American Lexi Thompson, who was only 12 when she qualified in 2007.