PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas - Among an arsenal of short game wizardry, precise iron shots, and dead straight tee balls, Lydia Ko’s greatest strength on the golf course may reside between her ears. No one seems to be able to maintain their cool like Ko when the pressure’s on and the stakes are high. It’s hard to tell when Ko leaves the scorer’s tent if she’s just won or made a double bogey on the second to last hole to lose.

However, that even keeled nature dissipated when she checked her Twitter mentions after the round Saturday after she became the youngest player – man or woman – to ever reach the No. 1 ranking.

Lorde, her favorite singer and a fellow New Zealand native, had tweeted at her: “Congratulations, chick! So proud!”

To which Ko quickly replied: “omg thank you soooo much! I’m your huge fan! Love your music!”

And Ko when asked about the No. 1 ranking on Wednesday at the Pure Silk Bahamas LPGA Classic couldn’t hide the thing she was most excited about after becoming No. 1.

“Well, surprised by probably Lorde. I mean she was Billboard Chart No. 1 with her song Royals. And I’m a huge fan of her music, and she sent me a tweet, and she’s like, ‘Congratulations, very proud.’ And I was like ‘Oh my god,’” Ko said. “I thought ‘Oh my god’ because I’m a huge fan of her and somebody of that status to give me a tweet like that, that was pretty awesome.”

“Also I got a Twitter message from Don Cheadle and that was really cool, too.”

However, the words that might have meant more than any other were the ones that came from her fellow competitor when she saw her in the Bahamas this week.

“I think some of the best advice I got was from Stacy [Lewis] this morning, she said, concentrate on your game. It’s pretty awesome to be there, but you’re playing good golf and just don’t worry about everything else that goes on,” Ko said. “So it was really cool for me to have somebody like her tell me that kind of thing and it really went into my heart, and I really want to thank her for saying those things.”

Ko Takes to Heart Lewis' Advice

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