How Talented Are These Kids?
How amazing have the past couple of weeks been for Lydia Ko? If you haven’t heard that name yet, it will soon be very common when speaking about women’s golf. This 15 year old won the U.S Women’s Amateur a few weeks ago, and now has notched a LPGA Tour victory on her belt with a victory at the CN Canadian Women’s Open. Yes, that’s right, I said 15!
This begs the question, how young is too young to have players competing at such an elite level? I am all for players getting the chance to pursue their ambitions while allow their talent and dedication to answer the questions that any onlookers may have. If these players, male or female, have the talent to compete, by all means let them. There shouldn’t be anyone holding them back.
The struggle that I see, especially as a father myself, is that these young players are missing out on their childhood. With the amount of time that they need to be putting in for practice, tournaments, travel, and still working on their education, there isn’t much time left over for friends and being a youth.
As long as it is the decision of the player to push, and put in the dedicated hours of practice to achieve this greatness as such a young age I only have one thing to say. Wow!
Congratulations to Lydia, and the rest of the great young athletes, whatever your sport may be. Keep pursuing your dreams, and continue to amaze the rest of along your way to greatness.