Vogue Korea’s Women and Work issue features women leaders across a variety of disciplines. From pop stars to actresses to businesswomen, 22 women are featured in the 2025 March issue. And one of them is Lydia Ko.

Ko posted on her Instagram account, thanking Vogue Korea and admitting, “Never did I think I’d be on the cover of a fashion magazine.”

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For the shoot, she was dressed in Italian luxury brand Loro Piana. And like Nelly Korda in her Sports Illustrated swimsuit debut, Ko rose to the challenge of modeling in a non-golf related photoshoot.

Ko was born in South Korea, and moved with her parents to New Zealand when she was four years old. Ko, now 27 years old, has won on the LPGA Tour 22 times, and has three Olympic medals, one of every color. In 2024, after winning the gold medal at the Paris Olympics, she earned a spot in the LPGA Hall of Fame, becoming the youngest player to do so.

In her interview with Vogue Korea, Ko talked about the struggles she had in the 2023 season, when she had just two top-10 finishes. It was a step back from the previous season when she won three times.

After that 2023 season, Ko said she had doubts.

“I had a lot of question marks about my game, and I doubted if I would recover,” Ko said in the Vogue Korea interview. (This quote has been translated to English from the article that was written in Korean.) “Overcoming that time, I said to myself as I walked down the 18th hole during the last Olympics, ‘I’m proud that I was able to overcome my doubts and reach the top.’ I don’t usually praise myself, so I cringed, but that moment was sincere. Of course, there will be times when I struggle in the future. But it’s only temporary, and I believe that if I work hard, I can get back up.”

Main Image: Vogue Korea