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Lydia Ko gets Canadian women’s open trophy — though not the cheque or the notice

So that was quite the story playing out at Edmonton's Royal Mayfair Golf Club on Sunday.

A 16-year-old girl, who should have been cruising back-to-school sales for matching backpack and sneakers instead of playing golf with professionals, won the CN Canadian Women's Open -- for the second year in a row. Lydia Ko of New Zealand shot an amazing final-round six-under 64 to finish 15 under par, five strokes ahead of the runner-up (an adult name Karine Icher). In doing so, Ko became the first golfer to defend her title at the national women's championship since Pat Bradley did it in 1985 and 1986.

She is also the first amateur in LPGA history to win more than one tournament.

Yet the reaction to this amazing feat was startlingly muted. I caught sportscasts on a Toronto all-sports radio station and two news stations while returning from my own golf adventure and neither even mentioned the event. There was plenty about Olympic hockey hopefuls gathering to talk seemingly about nothing. There was mention of Tiger Woods getting close to Adam Scott at the (non-major) Barclays tournament and mention of the hopeless Toronto Blue Jays playing the equally hopeless Houston Astros.

But a girl barely old enough to drive a car on her way to winning her second consecutive Canadian Open? Nary a mention.

Sadly, while women's golf has staged a bit of a revival in recent years, it has a long way to go to get on the main stage in this country. What it needs is either an American star to prime the U.S. publicity machine, much like the case of the overhyped Michelle Wie, or a true Canadian superstar -- a Lydia Ko with a maple leaf on her hat.

Without that, women's golf will have trouble cracking a sports landscape that doesn't want to recognize real stories -- especially when they don't involve hockey.

The Ko story was a beauty. She started the day a stroke back of leader Caroline Hedwall and wasted no time in blowing away the competition and proving that last year's victory was no fluke.

Showing little respect fear of her elders, she birdied five of the first eight holes to grab a lead that was never really threatened. This wasn't a case of others falling off the map, though Suzann Pettersen turned into a weekend duffer on the final five holes after she had drawn within three strokes of the lead. This was a case of Ko playing an amazing round of golf.

Her 64 was easily the best on the day, with runner-up Icher's 67 the next-best round. The only blemish on her day was a bogey on 13 and she erased all memory of that by making birdie on the 18th for a dramatic finish.

Ko, who looks more like she's 12 and talks more like she's 40, is rapidly becoming a popular player on the LPGA tour. Because she's still an amateur, her $300,000 winner's cheque went to Inbee Park last year and Icher this time around.

In her brief LPGA career, she's passed up $970,000 in winnings, which means other golfers are $970,000 richer thanks to her amateur status.

In a post-tournament interview with CBC, she gave no hint that her status will change. ``Nothing's changed in the last 72 hours," she said, referring to earlier comments that no decision had been made on turning pro.