No Tiger Woods but Lydia Ko is among Time’s 100 Most Influential People

Tiger Woods is absent. Phil Mickelson is a no-show. Even the winners of the first two majors of the season, Lexi Thompson and Bubba Watson, are MIA.

Lydia Ko, the youngest golfer to win an LPGA Tour event, however, celebrated her 17th birthday on Thursday by making the roster of Time’s 100 Most Influential People.

Indeed, the whiz kid with two LPGA victories and one Ladies European Tour W was one of only five athletes on the publication’s list, which includes such A-listers as Beyonce, Hillary Clinton, President Obama, and Vladimir Putin. The other four athletes featured with Ko are openly gay NBA player Jason Collins, outspoken Super Bowl champion Richard Sherman, tennis superstar Serena Williams, and soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo.

“She’s leading golf’s youth movement,” according to World Golf Hall of Famer Annika Sorenstam, who penned the tribute to Ko for Time. “Lydia Ko is exceptionally talented, mature beyond her years and well liked by golf fans and competitors alike. She is responsible for sparking increased interest in our sport not just in her native South Korea and adopted homeland of New Zealand but also among juniors across the globe.”

Ko exploded onto the golf scene as an amateur with back-to-back wins at the Canadian Women’s Open in 2012 and 2013. After shedding her amateur status and earning a waiver of the age requirement to join the tour, Ko has three top-5 and five top-20 finishes in her rookie season.

“Her early, record-breaking success brings with it incredible pressure -- and she’s doing a fantastic job handling the many responsibilities that accompany stardom,” wrote Sorenstam. “Her future is very bright. All I can add is to enjoy the ride!”

As for Woods, despite the multi-billion-dollar influence he exerts on the course and outside the ropes, the hobbled top-ranked golfer in the world was dissed by more than Time. According to best tickets blog, which assessed data from April 2013-April 2014, Tiger was the most-Googled athlete in only one U.S. state -- Keegan Bradley’s native Vermont.

On the plus side for the 14-time major champion, Woods was the only athlete among those most searched-for who does not play for one of the “Big Four” sports popular in North America. So, Tiger’s got that going for him.