Lydia Ko just wants to have fun on her way to a 3rd straight major title

Lydia Ko may be chasing a third straight major victory at this week’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, but the primary goal for the world No. 1 is to enjoy herself all the way to the trophy ceremony.

Given Ko’s pre-tourney antics in the company of such luminaries as Ken Griffey Jr. and Condoleezza Rice, she can put a check mark in the “fun” column.

“Oh, my God, what a group. It was a really fun day,” Ko told reporters at Sahalee Country Club in Sammamish, Wash., on Tuesday about her pro-am outing. “And obviously Ken hit the ball a mile. And actually hit it really straight. So we used a lot of his drives, which made it easier on the course. I was doing a lot of short iron and pitch shot practice … It was great fun. And we played good golf and we enjoyed it. I don’t think I’ve had a group like this, this big, before.”

If the youngest winner of a major were feeling the strain to join Mickey Wright, Babe Zaharias, Pat Bradley, and Inbee Park as the only women in the three-plus-straight major category, she certainly did a good job of disguising it.

And speaking of disguises, Ko went to dinner with actor Don Cheadle, a huge fan of the 19-year-old Kiwi by way of South Korea, where the two of them mugged for the camera as puppy dogs.

(Cheadle, by the way, spent time hamming it up with Michelle Wie, as well).

As for any tension Ko faced ahead of Thursday’s start, she certainly did not exhibit any.

“This week I’m going to try to play four days,” said Ko, who missed the cut at last year’s Women’s PGA — an early exit that also ended her run of 53 straight events without a MC.

It was a not-so-subtle intimation that Ko recalled the past stress of being the top player without a major on her impressive resume. Capturing the Evian Championship in September and eclipsing Morgan Pressel’s “youngest ever” mark allowed her to relax.

“Even though I tried not to feel the pressure, I think I did feel the pressure of Morgan’s record,” Ko said. “Everybody in this room was saying, `Hey, you’ve got a chance to break Morgan’s record. When is she going to win a major? Is she going to win a major?’ And I think winning very young kind of gave me a bit of relief.”

Winning this season’s first major, the ANA Inspiration, put her in the position she’s in now, vying to join the select group of women with at least three sequential major victories. Should she prevail come Sunday night, speculation will no doubt begin about whether Ko, with a victory at the U.S. Women’s Open, can match Wright’s four straight major wins, a feat accomplished over the 1961 and 1962 seasons.

But first thing’s first.

“I am going to play my own game, hit that one shot at a time and have fun,” Ko said. “I think that’s the key thing. When I think about it as, ‘hey, this is a major, everyone wants to play well at a major,’ I think there’s just too much pressure.”

Ko is not the only player in this year’s field with a streak on the line. A win this week for three-time defending champ Park would make her the first player to win the same major four straight times.

Park, who is battling a nagging thumb injury, would join Walter Hagen as the only golfer on any tour since 1900 to win a single major four consecutive times. Hagen earned four PGA Championships in a row, from 1924 through 1927. Tom Morris Jr. won four straight Open Championships from 1868 through 1872, with the exception of 1871, when it was not contested.

Park does not have to win, or even finish, the KPMG to add another achievement to her long list of them. By completing the first round on Thursday, she will have fulfilled the 10-year LPGA Tour membership criteria needed to enter the LPGA Hall of Fame. Park earned the 27-point requirement at the end of last season by winning the Vare Trophy for low scoring.

Then there’s Ariya Jutanugarn, who has her sights set on a fourth straight tour victory. With the PGA Volvik Championship, Kingsmill Championship, and Yokohama Tire LPGA Classic already in the win column, Jutanugarn would join just six players — including Wright, Nancy Lopez, Lorena Ochoa, and Annika Sorenstam — with back-to-back-to-back-to-back Ws.