Last year at the Kraft Nabisco Championship, I ran into Lydia Ko’s mother in the laundry room at the Residence Inn, where she insisted on lending a tired scribe a handful of quarters. Ko, 17, was back in their room, probably watching a crime-show rerun.

Such small, ordinary moments are kind of funny, really. As if what’s going on with Lydia and her family right now could just as easily happen to any number of hard-working teenagers living out of a suitcase.

Hours after Ko won her ninth professional title, the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open, 16-year-old amateur Hannah O’Sullivan bettered Cristie Kerr’s 20-year record to become the youngest winner in Symetra Tour history. O’Sullivan, of Chandler, Ariz., returned to Hamilton High School on Monday to face a history exam, math quiz and upcoming English paper.

The rush of talented, fearless teens in women’s golf worldwide is startling and unprecedented. The kids overtake amateur and professional fields with regularity, making college golf seem more speed bump than springboard.

But make no mistake: what Ko is accomplishing is historic and spectacular. Her victory Feb. 22 at famed Royal Melbourne gives her six LPGA titles by age 17, prompting Hall of Famer Patty Sheehan to tweet Ko, “You know who Kathy Whitworth is, right?”

Whitworth, of course, is the winningest player in golf history, with 88 titles. Since Ko turned professional in fall 2013, she has targeted age 30 for retirement. That gives Ko, a native South Korean who was raised in New Zealand, roughly a dozen years to win 82 titles. She’d need to win about seven times per season to overtake Whitworth, a massive order on a tour of increasing depth.

But let’s go back to what got Ko to this enviable position. This is no fluke. She might look ho-hum on the course, but don’t underestimate how hard this kid has worked.

The family emigrated from South Korea to New Zealand when Lydia was 6 and moved across the street from Pupuke Golf Club in Auckland. Mother Tina wanted her youngest daughter to have four one-hour lessons per week. Practices often involved three locations over an 11-hour span. Her first coach, Guy Wilson, said she took off Christmas and New Year’s Day two years ago only because courses were closed.

At age 11, Ko began working weekly with a sports psychologist. The cysts that cause grief on her left wrist are the result of overuse.

Ko is a phenomenal talent, no doubt. The way she handles pressure – winning in only her second tournament as World No. 1 – can’t be overstated.

But she was groomed for this. Golf is what she knows. In many respects, it’s all she knows.

After a 17-year-old Ko won her first LPGA tournament as a pro, she had the date – April 27, 2014 – tattooed in Roman numerals on her right wrist. She once asked reporters not to mention it in print, but given how easily the tattoo was noticed in news conferences, she can’t get away from the question.

“My parents were there and I felt like it was a very memorable win, so I got that tatted up,” she said Sunday after her victory in Australia.

That’s likely the first time the slang “tatted up” has appeared in an LPGA winner’s transcript.

This week, Ko will skip the LPGA event in Thailand to go home and compete in the ISPS Handa NZ Women’s Open. Ko won the event two years ago but lost in 2014 by one stroke to Mi Hyang Lee, who closed with a 63.

Ko could end this week with her 10th professional title worldwide. Her first came Jan. 29, 2012, at the New South Wales Open when she was 14.

“I feel like I really want to go back to Oatlands (Golf Club) again and play,” Ko said. “It’s a lot of great memories, and a lot of things have happened in those years. Time flies. I’m still 17, though.”

Yes, still 17. Let’s hope the rest of the sporting world catches on soon to the fact that we’re witnessing something special with Ko.

She deserves the hype.