World No 1 Lydia Ko said it was “a huge amount of fun” hosting a junior golf clinic ahead of the New Zealand Women’s Open in Christchurch.

The 18-year-old, who is the overwhelming favourite to claim her third national open title this week at Clearwater, hosted 10 juniors for a coaching session on the driving range on Wednesday.

New Zealand Golf ran a social media competition asking young fans of the golfing superstar to submit videos explaining their love of golf and Lydia Ko. Ten were chosen for the once in a lifetime experience.

Ko was her natural bubbly self as she showed her the youngsters how to fade and draw the golf ball and then analysed their swings and offered them tips on their technique.

“My favourite thing to hear when I am out there playing is a junior coming up to me and saying ‘hey you are my role model’ or ‘I want to be like you some day’. It is definitely cool to hear,” she said.

“It is fun to be able to see some amazing talent with the juniors to see the future of golf and to see them maybe represent New Zealand or even play at the Olympics in the future.

“They are loving the game and you can see their excitement. If I can make even a little difference in them loving the game a little bit more then that is great.”

Otago Golf Club’s Dan Koni had son Kai and daughter Arni successfully chosen to partake in the junior clinic. He said they had been looking forward to the experience.

“These are the moments that they cherish the most,” he said. “To come up here and see someone that they see on TV, they will take away this experience and want to keep playing. It is not every day that you meet someone of Lydia’s calibre.”

Matt Wood, the father of five-year-old Samuel Wood, travelled with his son from Wellington and said he was blown away by talking to the LPGA superstar.

“It has been the highlight of his three-year golfing career,” he said.

“He has been playing since he was two-and-a-half and has been a Lydia fan all of that time. For him this sort of experience is better than the tournament. She is such a great person to be around and one of the best players to have ever played the game, male or female. She is a proud Kiwi and she comes home to play the New Zealand Open every year, it is great.”

New Zealand Golf marketing manager Jan Rowsell said the competition proved popular among the golf community.

“It was an incredibly hard decision to pick the 10 golfers but it was also awesome to call them up and let them know that they were going to meet Lydia,” she said.

“They have travelled from all over the country to be here and they are in absolute awe of her. They are all super excited to be here and a little bit star-struck and overawed as well. Hopefully they go home and have more love for the game of golf from this experience.”

The New Zealand Women’s Open begins on Friday with Ko opening her tournament at 8:14am from the first tee.