Ko, who last week became the youngest person to be ranked No 1 in the world, will play in the New Zealand Women's Open at the Clearwater course in Christchurch at the end of the month, but the only broadcast coverage will be a delayed package on Sky Television.
Dunedin businessman Ian Taylor was keen to provide live coverage of the open by streaming it on the internet, and launched a campaign to get assistance.
He received offers from production companies and cameramen to get the coverage but was stopped when New Zealand Golf said Taylor could not cover the event because of rights issues.
New Zealand Golf chief executive Dean Murphy said Sky owned the rights nationally, while overseas, the rights were owned by the European Ladies Tour.
Taylor simply did not have the rights to the event and could not cover it.
Murphy said there were three weeks until the open and he was trying to get some funding for live coverage.
Asked how confident he was of getting live coverage, he described it as marginal at best.
''You are talking a lot of money. Up to $400,000 to $500,000 and that would cover around half the course,'' he said.
''We have been knocking on doors for the past six months but have not been able to get the money together. We have made lots of applications for funding from plenty of different groups but have not been successful.
''It is disappointing but the tournament is growing and, hopefully, we can get some live coverage in the next few years.''
Ko's presence at the tournament was not confirmed until December 22, which did not leave a lot of time to try to stitch a deal together for live coverage.
