Jack Hirsch
SPRINGFIELD, NJ — Lydia Ko surrounded the ball in Balusrol’s No. 18 jersey and immediately grimace. She lifted one hand off the club and watched the ball spin in the breeze and sail away on the right of fairway into the rough bluegrass. She hung her head and asked for another ball from the can. It was just a training run, but her body language already showed signs of distress.
This wasn’t the year Ko – far from it – was hoping for – especially after his return to fame in 2022. Last year, we got a glimpse of the old Ko. Confident. Free spirit. happy. Three wins and a return to world No. 1 (along with a clash) will do that for the golfer.
But just six months into 2023, that confidence has all but evaporated. She is yet to score a win on the LPGA Tour this year (although she did win the LET back in January) and has only one top 10, with missed cuts in two of her last four starts. Golf is a mind game, and on Wednesday’s KPMG Women’s Show it was clear that Ko is not her natural self.
“If I only knew, I would,” Coe said of what changed between this year and last. “She’s a head scratcher.”
The candor of this highly regarded player is refreshing, but it hardly inspires confidence. To be able to compete at such a high level over the course of your career, there is a certain level of bravado required.
“I’m not like the most confident, like the cocky, like ‘Oh, yeah, I’m the greatest player,'” Coe admitted. “Sometimes I wish I was more like that.”
Windham Clark, the recent US Open champion, is a great example of this phenomenon. The 29-year-old pro spoke at length last week in Los Angeles about his mindset to succeed in a rivalry between the world’s greatest players. The motto was simple: be cocky. It’s a mindset that Ko wishes to embody.
“I saw some interviews from guys last week, and I was like, ‘Damn, I wish I had that mentality,’” Coe said. “I think that’s a great place to be when you’re on the golf course.”
That mentality was absent on Wednesday at Baltusrol. There were no cocky backs in the fairways and no pedestrian putts on the greens. Ko may still be the No. 3 seed in the world, but her game is heading in the opposite direction.
The classic saying goes that when things ain’t broke, don’t fix them. But Ko chose to ignore that wisdom after her 2022 season. She broke away from her swinging trainer and kicked out the can. Despite the most productive season in six years, Koo made wholesale changes.
These adjustments are not surprising if you think about Ko the person In the same vein as Ko the golfer. The two-time grand winner isn’t driven by prizes and legacy in the same way as some of her peers.
“I think especially since I met my husband, I feel like golf, yeah, it’s work, and when I do I want to put in 100 percent,” Ko said earlier this year. “While I play I want to play the best golf I can. But I have been able to embrace it and take advantage of the good and the bad, just like making everything and the results a reward rather than trying to force me to make something out of it. I feel very grateful for the things that have happened in my life both on and off the golf course , and that’s just a good place to be competitive, too.”
Ko, 26, may be entering another chapter in her career, and depending on how you interpret her actions, which might be the last. The 19-time winner on the LPGA Tour has always said she intends to retire by the age of 30, but with the Hall of Fame on the horizon, could that curtain come too soon? Who do you know.
Kuo is not one to volunteer this information easily. Her Hall of-Fame aspirations are very close, but to get there, she’ll have to find the form that propelled her to the top of the game last season.
On Wednesday, this model was MIA. But golf is a funny game, and all it takes is a small spark to make a fully formed bonfire.
“Golf is about momentum,” Coe said. “It doesn’t take much. Golf is one of those weird sports where you might miss seven cuts in a row and then win it the next week.”