SHE may have decided to ditch the status quo but a raft of changes in recent months have been made to preserve, well, the status Ko. Since bursting on to the golfing scene and whipping up the kind of noise you get from a stack of Marshall amplifiers, Lydia Ko has been rockin’ all over the world for a while now. And if we shoehorn any more ropey musical references into this intro we may have to start paying royalties.
Ko is still standing at the top of the women’s rankings but, in this game, you can’t afford to stand still. So what do you do? A couple of tweaks here, some minor tinkerings there? Not quite. Ko opted for a major overhaul and changed her caddie, her coach and her equipment. The 19-year-old will be hoping this new trinity all comes together to good effect this week when she makes his first appearance of 2017 in the Women’s Australian Open.
Given the huge successes Ko has enjoyed in recent years – she’s been winning professional titles since she was 15 and has a total of 14 LPGA Tour wins, including two major crowns – many would perhaps have been tempted to adopt that old sentiment of cautious consolidation, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. For Ko, however, things were not going to plan.
She won the Marathon Classic last July but, after claiming silver in the Olympic golf event, she drifted into the first real lean period of her startling, glory-laden career and finished outside the top 40 in three of her last six LPGA events. It was time to ring the changes.
Her former coach, the celebrated Englishman David Leadbetter, had expressed his concerns in the aftermath of their split and had his doubts about the perceived busy-body role played by Ko’s parents in her development.
“At some point, they’ve got to let the bird fly from the nest and I would often think, ‘it’s not easy coaching three people,’ ” said Leadbetter.
Ko is now working under the tutelage of South African, Gary Gilchrist, who also coaches Ko’s rivals, Ariya Jutanugarn of Thailand and China’s Shanshan Feng, who are ranked No 2 and No 4 in the world respectively.
“Just because we’re at that position in our rankings doesn’t mean (Jutanugarn) hates me and I hate her,” said Ko. “She’s one of the sweetest players on tour. I don’t think it’s necessarily a rivalry thing, but it gives me confidence that he’s a great coach.
“When I talked to the other players that were with Gary, they told me he was very simple and wasn’t very mechanical. That was the aspect I thought would be great.
“I tried a few lessons with him and we ripped the swing apart. I think that was really important and it’s been good to see the changes we’ve made.
“I think if you looked at the swing, It might not look so different, but to me, it feels a little different. It kind of cleared up my mind and that’s very important going forward.”
The various changes that Ko has made, and the manner in which some of them have been undertaken, may have brought a degree of criticism from some quarters but she continues to deal with all the hype, the scrutiny, the fame and the fortunes with great maturity. It is often easy to forget that she is still a teenage lassie. “I don’t think I’ve been very worried about the changes because it almost takes me back to three years ago when I was a rookie,” she added. “When you’re a rookie coming on tour, everything is new and exciting, so that’s a similar mindset coming into this year too.”
Ko is part of a stellar field for this week’s event in Adelaide and the line-up includes Scotland’s standard bearer, Catriona Matthew, who last won the Australian Open back in 1996, the year before Ko was born. Michele Thomson, the former Curtis Cup player, and fellow Aberdeenshire professional, Gemma Dryburgh, make their debuts in an LPGA Tour event.
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