Tag: Lydia Ko

Opening eagle vaults Lydia Ko to early lead on her home course at Gainbridge LPGA

An opening eagle vaulted Lydia Ko to the early lead at her home course at the Gainbridge LPGA.

ORLANDO, Fla. – Lydia Ko holed out for eagle with a gap wedge on the first hole, a “perfect” start to an opening round on her home course. Ko said the 7-under 65 was hands down the best she’s ever played around Lake Nona Golf and Country Club. The former No. 1 leads the Gainbridge LPGA by two strokes over Nelly Korda and Nanna Koerstz Madsen.

“I had my sunglasses on and I saw it bounce and kind of go forward and disappear,” said Ko of her approach at the first. “But there is a ridge behind, so I wasn’t sure if it went over the ridge or went in. I didn’t want to celebrate and then look dumb and the ball is like 30 feet long.”

Ko drove her golf cart to the clubhouse this morning and said this is the first 18 holes she’s walked since the final round of the CME Group Tour Championship last December. A fatigued Ko sat down on the 16th at Nona to take a breather.

While she’s obviously quite familiar with the Tom Fazio design, playing for score isn’t routine here.

Gainbridge LPGA: Leaderboard

“Normally when I’m playing, I don’t really count everything,” she said. “The last few rounds I played with a few other players just before this week, so I kind of took my score, because you kind of have to get used to making sure that every shot counts.”

Ko played in the group behind Annika Sorenstam, who is competing on the LPGA this week for the first time since 2008. Sorenstam, a longtime Nona resident, carded a 3-over 75 with a triple-bogey on the par-4 fifth.

“Definitely cool for me to be in the same field as I think the GOAT,” said Ko, a 15-time tour winner whose last title came in 2018.

Current No. 1 Jin Young Ko opened with a 68 in her 2021 debut. Ko won the CME last December to take the money title in only four starts on the LPGA.

“My swing feeling is good and the putting is good,” said Ko, “everything is good. Weather is perfect. My mind is really clearing, so I can’t wait.”

There are six current Lake Nona members in the field including Nasa Hataoka, Anne van Dam, Lindy Duncan, Leona Maguire, Ko and Sorenstam.

Former member Yani Tseng, a 15-time tour winner who now lives in San Diego, shot 81 in her first round on tour since April 2019.

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Lydia Ko considered skipping Gainbridge LPGA after surgery, but she couldn’t resist a home game at Lake Nona

Lydia Ko considered skipping next week’s LPGA event at Lake Nona after surgery, but she couldn’t resist teeing it up so close to home.

Lydia Ko can’t decide how she should make her way to the Lake Nona clubhouse next week. Should she drive her car, take her golf cart or walk to the Gainbridge LPGA event?

“I didn’t think I’d have to make these decisions,” she said with a laugh.

Ko underwent nose surgery for a deviated septum one month ago in South Korea and considered skipping the Gainbridge event, held last year in Boca Raton, Florida. But when it was announced in mid-January that the second event of the season would be played in her literal backyard, Ko knew she couldn’t miss it. The former No. 1 has been a member of Lake Nona for three years and has lived inside the gates for just over a year.

Anne van Dam said she’ll have to drive to the clubhouse because it’s about a 20-minute walk from her house inside the gates. The Jutanugarn sisters, Ariya and Moriya, also practice out of Lake Nona but decided not to come back from Thailand just yet. Lindy Duncan is a frequent practice partner of Ko’s out at Nona – they can be seen on the course settling up bets with push-ups ­– and she’ll be in the field. Ko joked that she might put up a “Go Lindy” sign on her house.

Anna Nordqvist and Yani Tseng once lived at Lake Nona but have since moved out west. Annika Sorenstam sold her house to Tseng and then moved across the fairway into David Leadbetter’s old house on the 16th hole at Nona. Next week Sorenstam will tee it up against LPGA players for the time since she retired for the tour in 2008.

Like so many current LPGA players, Ko has never competed in the same field as Sorenstam. If they’re on opposite sides of the draw next week, Ko said she’d love to go follow Sorenstam’s group.

“It’s a shame we won’t have fans,” said Ko. “There will be great hype (for Annika). I’m super looking forward to it.”

In addition to playing with the LPGA players who call Nona home, van Dam also tees it up with the likes of major winners Henrik Stenson and Graeme McDowell. Sometimes she plays against the men from the tips (7,215 yards) where her low score is 3 or 4 under.

“How they can shape shots and the diversity of their game is incredible,” said van Dam of Nona’s PGA Tour members.

Anne Van Dam (right) and Suzann Pettersen (left) of Team Europe celebrate winning a hole during Day 2 of the 2019 Solheim Cup at Gleneagles. (Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images)

Last December van Dam, one of the longest players in the women’s game who boasts one of the most enviable swings, started working with Sean Foley, who also works with Ko.

Their main focus, she said, has been on her wedge game from 150 yards in.

“For me, the main key was because I swing so fast, I have a lot of speed in my hands and arms,” she said, “that it’s sometimes hard to control a 60-yard shot or three-quarter nine. … I almost feel like I swing with less lag.”

Karen Stupples, another former Lake Nona resident who will be working next week for Golf Channel, said van Dam’s length off the tee is a big advantage at the Tom Fazio-designed course.

“It’s a course you could play every single day of your life and never get bored,” Stupples said.

Before the tour resumed last summer in July at the Drive On event in Toledo, Foley gave Ko and Duncan several games to try to keep things interesting. They sometimes played worst ball for nine holes or worked on their wedge games by playing from the forward tees.

Ko flew back to South Korea after the CME Group Tour Championship and took six weeks off from golf, her longest stretch to date.

“I couldn’t breathe out of my left nostril before the surgery,” said Ko, who was told it would take two to three months to fully recover.

Ko has met with Foley several times since she returned to Florida and said they’ve picked up where they left off last season. She was quite pleased with the consistency of her game in the 12 tournaments she played after the LPGA season resumed last July. She posted nine top-20 finishes and didn’t miss a single cut.

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In addition to changes in technique, Ko said Foley has taught her a lot about acceptance and gratitude.

Sometimes it’s easy to get so invested in the moment, she explained, and get emotional or irrational when things don’t go her way. She has worked on doing her best in the moment and then moving on.

“I tried to play with that mindset last year,” she said, “to be able to play more freely and just kind of trust myself. I think that’s sometimes more important than the technical side.”

The 15-time LPGA winner doesn’t often keep score when she’s practicing at home. She does, however, remember a period early on at Nona when she just wanted to break par.

Van Dam actually has two chances to compete at home this year with the Big Green Egg Dutch Ladies Open being played less than 15 minutes from her house in Holland at the Rosendaelsche Golf Club June 30-July 3 on the Ladies European Tour.

That’s a tougher commute given that it’s on the heels of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in Atlanta.

Those with local knowledge at Nona have the benefit of skipping five-hour practice rounds. They’ll have the comforts of their own bed and their own fridge and popping out late in the evening for a quick loop. They won’t have to worry about heavy traffic or getting lost.

But, unlike many rounds played at home, they will have to keep score.

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LPGA preview: Judy Rankin weighs in on a brewing battle for 2021, Nelly Korda’s enviable swing and Lydia Ko’s future

World Golf Hall of Famer Judy Rankin, lead analyst for Golf Channel, caught up with Golfweek to talk about the upcoming LPGA season.

The 2021 LPGA season kicks off Jan. 21-24 at the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions, a mere four weeks after the 2020 season concluded in Naples, Florida. World Golf Hall of Famer Judy Rankin joined the LPGA as a teenager in 1962 and still keeps as close an eye on the tour as anyone as lead analyst for Golf Channel. Golfweek caught up with 75-year-old Rankin to talk about the upcoming season and her thoughts on some of the biggest names in golf.

Which player are you most curious about going into 2021?

I had had a hunch that we would see a real battle between Sei Young Kim and Jin Young Ko. Just seems fairly obvious to me. These are the two that play the hard courses well and they seem to have a tremendous consistency.

These are just hunches on my part. I think Brooke Henderson has been awfully quiet. I feel like she will come back with a vengeance. And I really don’t think we have seen how the good the Korda sisters are. I can’t say that we are going to immediately, but that’s what I think.

Obviously both (Nelly and Jessica) had some physical ailments, but what else is holding them back, do you think?

I don’t know. I think it’s getting in the mode that you really believe you can win every week.

CME Group Tour Championship 2020
Jin Young Ko poses with the CME Globe trophy after winning the CME Group Tour Championship. Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images

Jin Young Ko made quite the statement to end last year. What do you like most about her game and how high is her ceiling?

From what I can understand, in the last year and a half she decided that she wanted to hit the ball a little farther and she accomplished that. She seems to take little pieces of her game that she thinks she can improve on … she seems to take on that mission and do it. There’s a fine line between that and the player who says ‘I have to hit it farther to compete’ and destroys themselves. She seems to have an extremely measured way of considering what needs to be better and getting it done. I think that’s all a part of how we see her play under pressure and so on because there’s such a calmness about her.

Let me equate it to my television. I can remember way back in the very beginning when I was trying to memorize everything. At some point, I don’t know if it was divine intervention or what is was, but I quit trying to memorize things and I could think. When I could actually have my brain work a little bit and think, not only did I enjoy it more, but I’m told I got better.

To me, that’s a little bit how you see some people trying to play. They’re trying to think about all those things that are working or not working, they’re fixated with their golf swing. It takes up too much space, where they can’t just have the instinctual things, and the things they would see that help them to react to a shot or how they play it. That stuff doesn’t happen like it should.

With her, it looks like it’s always happening the way it should.

She seems to have a maturity that’s beyond her years.

To some degree, that’s what I’m saying. It’s a maturity. When you say that about somebody, you’re saying that they play as though they’ve had a lot of experience, yet we know they haven’t had those experiences.

Inbee Park in the final round of women’s golf during the Rio 2016 Summer Olympic Games. Mandatory Credit: Rob Schumacher-USA TODAY Sports

Where would a gold medal rank for you in the scope of a career?

Huge. A gold medal is every bit of a major championship if not a grand slam. Now, if you look at it in a more rational sense, the people you have to beat and the test and all that, it isn’t anywhere near as hard as a grand slam. That’s our perception of the Olympics and a gold medal, which clearly over all these years has been built over all sports.

Will Lydia Ko ever be No. 1 again?

I don’t think so. I think she can be a significant player and certainly a winner again. But I think that was a gift and a moment in time. It’s not that I don’t think she’ll ever be good again, because I do think she will be. But I don’t think she can be a dominant player. And one reason is when she played with the skills she had – and she was so skilled – that it didn’t matter that she wasn’t knock-your-socks off long. And that’s hard to get back again.

LPGA: LPGA Drive Championship - First Round
Lydia Ko of New Zealand tees off on the 17th hole during the first round of the LPGA Drive Championship golf tournament at Inverness Club. Photo credit: Marc Lebryk-USA TODAY Sports

You said a moment in time, do you think everything was going so perfectly for her at that time that without the advantage of length, she can’t get back there?

I don’t mean to use fantastical words, but she was young. She really didn’t know any defeat. She didn’t know about not trusting herself. And she had perfected what she did to a great degree where the consistency was unbelievable. She was also a very good putter.

It’s funny that this not very big girl, became a little bit of an intimidating factor to young women on the tour.

Who is your favorite player to watch right now?

Well, I tell you, I like when I talk with her and spend a little time with her, I very much like Sei Young Kim. I don’t know if people grasp that watching her play. She has a bit of a sense of humor. It’s a fun conversation.

As far as beauty of the game, I like to watch Nelly.

Nelly Korda plays a shot on the second hole during the third round of the CME Group Tour Championship at Tiburon Golf Club on November 23, 2019 in Naples, Florida. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)

What do you admire the most about Nelly’s game?

Her golf swing. The taller people tend to have golf swings that are more graceful. To me, it’s very powerfully graceful. … I think when Michelle Wie was 14 and 15, she might have had the swing that Nelly has now. Then her swing changed so many times and got so different. Nelly’s is the swing we would all have if we could all be 5-foot-11, long-limbed and all these things.

Who is underachieving the most right now?

Ariya Jutanugarn, there is no doubt as far as talent-wise. I don’t know why. I don’t know what’s gotten into her head.

How would you fix Lexi Thompson?

I really do think a big part of it is in her head. I think if she could play more relaxed, if she could play and not worry about putts. And believe me, I’ve had plenty of moments of my own that I wish I could have, so I don’t know how to tell her. But I think there’s a terrible stress in her game, that sometimes she doesn’t acknowledge. … I don’t know, you just can see it. … I think she just needs to play with a little reckless abandon, and I don’t think she can do that. With the people around her and this and that, that’s pretty hard to do.

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Lydia Ko staying patient at U.S. Women’s Open: ‘Par’s sometimes not a bad score’

While many in the pack struggled with soggy fairways at Champions Golf Club, Lydia Ko just kept making pars at the U.S. Women’s Open.

The holidays are a time to be thankful, maintain perspective, and appreciate the little things. Lydia Ko tried to do all of this on Saturday, realizing that her 72 in the third round of the 75th U.S. Women’s Open certainly wasn’t Christmas-lights flashy, but it’s also not something to bemoan consider the conditions players were facing.

In fact, while many in the pack struggled with soggy fairways at Champions Golf Club — for example, Stacy Lewis, who is a member here, shot a 77 on Saturday — Ko just kept making pars. She finished the day with 15 alongside a pair of bogeys and a single birdie, and she’s still within range of the leaders heading into Sunday, sitting at even par through three rounds of play.

She’s thankful to be in a tie for fifth with Yealimi Noh, Megan Khang and amateur Kaitlyn Papp.

“Everyone’s playing in pretty much the same course conditions, as the tee time spans are pretty tight, so it’s just trying to grind my way out there,” Ko said. “Obviously, I feel like I could have shot a lower score, but at the same time I think it could have been a lot worse, so I’ll take what I have today.”

What she had was consistency. Ko, who has two major victories under her belt, has not fared well in U.S. Women’s Opens outside of a T-3 at CordeValle Golf Club in 2016. But she putted well on Saturday and remained in contention.

USWO: Leaderboard | Photos

And speaking of consistency, that’s exactly what Ko used to describe the greens at Champions, despite the varying conditions. Thursday was warm and sunny, Friday saw hard rain and Saturday brought a chill, yet the greens remained stable, she said.

“I think that they have been pretty consistent. I really struggled with my green speed, the control on the first day and I was like, man, I can’t putt this way because it’s just, there’s too much grinding out there,” she said. “Sometimes you’re going to have those longer putts, so it’s really important to kind of dial in the green speed and distance control.

“But I feel like I’ve been doing that a lot better the last couple of days, so I’ve been trying to putt a little bit more downhill putts and just stay patient. Sometimes, you keep kind of going on the par train and you’re like, OK, when is there going to be like a good turnaround? But, no, around a course like this and especially at majors, par’s sometimes not a bad score.”

Aside from being thankful for her even-keeled round, Ko is happy with the season she’s had concerning the majors. She finished in the top 20 in the three previous majors this season, including a sixth-place finish at the ANA Inspiration.

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“I think this is probably the best stretch I’ve had in the majors, outside of probably in 2016,” she said. “But I think the more times you put yourself in that position and in those kinds of pressure conditions I think the more you get used to it and things go your way you could be the one that’s hosting the trophy at the end of the Sunday.

“I think it is really important, not only in majors, but in other events, to just keep playing consistently and if you keep putting yourself in that position, I feel like at some point if it is your time it’s going to fall your way.”

Of course, Ko will need to play well on Sunday and hope that leader Hinako Shibuno comes back to the pack. As for the leader — who always seems to be happy and even has the nickname “Smiling Cinderella” — Ko said she keeps using her cheerful disposition for positive results.

“I feel like it’s either a great poker face or she’s that smiling assassin. I feel like I smile quite a lot out there, but I’m like pretty grumpy compared to her,” Ko said of Shibuno. “I think she’s stayed pretty calm and you saw her at the British Open, I’m sure, going into that Sunday there were, there might have been doubts, because not many people have heard of her compared to some other players.

“But she showed them who is boss and she’s clearly doing that right now.”

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My first U.S. Women’s Open: LPGA players tell stories from their championship debut

Rookie week at the U.S. Women’s Open is impossible to forget, even for big-name players like Annika Sorenstam, Karrie Webb and Stacy Lewis.

As the 75th U.S. Women’s Open kicks off this week in Houston, 41 players will be experiencing the game’s ultimate test for the first time. Rookie week at this championship is impossible to forget – the nerve-wracking, awe-inspiring, did-that-just-happen moments are seared in the memory banks. Golfweek asked a number of LPGA players to share highlights from their U.S. Women’s Open debuts. It won’t be long now before names like Hinako Shibuno, Yealimi Noh and Bianca Pagdanganan have stories of their own.

Annika Sorenstam, 1992 Oakmont Country Club (T-63)

It was really rainy there. It was so wet that year. That’s when Patty Sheehan and Juli Inkster got in a playoff. The course was known for fast greens. They roll 12 and the members think it’s slow. The first day I only played four holes; I teed off at like 7:30 at night. The next morning, we were hitting balls warming up, and it was so lush. I was hitting wedges and my divots were huge, thick and heavy. Just mud. I remember just hitting one after another and these divots were flying, and I wasn’t really paying attention to where they were flying. My caddie said maybe you should aim somewhere else. I said why? Well, there’s a player over there giving you the evil eye. I looked over and it was Dottie (Pepper). It had landed on her head like several times, this wet divot. I was like oops.

Maybe not the entry I had planned.

 Lydia Ko, 2012 Blackwolf Run (T-39, low amateur)

I know what it was like for my cousin. She fainted that week because it was so hot. And then the next day my aunt fainted. I think that was the first U.S. Open they came to and the last as well. It was obviously extremely tricky. It’s a golf course I’d seen from Se Ri’s win (in 1998) so it was super cool for me, especially being South Korean-born to go to a golf course where there’s so much history and where she really changed the game and women’s golf. It was cool to kind of see that and go oh, that shot she hit on 18. It is probably, even to this day, maybe the trickiest, or top two trickiest U.S. Women’s Opens I’ve ever played in. I was so nervous that I hit my driver and hit my second shot on the green and I couldn’t line up my putts. I use the line on my ball for putting and I just couldn’t do it. I tried a few times and I couldn’t … I remember putting without a line that first hole.

Amateur Lydia Ko hits her tee shot on the par-4 14th hole during the second round of the 2012 U.S. Women’s Open.

Morgan Pressel, 2001 Pine Needles (MC)

It’s funny, the things I remember are the rain delays, because it was a time that I was in the locker room with all of these people I had looked up to. It was the locker room, and then there was a little dining room. I never wanted to leave. I just wanted to sit there because it was an opportunity for me to talk and say hi to all these people I had only ever seen on TV.

Maria Fassi, 2015 Lancaster Country Club (MC)

I birdied my very first hole. I honestly don’t remember if I started on 10 or 1, but there was a bunker on the right side and we had talked about it with my caddie, that the bunker wasn’t really in play. I remember flying it past the bunker because of how excited I was. We had a good laugh after that, and then I hit it to 4 feet and made the putt. So I was like OK, first time out here. It was a cool birdie, and a great way to start a U.S. Open.

Stacy Lewis, 2007 Pine Needles (MC)

I was still in college. I had (former Arkansas coach) Kelley Hester caddying for me because she was going to Georgia that summer. I remember I played pretty terrible. It wasn’t the best first U.S. Open experience. I remember kind of being overwhelmed by the golf course. It was hard. I just remember not feeling prepared. It was unlike anything I’d ever played before.

As you do it more times, you kind of forget what that experience is like. You almost forget what it’s like to be that rookie or to be that amateur that’s playing for the first time.

I like seeing the girls here with their dads caddying because that’s what I’ve always had. You try to help them out, but they just need to experience that themselves. I was having a good summer too. I won nationals that year – won the Southern, the Western, semis at the North & South. I was playing well.

U.S. Women's Open Championship - Round One
Stacy Lewis hits her drive from the seventh tee during the 2007 U.S. Women’s Open. (Photo by Jonathan Ernst/Getty Images)

Ally Ewing, 2014 Pinehurst (MC)

My first U.S. Open was Pinehurst. I had won the North & South there the previous summer so qualifying for that was so exciting to me. I’d played well there, and then I just got eaten alive. Pinehurst is just a really distinct golf course. I have never walked away from a golf tournament feeling like I had executed more shots then I was given credit for. So I walked away from Thursday/Friday saying, you know, I hit some really good shots that didn’t work out. It’s just an unforgiving golf course.

Angela Stanford, 2000 Merit Club (MC)

I played with Carol Semple Thompson. We had played on the Curtis Cup together that year. I remember standing on a tee and I swear she said this is my 27th in a row. (Editor’s note: Thompson, an amateur, did not play in 27 consecutive but she did compete in 32 U.S. Women’s Opens, her last coming in 2002.)

I remember thinking holy cow … how in the world did she do that? So this (year) is 21 (for me). Just looking back on that, I remember thinking I hope I get to play 10, and this will be my 21st in a row!

And I remember being terrified of Karrie Webb.

Karrie Webb, 1996 Pine Needles (T-19)

What I remember was that (my caddie) said the word patience so many times that I ended up like, I’m sick of hearing the word (bleeping) patience! But that’s my biggest memory. I had to learn how to play U.S. Open golf. You know, I’d play well up until then but had not come across a course as difficult. And I wasn’t used to making as many bogeys and working as hard for pars. And it is, it’s about patience. I think that’s still, for me, my biggest battle at any major is patience. I have, at times, been really good and then other weeks be a couple over early and start pressing and thinking about end scores and I know better than that. That’s just always going to be my Achilles’ heel at majors is patience.

Brittany Altomare, 2009 Saucon Valley (MC)

My dad caddied for me. My grandfather had actually just passed away when I had qualified, like a few weeks before. It was kind of like a special moment, playing in it. I didn’t know that you could call and make practice round times. You go and you register and look at the screens for practice rounds and Lorena had an opening in her group. My dad was like just do it! So literally my first U.S. Open and professional tournament I played a practice round with her. I was more nervous on Monday than I was teeing it up on Thursday. But she was like the nicest person ever. She was engaging with me and asking me questions. It could not have been a better experience.

Brittany Altomare
Brittany Altomare tees off on the 15th hole during the second round of the 2009 U.S. Women’s Open. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

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At Lydia Ko’s Drive On press conference, a junior reporter stole the show

Claire Hollingsworth, an LPGA-USGA Girls Golf participant, became the first non-tour player to star in an LPGA Drive On spot.

The first question Lydia Ko fielded during a pre-tournament press conference for the LPGA Drive On Championship came from 14-year-old junior reporter Claire Hollingsworth. The ninth grader had just competed in the Tennessee State High School Championship and realized that she needed more distance.

What advice would Ko give, she asked, to a petite player looking to get stronger?

It’s a fitting question given Ko’s recent efforts to pack on muscle. The 15-time LPGA winner’s lengthy answer included a shout-out to 5-foot-1-inch Mo Martin, who won a major and goes by the nickname “Mighty Mo.” Ko also noted that she’ll be competing alongside Lexi Thompson and Austin Ernst in the first two rounds of this week’s event, and that she’ll be the first to hit on every approach shot.

“If you play within your strengths,” Ko told her, “you’re still able to compete at a very high level.”

Ko headlined this interview session, but Hollingsworth stole the show. Earlier on Wednesday the LPGA rolled out its latest Drive On spot starring Hollingsworth, an LPGA-USGA Girls Golf participant.

The powerful 30-second spot is narrated by Hollingsworth, who says that two days after she was born in China, she was left outside an orphanage in a small wooden box. Nine months later she was adopted by an American family that happened to love golf. She has an important story to tell.

“I may be small,” said the 4-foot-9-inch teen, “but I am mighty.”

Last year Hollingsworth went to China with her family and visited the orphanage she came from in the Hunan province. The family donated box fans because the building still doesn’t have air-conditioning.

“They turned it into a special-needs home,” she said, “and that was really nice to see.”

A young Claire Hollingsworth (courtesy LPGA)

With the LPGA’s fall Asian swing canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the tour scheduled a second Drive On tournament to help fill a five-week gap. The tournament, held over the Great Waters Course at Reynolds Lake Oconee, has a field of 108 players and a purse of $1.3 million.

The first Drive On event, held at Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio, in July and won by Danielle Kang, ended a 166-day break in competition for the LPGA. Money from a number of sponsors who weren’t able to host events, in addition to funds from the Aon Risk Reward Challenge, were put together to make these crucial events happen.

Lydia Ko poses with The Robert Cox trophy after winning the 2012 U. S. Women’s Amateur Championship at The Country Club in Cleveland, Ohio. (Golfweek/Tracy Wilcox)

The tournament’s Drive On title highlights the LPGA’s commercial campaign that tells the stories of grit, determination and inspiration on the women’s tour. Haley Moore, Mariah Stackhouse and Gerina Piller are among those who have been featured. Hollingsworth is the first golfer to be part of the series who isn’t a member of the tour.

Ko, 23, was born in South Korea but grew up in New Zealand and now lives in the United States. Even though she enjoyed unprecedented success as a teenager, Ko said that like any other girl her age, she had insecurities.

“I feel like I was very fortunate to be involved with two amazing cultures, and now three cultures being here in the U.S., but I think outside of all that, as a teenage girl or in your young teens, you all feel insecure about a few things,” she said. “Like, man, I don’t belong at times, or I wish I had this, and I don’t. Other people just look bigger and better than you.

“Yes, I’ve definitely been in that position before. I think the more time that went by and the more time I kind of got to spend on tour with the other ladies, I think I was just able to embrace – I’m still in the learning process – but be able to kind of understand and embrace myself. No one is perfect. All you can do is be the best version of yourself and that’s it and have fun during that process.”

It’s a message that’s bigger than awards and titles. Events like Drive On and 70 years of LPGA golf have given so many women the platform to pass it on.

Mighty Claire is now a part of that legacy.

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‘Be an athlete’: Lydia Ko gets stronger in quest to take her game to the next level

Lydia Ko, a 15-time winner on the LPGA, is on a quest to gain muscle and take her game to the next level.

Lydia Ko’s quest to gain as much muscle as she can has her looking to buy new pants.

“I want her screen saver to be Serena (Williams),” said instructor Sean Foley.

Ko emerged from the LPGA’s 166-day quarantine with noticeably more muscle on her petite frame. It hasn’t been easy keeping it on while traveling, particularly with the restrictions of COVID-19. The former No. 1 tries to keep her jumping workouts to a minimum in hotel rooms when she’s on a top floor.

The KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, pushed to October due to the pandemic, is being played this week at historic Aronimink Golf Club, a 124-year old Donald Ross design west of Philly. Ko said she doesn’t feel like it’s a course that favors any particular player, but even the longest players on tour are keen to talk about its length. With Aronimink playing especially soft in the fall, hybrids have been overworked early week. The official scorecard has the par-70 layout at 6,577 yards. Tees will likely be moved up throughout the competition.

Ko, who ranks 53rd in driving distance at 256 yards and drinks one protein shake per day, has taken up rock climbing to increase her grip strength and arm strength.

“Men apply way more force into the grip than women do,” said Foley. “It’s not really force into the ground, it’s force into the grip.”

She plays tennis at Lake Nona with Ariya and Moriya Jutanugarn, Lindy Duncan and Jennifer Song. Goes running too, even though she’s not really a fan.

“I don’t like running,” said Ko, “but I like the feel of after a run. You sweat it out, and I feel like some of the stress or things you kind of keep in are expressed out. I like that bit.”

Ko is longer this season, by nearly 11 yards according to LPGA stats, and Foley said that’s also a result of changes they’ve made to her technique.

When Foley first began working with Ko, he told the 15-time tour winner that the reverse move that caused her to hook the ball reminded him of a tippy canoe.

“Lydia is a pure rotator,” he said. “Over the way she stopped turning, so she had to find other ways to generate energy, which aren’t really good for face control and path. When she hits her shot that she hates to the left, I just said stop tipping the canoe.”

Much of their work together has been focused on answering the many questions she now has swirling in her head. Foley tells her to dig a hole, pile all her bad thoughts in it, cover it up and never think of it again.

For so many great players, the game came naturally, he said, and when it grows difficult, they suddenly become contemplative and intellectual about it, when it was never that way before.

“So that’s the tricky part,” he said. “How do you go back to something you don’t remember building?”

In the case of the tippy canoe, Ko actually went out to her backyard with a “canoe tombstone,” put it in the ground and snapped a picture for Foley.

“We’ve all been playing the game for so long, so sometimes (you say), ‘Man, where did that come from?’ ” said Ko. “I think it’s just as important to kind of clear those questions in your head like mentally and philosophically, and I think he’s really helped me in that aspect, where I just kind of bury it and then just walk away and try and not think about it again.”

Ko lost 15 pounds in 2018 in an effort to gain more speed and has put on about 10 pounds of muscle since then.

Bryson DeChambeau’s physical transformation was a hot topic in 2020, even before he overpowered Winged Foot to win the U.S. Open. Ko calls DeChambeau’s efforts that week incredible and is quick to point out that he didn’t win that championship on strength alone.

“I don’t know personally, how much muscle gain I can have,” she said. “My trainers and I are working hard to hopefully get stronger.”

This quest isn’t a race either, Foley notes. In their 10 years together, Justin Rose gained 35 yards over time. Problems often arise when the search for distance leads to momentous change overnight. DeChambeau’s changes, he said, are highly-engineered.

Lexi Thompson joked last week at the ShopRite LPGA Classic that of course she wouldn’t mind hitting it farther, but that she wouldn’t want to put on 40 pounds to get it.

Most LPGA setups don’t reward exceptional length anyway, notes Golf Channel analyst and major champion Karen Stupples.

Current No. 1 Jin Young Ko won two majors last year and swept the LPGA’s season-long awards while ranking 76th in driving distance at 258 yards. When Ko won five times in 2015, she averaged 250 off the tee, about 6 yards shorter than she is now.

Plus, it’s more difficult for most women to pack on muscle.

“Naturally, we don’t have the same chemicals in our body that allow us to build the same way that a guy does,” said Stupples. “To even gain 10 pounds of lean muscle is a huge thing for a woman to do.”

When a woman dramatically changes her physique, it can open up the door to unwanted criticism. It takes an especially single-minded and determined approach, Stupples noted, to not take harsh comments personally.

“That’s the problem,” said Foley, “the vanity, the social unconscious biases of how a woman should look, and how many people walk around with that as their idea and that’s their comparison. Whereas to me, you’re an athlete. Be an athlete.”

Lydia Ko headlines major race at taxing Royal Troon

As Laura Davies said, anyone who makes the cut at the AIG Women’s British Open has a chance to take the title at Royal Troon.

Laura Davies birdied the 18th at Royal Troon and popped into the booth for her second job as a commentator for Sky Sports. Her takeaway going into the weekend: Anyone who makes the cut at the AIG Women’s British Open has a chance to take the title.

After two days of brutally difficult weather, Sweden’s Dani Holmqvist remains the only player under par at Royal Troon. Rounds of 71-70 put her one shot ahead of American Austin Ernst and Sophia Popov of Germany and two shots clear of a bunched group at 1 over that includes Lydia Ko and Minjee Lee.

Ko sounds as if she has moved on from that botched finish at the Marathon LPGA Classic, but there’s no way to really know until she gets in the thick of it again on Sunday.

Women’s British Open: Leaderboard

“The more times I put myself in contention or in a good position, it gives me confidence about my game,” said Ko. “Sean (Foley) has been trying to get me to swing aggressively and freely and I feel like I hit it better that way. Sometimes it’s easier said than done, but you know, I’ve just got to go out there and not worry about it and just believe in myself.”

Dani Holmqvist of Sweden plays her second shot on the 18th hole of the AIG Women’s Open at Royal Troon. (Photo: R&A via Getty Images)

Holmqvist, playing in her second Women’s British, started working with Brad Faxon on her mindset and short game during the LPGA’s five-month break. The extra time to work on her game and rehab her back has paid off handsomely thus far for the 32-year-old, who tied for 29th last week and leads at Royal Troon.

In the fall of 2018, Holmqvist injured her back at the Blue Bay LPGA event in China when a shuttle cart transporting players between holes lost control on a steep hill and slammed into a wall.

“I had a disk, which is leaking, and also really inflamed facet joint,” said Holmqvist. “So I injected that many times, and then it’s just been rehab and ice and kind of rest and you know how it is with backs, it’s a long process and very tedious. It’s an everyday thing.”

This marks the first time Holmqvist has ever led an LPGA event.

Lindsey Weaver can’t possibly go unnoticed at Troon as she’s been out there battling the elements without a caddie. The Arizona grad, playing in her first British Open, has been using a push cart since the LPGA restarted its season in mid-July. A second-round 72 puts her in a share of fourth at 1 over.

Nelly Korda found it difficult to stand up early on in Thursday’s round but found Round 2 even more of a challenge as the wind was consistently strong throughout. Korda posted a second-consecutive 72 and sits three shots back. She played alongside 2018 British champ Georgia Hall and took comfort in the face that it was tough for her too.

“We were like, are you scared over 1-footers, too, with this wind?” said Nelly, “because we were like shaking over it with wind and the gusts. She’s like, me, too. I’m like, OK, good.”

Sophia Popov of Germany plays a shot from a greenside bunker at the AIG Women’s Open at Royal Troon. (Photo: R&A via Getty Images)

Inbee Park matched the day’s low round, 2-under 69, to vault up the board into a share of 17th, five shots back. The seven-time major winner won the last time she teed it up on the LPGA, the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open, back in February. This week she has her husband, Gi Hyeob Nam, on the bag (longtime caddie Brad Beecher will be back next week). Park noted earlier in the week that Nam sometimes gets his math wrong.

After two rounds in exceptionally trying conditions, Park gave her man high marks. There is one area, however, where they can certainly improve.

“A couple of decisions that I had was probably wrong,” she said. “It was No. 16, I hit into the water twice yesterday. We laid up in the water. Today we tried to go over the water, but we went into in the water. That was the only hole maybe we have to change the plan the next two days.”

Park thought it might be “impossible” to break par on Troon in these conditions, but the 2015 British Open champion proved herself wrong. The LPGA Hall of Famer counts Scotland as one of her favorite places to play.

“I’m not going to say I’m enjoying this weather,” she said, “but it is fun competing in this weather.”

Scotland’s Catriona Matthew spent a brief time atop the board in red numbers at Troon before faltering a bit to a 76. The European Solheim Cup captain turns 51 next Tuesday and looks to become the oldest player to win an LPGA major. Fay Crocker won the 1960 Titleholders Championship at 45 years, 7 months and 11 days.

Matthew, the 2009 Women’s British champ, trails by six heading into the weekend.

“It was a lot tougher out there actually, a lot tougher today,” said Matthew. “It was just a crosswind today, so downwind played as tough coming as going out, actually. I didn’t hit it great to be fair. Made some quite miraculous up-and-downs.”

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Azahara Munoz, Lydia Ko rebound at Ladies Scottish Open after tough ending in Ohio

Azahara Munoz and Lydia Ko ended last week’s Marathon Classic in unfortunate fashion, but they’re back in the mix this week in Scotland.

Golf is an incredibly difficult game, but it’s a lot easier when you’re playing from the fairway.

Just ask Azahara Munoz.

The Spaniard was precise off the tee and followed suit on the greens during Saturday’s third round of the Ladies Scottish Open, making her way around Renaissance Club in North Berwick, Scotland, at 2-under 69 to claim the 54-hole lead at 7 under. Americans Stacy Lewis and Jennifer Song are one and two shots back, respectively. Lydia Ko and Cheyenne Knight are T-4 at 4 under.

“Today I think I literally hit every fairway, lots of greens,” said Munoz of her round. “Maybe I could’ve made a few more putts today but still made some nice ones, some nice par saves. The pins were so tricky, a couple holes into the wind were playing really long and overall I kept managing myself well like the last couple days.”

Last week Munoz was disqualified from the Marathon LPGA Classic, the tour’s second event back after an extended break due to the coronavirus pandemic, after failing to sign her scorecard after the final round. The 32-year-old got right back on track during Thursday’s opening round, making an eagle on the first hole of the Ladies Scottish Open while playing in the first group.

Ladies Scottish Open: Leaderboard

On Sunday she’ll be in the final group looking for her second LPGA win.

“Yeah, I’m enjoying being out there so much. I don’t know, I think this break was really good for me,” said Munoz of the time off. “I just came back and I just want to play golf. I just want to enjoy myself. I’m going to do my best, so at the end of the day, wherever that puts me, it puts me. But in the past, I think I always get a little upset if things don’t work out or whatever, but I always give my hundred percent. As long as I do that, that’s all I can do.”

Ko had a heartbreaking finish of her own last week at the Marathon LPGA Classic, making double bogey on the final hole to lose to Danielle Kang by one. Six days later in Scotland, Ko fired off the low round of the day, a bogey-free 4-under 67 to get right back in the mix.

“Almost having a tournament right after makes you focus on what’s right there in front of you and I think maybe less think about what happened at Marathon,” said Ko. “Obviously I would have loved to have had one more higher finish in the end. There’s a lot about what happened to me on the last hole. But you have to talk about what amazing golf Danielle played. I just think it really wasn’t meant to be.”

She continued: “I was joking, I haven’t been in this position in a while, so it was just nice to be back in contention and just feeling those kind of different nerves and that excitement, but just having this tournament right after, it made me focus on just this week, and obviously links golf is a little bit different, so I’ve just been focusing on what’s happening right now and not get too carried away about what happened, because most of it was some of the best golf that I played in a long time.”

Bogey-free golf is a great round anywhere, let alone at a professional tournament across the pond. Just how good was Ko’s 4 under? Only 18 players of the 70 remaining were under par on Saturday.

“It’s nice, no matter where you play, to have a bogey-free round like that. I think when I was out of position, I was able to make up-and-down,” said Ko of her performance. “Sometimes you have to get lucky having a good lie in the bunker or just off the greens, as well, but I feel like overall, I stayed believing in my game and being aggressive when I needed to and then being a little bit safer when it was a tough pin position, as well.”

“I think you kind of have to manage that really well, and that will give me a good lesson for next week at the British Open.”

Danielle Kang wins again in Toledo as good friend Lydia Ko suffers 18th-hole collapse

Kang’s closing par for a 68 clinched the $255,000 prize. She’s the first player to win back-to-back events since Shanshan Feng in 2017.

SYLVANIA, Ohio – Danielle Kang won for a second time in as many weeks, but the lingering talk about the Marathon LPGA Classic centered around the stunning way a once-dominant Lydia Ko managed to lose the tournament.

A woman with one of the most enviable short games in golf misjudged one shot after another on the par-5 18thafter her second shot settled on a cart path behind the green. After Ko took what felt like an eternity to play her third shot, the rest of the collapse happened in short order. A failed bump into the bank for her fourth rolled back into a greenside bunker. Her fifth from a good lie settled 10 feet from the hole. She two-putted for double-bogey, a gut punch felt all the way down in New Zealand.

Ko was commenting on the weather when she arrived at the flash area to talk to reporters. She was calm, cool and gracious.

“When you look back afterwards you are like, maybe I should have done this, maybe I should have done that,” said Ko. “But, I mean, what can you do?”

As Ko talked, her good friend Kang was gathering on the putting green at Highland Meadows, preparing to give her second victory speech this month. Ohio has been good to her.

“I mean, there are really no words, to be honest,” said Kang of what happened to Ko on the 18th. “As a competitor, friend, I mean, she’ll bounce back and she’s a great player and she’s proven to be one of the best players in the world.”

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Kang, 27, entered the final round four strokes back of Ko and after three-putting the 12th, she turned to her caddie, Oliver Brett, and said “Man, that’s too costly.”

Brett responded by telling her that she was five shots back of Ko with six to play.

“I like that,” Kang replied.

Brett laid out the challenge plainly to Kang and she responded, making two consecutive birdies. When she stood on the 18th tee, Kang trailed Ko by a single shot.

What happened next left everyone’s head spinning in absolute shock, though such drama certainly would’ve played out better with a packed grandstand. Only volunteers, officials and media rimmed the final green.

“It’s like putting a big musical together and all the stars of the show are here,” said longtime tournament director Judd Silverman, “but there’s nobody in the theater to watch.”

Ko’s double-bogey dropped her into a share of second with Jodi Ewart Shadoff at 14 under. Kang’s closing par for a 68 clinched the $255,000 first-place prize. She’s the first player to win back-to-back events since Shanshan Feng won the TOTO Japan Classic and the Blue Bay LPGA in the fall of 2017.

Marathon LPGA Classic scores | LPGA schedule

Jin Young Ko, the current No. 1 has yet to compete on the LPGA in 2020. She isn’t signed up for the next two events in Scotland either. Because of changes to the Rolex Rankings due to COVID-19, the LPGA can’t project whether or not Kang will move up to No. 1 after this victory. She moved to No. 2 after clinching last week’s title at the LPGA Drive On Championship at Inverness.

“I think a big part of how I’ve approached the golf game is I’m really not focused on a lot of other things other than just getting better at things I want to get better at,” said Kang. We always have room to improve, and that’s the beauty of golf.

“At the same time, I’m able to tell myself I did a good job with certain things and positive reinforcements to myself so I’m not too critical. That’s something that I think I’ve changed in how I approach my own game.”

Now a five-time winner on the LPGA, Kang made herself at home for her fortnight in Toledo and credited Amy Yang, who stayed in the room across from her at the hotel, for making enough food to share every night.

“I ate out one time,” she said, “and it was McDonald’s.”

Few distractions off the course, and a growing confidence in what she’d worked on with Butch Harmon in Las Vegas during the LPGA’s 166-day break, left her focused on one thing: learning golf courses.

Kang proved a quick study, and now she’ll head to Scotland for two weeks where she’ll try to tame a style of play that hasn’t suited her in the past.

“I’m really excited to go to Scotland actually,” she said. “Links golf hasn’t been my forte, but I’ve kind of proven that what I worked on with different parts of my game. Inverness and Highland Meadows have been two different golf courses completely, and I was able to play well on both of them.”

Ko gets on tonight’s charter flight to Scotland with plenty to think about, though if her post-round interview is any indication, she won’t let Sunday’s catastrophe linger.

“I think there are so many positives from the week,” said Ko, “and I feel overall like more confident in my game. I think that’s really the goal I had coming into this stretch after quarantine.

“Obviously, I would’ve loved to be the one holding the trophy, but I think if somebody said, ‘Hey, you’re going to be second at Marathon coming into the stretch I would’ve been, OK, cool.’ I would take that.”

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