Lydia Ko, based on the extraordinary standards she had set leading into last season, may have had an off year in 2017 after a massive revamping of her support team. Just don’t expect “the youngest player ever to … ” to call it a flop.
Lydia Ko reflects on ‘emotional roller coaster ride’ of winless 2017 LPGA campaign
Ko prefers to focus on the ‘positives’ of what others might consider a down year on the LPGA Tour.
Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images
Ko, in a New Year’s Eve Instagram post, conceded that her first winless season as a professional was an “emotional roller coaster ride” outsiders might consider “disappointing.” The former world No. 1 (and the youngest golfer ever to ascend to the top of the rankings), however, believes any setbacks she suffered over the past 12 months will yield valuable lessons.
“When I reflect back on my year now, I think every moment has been an experience to grow from, and a learning curve for me both on and off the golf course,” wrote Ko, who left David Leadbetter for swing coach Gary Gilchrist, switched from Callaway to PXG gear, and made a number of caddie changes.
While some may classify her season as unrewarding, Ko added she chose to highlight a campaign “still full of positives,” from which she will find “inner strength when things get tough.”
And for sure it was a good season, even though the 20-year-old played 26 tournaments without a victory and lost her No. 1 ranking in June after 85 consecutive weeks at the top. After all, she had top-10 finishes in 11 events, including three second-place outcomes. Not up to her usual sky-high expectations — marked by five Ws, including a major in 2015, and four victories, with another major, in 2016 — but hardly the calamity that those not on Team Lydia might term it.
“I feel like [the season] was better than what everybody else thinks,” Ko said after coming in T16 at November’s season-ending CME Group Tour Championship — a tourney the 14-time tour and two-time major champion won in 2014.
“I feel like I played solid,” she noted. “I’ve had a bunch of top 10s to prove that theory.”
Now ranked ninth in the world, Ko planned not to touch her clubs in December before preparing for the new season, which begins at the end of the month at the Pure Silk-Bahamas LPGA Classic. If she follows her usual routing, Ko will kick off 2018 at the Handa Women’s Australian Championship in February.
