Golf, as in life, is a series of bounces - good and bad – with results that are sometimes unpredictable, sometimes unwanted and even sometimes, unimaginable.
This season, there’s been plenty of unpredictable for Lydia Ko.
You can’t fault the former world No. 1 for wanting to be even better. She upended her entire game to start the year in hopes of improving her game. It was a move made by another former No. 1 in Tiger Woods, who, while atop the rankings, switched instructors, equipment and often his swing, in an effort to further dominate.
Perhaps it was that drive and desire to succeed that got them to the top that also kept them searching for something better, while the rest of us mortals simply wondered why? Ko must have asked herself that question at least once this season, as she tees it up this week in Scotland now a year removed from her last victory on Tour.
“They say what’s not broke, why change it?” Ko acknowledged on Wednesday. “No matter what ranked player you are, there’s always something you can improve on. Even though at that time I was the No. 1 ranked player, I felt there were aspects I could be more consistent and better at.”
Ko started the year with a new caddie, new equipment and a new instructor in an effort to stave off the growing competition on Tour, which has since seen Ariya Jutanugarn and So Yeon Ryu ascend to the top spot as Ko struggled to piece together the new aspects of her game.
“I don’t feel like it’s a lot off. I’ve just been struggling where I couldn’t, the puzzles are there, but it’s been hard to put all those pieces together, and sometimes that is the hardest thing.”
She isn’t far off. In fact, she has seven top-10s including a runner-up finish in Hawaii. But it’s difficult in those moments, even for Ko, not to look back on her incredible play over the last three years and wonder why she isn’t the one holding the trophy.
“You start seeing that moment so much, and you, too, start to compare about the high points. Sometimes you forget what it took to get there,” said Ko. “It’s not like I’m a special case where, hey, I’m the special one. We’re all working hard and I think that what we are working hard towards is to be the one holding the trophy at the end of the week. I feel like it’s not only me in this case. We’re all trying to be patient and confident in our game.”
Those are the key words Ko returned to throughout her press conference on Wednesday. Patience and confidence, as if the more she said them aloud the more they would engrain in her own mind.
“I know that I’ve just got to stay more patient and just be confident in everything going on and just move forward,” Ko reiterated.
The two-time major champion says she’s confident in the changes she made, especially in her new equipment PXG Golf, which during the difficult stretches, has helped her feel better about her game with the belief she’s playing the best clubs available. Patience, on the other hand, she’ll need a little more of this week as she looks to navigate Dundonald Links for her first win of the season.
“You have to be creative and you hit shots that you normally won’t do. I think that’s the coolest thing about it. Especially in links-style golf and with the weather part of it, too, you just never know until the very end.”
Perhaps a good bounce? She’s due for one.
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