Does Lydia Ko Deserve Another Win?

It’s been some time since we have seen Lydia Ko on the first page of the leaderboard and in the World No. 1 position. But honestly speaking, we are ecstatic that she is up there and back where she belongs. As a super fan of Lydia Ko, we have watched her since she was an amateur playing at the CP Women’s Open and winning the tournament as an amateur. We remember taking a photo with her, not with a smartphone but with a vintage camera. Her dad was caddying for her and graciously volunteered to take the photo of his daughter with us at the pro-am. We followed her at the Kraft Nabisco tournament at Mission Hills when Yani Tseng was World No. 1 and Lydia Ko was still an amateur.

Many years later and when we see Lydia today, we fondly remember her in ponytails and glasses. Lydia was World No. 1 then she fell from grace. She let longtime caddie Jason Hamilton go, ended her Callaway sponsorship, switched coaches and suddenly lost herself. Lydia Ko stopped winning and no one knew why. Even with a new club sponsorship, PXG, Lydia was not winning tournaments.

Enter Sean Foley, Lydia Ko goes back to basics and re-learn her old swing. Suddenly, Lydia Ko is on a comeback. She wins the CME Tour Championship in October 2022, gets married in December 2022, wins the Saudi Aramco Tournament 2023 in February and now sits on World No. 1 position once more.

In Thailand, Lydia is playing very well but so are the other girls such as Nelly Korda, Nasa Hataoka, Pornagong Phatlum, Sei Young Kim and Anna Nordqvist. The leaderboard is packed at the top. It will be interesting to see who ends up winning the Honda LPGA Thailand.

Cutting the Fun Out

A lot of LPGA players find themselves touring the locale when they get cut from a tournament. After Yani Tseng played two dismal rounds, she exited the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic at +10. Almost a day after, she met up with friends in San Francisco and toured the city. She was having a great time at Union Square with best friends yesterday which is fine if she needed a break. But missing the cut meant that her game still needs fixing.

Even on the range, Yani seemed distant. She didn’t want to hit balls and she wasn’t in love with the routine that LPGA players go through when they prepare for a tournament. She needs to embrace the pro circuit and her participation in the tour. Forget playing tourist and get to work Yani!

So Yeon Ryu only played so-so

So Yeon Ryu just celebrated a low round yesterday at the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic by shooting a tournament record of 63. But today, it was like she had never played golf before. She bogeyed the first three holes and thought she was back in the groove on the hole after but continued bogeying the fifth hole. From there, she struggled and fell down the leaderboard.

In the meantime, defending champion Lydia Ko started climbing the leaderboard by sinking birdie after birdie. Last week’s Lotte champion, Minjee Lee also started her move to the top while Katie Burnett was fading fast.

It was moving day and the proposed cut was +3. It would be another cut for Yani Tseng, former World No. 1 who we still love and admire. Hopefully Yani will find her game and stay around for the weekends.