Former LPGA prodigy Lydia Ko 'moving in the right direction'

By Yoo Jee-ho

BUSAN, Oct. 24 (Yonhap) -- Given the record-breaking start to her LPGA career, it wouldn't have seemed possible for Lydia Ko to ever lose confidence.

But the former teen prodigy, now 22 years old, says that's exactly what's transpired in recent years, as she's been trying to recapture the form that once made her the most dominant player on the LPGA Tour.

"I think the big thing for me was when I wasn't hitting the ball well, I was losing confidence," Ko told Yonhap News Agency on Thursday after shooting a three-under 69 to begin the inaugural BMW Ladies Championship in Busan, 450 kilometers southeast of Seoul. "But I feel like I am hitting the ball much better now. With that confidence, it puts less stress on your short game. It just feeds off into each other. They're not completely separate parts of the game."

The 2015 LPGA Player of the Year has picked up just one title in the past three years, and she's hoping she can end the 2019 season on a high. She began her Asian swing at last week's Buick LPGA Shanghai, where she finished tied for 28th.

In 20 starts this year, Ko has had four top-10 finishes, a far cry from the days when she was winning multiple tournaments with shocking ease.

Ko burst onto the scene by winning the CN Canadian Women's Open in 2012 as a 15-year-old amateur. She defended that title while still an amateur and turned pro later in 2013.

Ko won three times in 2014 en route to earning the LPGA Rookie of the Year Award and followed that up with a five-win season in 2015, which included her first career major and her first LPGA Player of the Year Award. During that season, Ko became the youngest golfer to reach No. 1 in the world rankings and also the youngest woman to win a major.

She won another major in 2016 as part of her four wins, and she still hadn't even turned 20.

But then things turned sour in 2017, her first winless season on the LPGA Tour. Ko had a win in 2018 but is left searching for her first win in 2019.

"I think it's a year for me to learn more about my game," Ko said. "I think a lot of the times, I've had to be patient. I've been working really hard with my team to be more consistent and for me to be out there and hit it aggressively and not worry about where the ball is going to go or if the putt is going to fall or not."

Ko had a strong start to the BMW Ladies Championship. She was in the first group to start from the 10th hole at 8 a.m., and the early groups caught a lucky break with the fickle conditions, as light drizzles from the morning hours turned into heavy downpours by the time Ko finished her round just after 1 p.m.

She had four birdies and a bogey on her front nine, and traded one bogey with one birdie on the back nine.

"I felt like if I hadn't shot three-under, I would have been a little disappointed," she said. "I hit two really good putts on the 18th and the first (holes) that lipped out a little bit. It was a round that could have been better. Overall, three-under is a good start to this event."

Ko was born in Seoul and moved to New Zealand as a child. This is her first time in Busan, South Korea's second-largest city. And Ko has been enjoying her stay so much that she wishes the tour would stay here for another week, so "I could try all the different foods. So fresh and amazing. I am a really big foodie.

"(South Korea) is obviously a place I was born in and grew up for the first six, seven years of my life. Just to play in front of all the Korean fans, I love it," she said. "Whether my golf is good or not, that's secondary."

jeeho@yna.co.kr
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