How Lydia Ko shook off a droop and regained her world-beating type

The previous 12 months had all of it — loopy successful streaks, new main champs, a major-week arrest (!) and extra. With 2025 on the horizon, our writers are trying again on the most memorable moments from 2024.

No. 15 — Charley Hull goes viral | No. 14 — LIV, LPGA CEOs say goodbye | No. 13 — Solheim Cup parking fiasco | No. 12 — Phoenix Open chaos

Greatest golf moments of 2024 No. 11: Lydia Ko comes storming again. Once more

Judging strictly by statistics, the ladies’s recreation in 2024 belonged to Nelly Korda, who gained seven occasions, earned Participant of the Yr honors and reclaimed the highest spot within the Rolex rankings. However by no means thoughts the numbers. Let’s discuss narratives. Over the previous 12 months on the LPGA Tour, no story topped that of Lydia Ko.

When the season started, Ko was coming off a low. In 2023, she’d gone winless and picked up much less prize cash than she had in any 12 months since turning professional. Extra vexing nonetheless, not like a previous droop she’d endured, which performed out amid a slew of modifications (in coaches, caddies and gear), this one was a puzzler. Ko herself couldn’t pinpoint the issue.

“If solely I knew, then I might do it,” she stated.

Each good plot requires a twist, although. And Ko provided one on the first occasion of 2024, foreshadowing a resurgence with a win on the Hilton Grand Holidays Match of Champions.

Ko has at all times been a rarity in sports activities: a transcendent however relatable expertise — open, sincere, down-to-earth, even within the throes of battle. Because the 12 months wore on, she stayed on-brand, however her feedback had a distinct air about them. She spoke of added stress, and did so with a brand new depth of perspective. A former youngster prodigy (she gained her first professional occasion as an beginner at 14, and 4 years later, grew to become the youngest lady ever to assert her second main), she was now 27 and just lately married.

She and her husband had adopted a pet, which made her surprise what it could be wish to have a baby. By her personal admission, she was considering big-picture, considering objectives on and off the course. The Olympics have been approaching. Profitable gold would spherical out her medal assortment — she already had a bronze and silver — and punch her ticket to the Corridor of Fame. Additionally on her thoughts was an eight-year drought. It had been that lengthy since her final main victory.

As Ko acknowledged, the burden of expectations had change into a burden.

However on the course, her demeanor was gentle. And by summer time’s finish, she had checked all the massive bins, successful gold in Paris and capturing the AIG Girls’s Open on the Outdated Course. Not lengthy after got here one other honor, this one a recognition of her resilience. Ko was given the LPGA’S Heather Farr Perseverance Award, granted to the participant who “has demonstrated willpower, perseverance and spirit in fulfilling her objectives as a participant.”

Regardless of what individuals say, golf isn’t like life. Golf is half of life. Take up the sport, and the 2 change into entangled. Play it for a dwelling, and good luck attempting to separate the 2. 

In November, upfront of the CME Group Tour Championship (the season-ending occasion for which she did not qualify in 2023), Ko alluded to that problem.

“All of us undergo a whole lot of issues, whether or not it’s golf-related or issues off the course,” she stated. “Sadly how I carry out on the golf course impacts me off the course and vice versa.”

Ko thanked her psychological coach for serving to “clear these demons I had in my head.” And she or he credited her husband and the canine for serving to her maintain it actual.

When Ko was 17 and on the prime of her recreation, she let it’s recognized that she deliberate to retire at 30 and change professions. It was onerous to inform again then how significantly to take her. However a decade later, nothing means that her timeline has shifted. The excellent news is, that also leaves her with three full seasons, ample time so as to add one other charming chapter.

As her life in golf has confirmed, there’s no saying what may occur subsequent.