Lydia Ko has acknowledged she’s unhappy with how she is playing ahead of the final major of the year.
After winning the season-long title and holding the lowest scoring average on the LPGA Tour last season, Ko sits 79th in the season-long race and 65th in scoring average so farthis campaign.
While she won the Saudi Invitational in February, Ko’s results on the LPGA Tour contain just one top-30 finish, back in February, while her extraordinary run of claiming a top-10 finish in a major for 10 straight years is in jeopardy.
Her major results this year have seen a missed cut, tie for 57th, tied 33rd and tied 61st, and to keep her streak alive she needs to perform at the major where she has had the least success – the British Open.
“I’ve only played well at the Women’s Open twice in my career, once was at Turnberry and the second time was at Muirfield last year,” Ko said ahead of the event at Walton Heath in England, where she tees off at 7.20pm tonight.
“This is a very different style of golf course than any of the other Women’s Open that I’ve played. So I think it’s going to draw maybe different names on the leaderboard to what we may be used to in previous years, and I’m hoping to be in the mix.
“There’s something about this tournament that I think requires maybe a little more creativity and shots that you we might not play at any other events.
“I’m excited. This feels like one of the longer in distance tournaments that we’ve played all year and I think it’s going to play tough. But we’re forecasted to have nice weather these next few days, and I heard when this course gets drier, it actually gets more challenging. So I’m excited to see how the course changes over the next few days, too.”
Despite her excitement, Ko offers a realistic assessment of how her season has played out after the brilliant heights of 2022.
“Not great. I wish I was playing a lot better golf and to have been more in contention at majors, because that’s when you’re trying to peak throughout the season. If you play okay but peak at the major, that’s where I think you realise, okay, my game is still at a good place.
“If I said I’m happy with how I’ve been playing, that would be a lie. Honest answer is I do wish I had put myself more in contention and was a little bit more consistent.”
Lydia Ko has struggled in majors this year. Photo / Getty Images
Ko says it has been tough trying to replicate her performances last season.
“In ways, internally, even though I was trying not to, I think I was comparing myself a lot to the year I had last year. I didn’t think I could ever go back to No 1 after being 50-something in the world and playing alongside Jin Young [Ko] or Nelly [Korda] or Celine [Boutier] who has won these past two weeks.
“Last year, I was like, no, I’m probably never going to go back in that position. I just want to be able to win and be in contention again. And for me to have won three times, winning my last tournament of the season, and getting married, there were just so many great things.
“I don’t think I could have even written that on my diary and go, ‘Dear Diary, I’m going to win three times this year and going to get married to the love of my life.’ That’s probably a story I wouldn’t have even been able to imagine but that happened.
“Coming into this year, I started with a bang, winning my first tournament of my season and I think I put a lot of expectations [on myself], and actually missing the cut at Chevron was a bit of a wake-up call for me.”
That forced Ko to reassess and look at what she can control and improve.
“What place I finish and all my results, those things are totally out of my control. Sometimes I’m going to have okay weeks, okay days, and still be top 10, and sometimes I feel like I should have won but somebody plays better than me and they win.
“I feel like we are moving in the right direction. It’s kind of frustrating, the last couple months - you see improvement but the results might not necessarily show, and sometimes I’m having a hard time to bring that all together. But it’s not like I’ve not been in this position before.
“So I’m just trying to be patient, and I know it is better than maybe a couple months ago, so I can only look forward, and I still have a couple of events to go this year.”
