Will Lydia Ko Return to Greatness?

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Just a few years ago, she was in the conversation as the most dominant golfer on the planet.

In 2013 she turned pro.
In 2014, she signed with Callaway Golf.

In 2014 she had 15 top 10 finishes and 3 wins
In 2015, she had 17 top 10 finishes and 5 wins
In 2016 she had 14 top 10 finishes and 4 wins

In 2017 she signed with PXG Golf

In 2017 she had 11 top 10 finishes (2 were tied for 10th) and 0 wins
In 2018 she had 9 top 10 finishes and 1 win

Its not just changing equipment companies however. In that time she has had about a dozen caddies, although a large percentage of those came during her rookie year. She has gone through multiple coaches, including Leadbetter, from 13-16, 2017 she was with Gilchrist and then in 2018 she moved to Oh. Both coaches have been vocal about her incredible talents, but being kept in the dark a number of times.

So the question I have is will she be able to return to greatness? What do you think is holding her back?
 
I think she is like Michelle wee , mentally challenged and it's not as fun as it used to be for them

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I think it is other factors other than an equipment change that have led to her last 2 less successful years.
20 top 10s in less than 2 years still isn't bad.
The talent on the LPGA tour is getting stronger too IMO.
I think she will continue to contend.
 
Is she in college now?
 
I'm going to say no. I think it's too much of a job for her now and based on rumours, it's how her family and team push it. Maybe be a winner once or twice per year, but nothing like her 4-5 win seasons.
 
She has the work ethic to do so. I like what I'm hearing from Ted Oh regarding what they're working on. The "A" swing just seemed too extreme for someone who had already achieved as much as Ko had. If I'm remembering correctly the swing is for recreational players who don't have as much free time to work on their games. It seems to me an extreme version of his core concepts Leadbetter developed with Faldo: early wrist set, body controlled motion, upright backswing, shallow downswing. The fact he has a thousand reasons why Ko and her family ruined everything and zero self-reflection tells me she made the right decision leaving.

I'm a huge fan of simplifying the swing and eliminating excess and unneeded movement which is what it sounds like Oh is working on with her.

I think on her end she needs to make life as simple as possible ie stability in the coaching, caddie and equipment situation and IF her parents are truly contradicting her coach (other than Leadbetter I don't recall any of her other instructors making the claim), putting a stop to it.
 
I think if her parents would stay out of things and let her do her own thing, I think she would.
 
I think so, she's has an enormous amount of talent is only 21 years old. Plenty of time to get things figured out.
 
I think if her parents would stay out of things and let her do her own thing, I think she would.
I agree with this, you need to be able to be your own person at some point in your life

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I don't think so, she said she doesn't want to do this forever, so I don't know about drive

Also I think her parents are effing her up.
 
Guess thst many too 10s and a win is bad year. 15th in the world. If she had that year every year for the rest of her career she would be considered one of the best.
 
I don't follow her tournament play enough to know for sure, but usually when a Tour player stops winning it is because he/she does not putt as well as he/she formerly did.
 
I don't think so, she said she doesn't want to do this forever, so I don't know about drive

Also I think her parents are effing her up.

I often wondered about the drive when she made that statement. Such a great and dominant player. The question is for me is she generational or like many times on the LPGA, great for a stretch of time and then falls back to the pack.
 
My initial reaction was no. I've backtracked on my original reasons. Now I'm thinking her focus isn't the same. When you are super young and one thing is all you know you have a unique focus. As you get older and have different interests that's going to change. I don't know if you can flip a switch and get that back.
 
I think she’ll be a good player, have a nice career, and I’ll think she’ll win more tournaments. But no, I don’t think she’ll be dominant like she was and I don’t really think she’ll ever be #1 again for any amount of time.
 
I don't think she'll dominate, IMO she lacks the intensity to get back to that form. I watch a fair share of LPGA golf and whenever they pan to her she is always smiling and skippidee-doing around the course.
 
I don’t think she has the power. Even the ladies game is moving in that direction. She may win more but not like when she first started.
 
I hope so. I also don't think she is crazy 110% driven. I mean the girl enjoys travelling the world and not golfing, just for fun. Silly kids with no work ethic. She looks super skinny as well as of late. I think her parents(mom mostly?) are on the top of the list of things holding her back
 
The ladies game is tough right now. Plus the 20 to 30 million in the bank would take my mind of golf some. Lol
 
I really hope so, but it seems like once the women pros flame out it is kinda permanent (Note - Yani Tseng).
 
Thanks for starting this topic. I knew she left Ledbetter but didn’t know she is working with Ted Oh. I know she won this year and has had some good finishes but I don’t think it’s working overall. She is 134th in driving distance and 107th in accuracy this year. She’s actually lost five yards and a lot of accuracy since 2015.
 
I really hope so, but it seems like once the women pros flame out it is kinda permanent (Note - Yani Tseng).

Didn't she basically just go out to the club till like 3am in every city though.
 
Thanks for starting this topic. I knew she left Ledbetter but didn’t know she is working with Ted Oh. I know she won this year and has had some good finishes but I don’t think it’s working overall. She is 134th in driving distance and 107th in accuracy this year. She’s actually lost five yards and a lot of accuracy since 2015.

That is interesting, I didn’t know about the accuracy part. I knew she has lost distance.
 
I don’t think she can return to her prior station on tour. I have yet to see a dominate female golfer return glory after falling off the pace. Yani, Annika and others have dominated and fallen off not to be heard from again. I blame her family for thinking they knew best instead of letting her flourish with her previous team.
 
I don’t think she can return to her prior station on tour. I have yet to see a dominate female golfer return glory after falling off the pace. Yani, Annika and others have dominated and fallen off not to be heard from again. I blame her family for thinking they knew best instead of letting her flourish with her previous team.
I wouldn't say Annika fell off though I think she reigned allot longer and better than ko, it was time for her imo where golf wasnt her priority any longer

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