Life came knocking on Lydia Ko's door so, it seems, she had to put golf in perspective and now she's easing her way back into it again. Photo / Photosport
Life came knocking on Lydia Ko's door so, it seems, she had to put golf in perspective and now she's easing her way back into it again. Photo / Photosport
The beauty is in the eye of the beholder, they say, so from where former LPGA Tour pro Paige Mackenzie took her perch last week, Lydia Ko was looking pretty snazzy with her swing at the LA Open.
Mackenzie, who was part of a Golf Channel brainstorming panel, felt formerworld No 1 Ko was finding traction with now former coach Ted Oh but had reconciled the Kiwi professional's struggles with some of the dramatic changes in swing mechanics in the past few years.
"The pendulum swung so far in one direction, and then now, it's swung so far in the other direction that it's not a surprise that you're seeing some inconsistent results," said the panellist who played on the women's professional circuit between 2005-2015.
"What will remain to be seen is how this will pay off. I think most of us that cover this game and are analysts love what she's done recently with the golf swing, love that there is less re-routing, less extra motion. It seems to be more consistent and will, hopefully, provide more consistent results for her. But it's not a surprise that there was a dip in the wins considering what she has changed and gone through," she clarified.
However, Ko's 2013-2016 mentor, David Leadbetter, reacted to Mackenzie's assertions as one would to an errant motorist who has just overtaken another vehicle on a blind bend, labelling her remarks "complete ignorance".
"Compare Lydia Ko's results from the past two years with the results from 2014-2016 while we were working together — there's simply no comparison. How can she say her swing looks better today?" Leadbetter wrote on Twitter.
"Surely the results are what count. 12 wins including 2 majors at @EvianChamp and @ANAinspiration, versus 1 win since we parted ways ... "
To him, it seemed, Mackenzie preferred "form over function".
"To the current date she's won one-third of her previous earnings from 2014-2016. Plus the fact that she was No 1 in the world for 85 weeks in a row and is now out of the top 10 — that's a pretty expensive swing change," Leadbetter concluded.
You see, Leadbetter is right but what he seems to overlook is results aren't always everything.
Maybe, just maybe, Mackenzie can relate to something Leadbetter will never.
Since becoming world No 1 on February 2, 2015, Ko was 17 years, nine months and nine days old, creating history as the youngest player of either gender to assume that mantle in the professional golf arena.
Twelve LPGA crowns later, including two majors, with, no doubt, millions of dollars in the bank, Ko grappled with other things that mattered in her life.
Her well-publicised switches in coaches, caddies and clubs endorse that turbulent phase, including a mutual parting of way with Oh yesterday and in no rush to employ another mentor.
Ko's South Korean culture, parents' influence and even her personal demeanour have come under scrutiny.
Anyone not remotely interested in golf can deduce even her physical appearance is a pivotal part of the 22-year-old's constitution in an image-driven code that is up there with professional tennis.
In a nutshell, life came knocking on Ko's door. Having accomplished mind-boggling goals so early in her career she must have yearned for other emotional, physical and material things while juggling a career.
Those who can recall their transitional phase in life from the teenage years to a formative one, before adulthood kicks in, will identify with that. So will those who have children, siblings and grandchildren.
Yes, Ko lost weight that, arguably, led to the shredding of muscle mass as she mutated from a geeky, bespectacled teenager to the chic individual she is today in a glossy magazine-cover world in which appearances define one's template.
She is, after all, the world No 16. Countless sports people, from myriad codes, will gleefully take that ranking after five years in a pro circuit.
It seems the biggest expectations are from the great unwashed. When will she win her next major? We all know the answer to that one — ask Tiger Woods.
What gets the goat of Hastings PGA professional Brian Doyle is the ignorance surrounding what it takes to ply one's trade at Lydia Ko's level. Photo / File
Hastings PGA professional Brian Doyle, whose six-year NZPGA high-performance coach stint ended just before Ko arrived on the scene here, draws the Ko dilemma with the analogy of a chair with four legs although he emphasises several factors can contribute.
"She's up there and she isn't dominating but how many cuts has she missed?" Doyle asked, alluding to the tactical, technical, mental and physical legs that provide a chair stability.
Ko hadn't gone backwards that much, he said, but what got his goat was the ignorance surrounding what it took to ply one's trade at that level.
"You have to remember she's very, very high up the tree here where we're talking about the best female golfers on the planet," he said, after Ko finishing in a six-way tie for 42nd at the LA Open on Monday. "People expect her to be up there all the time and it just doesn't work like that."
Doyle said it took something special to be on the LPGA Tour in the first place, never mind maintaining a top-10 status.
"We're not talking about much — maybe just half a shot a round."
He often argued against such ignorance from the public on any elite golfer but was now tired of it.
Doyle finds substance in the assertion that Leadbetter worked with Ko when life wasn't that complicated for her, but now a generation of talent has emerged to bridge that gulf on the leaderboard.
While it isn't comparing apples with apples, Doyle believes Woods "is the greatest golfer that ever lived" when juxtaposed with the Nicklauses and Hogans of the yesteryear.
"There's no doubt in my mind that she's going to win again ... just look at Tiger," he said.
It appears Mackenzie also was alluding to the need for Ko to feed her soul as much as refine her swing.
