Ko’s knockout winning shot
Lydia Ko looked to the sky, scooped her ball out of the cup and the tears started flowing.
That’s what it meant to win her 15th LPGA Tour event. Or was it more proof of just how darn good it felt to dispel the doubters, the ones who suggested the 21-year-old might never win again.
It is no doubt a combination of both. Fair enough, too. After all, Ko’s drought-snapping victory at the Lake Merced Golf Club in California sure buried the burden of not winning in almost two years.
‘‘It’s a huge relief because people were saying you’re not winning because of this or that, and my family, friends and sponsors were just really supportive of me,’’ Ko said after edging Aussie Minjee Lee in the sudden-death playoff for the Mediheal Championship yesterday.
‘‘I don’t think I’ve ever cried in the other 14 and I cried like four times in the span of two minutes, which is kind of embarrassing. Every time I’d see my sister, I’d cry. Every time I’d see my mom, I’d cry.’’
That would be because she didn’t go into any of those tournaments surrounded by the adversity which started brewing about six months after she won the Marathon Classic in July 2016.
In short, it started with her sacking swing coach David Leadbetter, who guided Ko to all previous 14 wins, and bubbled further when she axed Gary Gilchrist and replaced him with current coach Ted Oh after just a year.
Ko changed clubs and culled Leadbeater in a bid to find a coach who could change her swing and fuel more distance off the tee.
But tournaments came and went without the most successful teenager in the history of the game returning to the winner’s circle.
She paid for it in the rankings, and people lined up to tee off with their two-cents as to why she was failing, particularly after Leadbetter said Ko’s father had started tweaking her swing in secret, and her parents had too much influence on her.
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