Ko keen to defend NZ title and repay fans
Coach says Kiwi golf sensation wants to show off her game to loyal supporters
Lydia Ko wants to defend her New Zealand Open title in February in a run towards the LPGA-sanctioned Australian Open in Adelaide. The world women’s golf No 1 won the New Zealand title this year at Clearwater, near Christchurch, and her coach David Leadbetter thinks she’s set to defend her title.
“It’s looking like it,” he told Radio Sport. “She’s seriously considering it.”
The dates would gel — the New Zealand Open is February 11-14 and Australian Open the following weekend — but it’s a question of whether Ko and her coaching team think that schedule will suit her plans.
“She wants to come home and show off her game to all her loyal supporters,” Leadbetter said. “She is a Kiwi through and through, that’s for sure.”
Ko is resting after claiming the season-long LPGA points race and a US$1 million ($1.5 million) bonus, the player of the year award and leading money winner on top of her first major at the Evian Championship.
Over the next while, Team Ko will settle on their 2016 schedule, including plans around next year’s Rio Olympics.
There have been ideas floated about Ko travelling to Rio early next year for a practice round but Leadbetter was not convinced about merits plan.
“I don’t know what you are going to learn by playing one round of golf, to be quite honest,” he said. ‘‘The other factor is it is quite a few months away from when the [Olympics] tournament is going to be held so conditions are probably going to be totally different.
“We’ll probably get as much out of looking at a video of the golf course as going over there and playing.”
Rio was a longhaul trip and conserv-
of the that