It’s the putting right that counts for Ko
Women’s world No1 golfer Lydia Ko has switched putters in a bid to turn around a mini form slump with the flat stick.
The 18-year-old teenager is no stranger to changing putters – she’s had five different ones in the past 12 months – and has switched again ahead of the second major of the year, the Women’s PGA Championship, which starts on Friday (NZ time) at the Westchester Country Club in New York.
The New Zealander has added a two-ball putter to her bag for the week and is hoping it will aid her alignment as she looks to break through for a first win in her 14th major championship start.
Ko has been scoring OK, but not dropping the birdie putts with her usual regularity, and that has led to finishes of 41st, 16th and 27th in the past month since her win at the Swinging Skirts Classic in San Francisco.
‘‘They say the putter is probably one of the most clubs that you kind of keep for a long time, but I had over five putters last year,’’ Ko said.
‘‘I’ve been struggling a little bit with my putting the last couple weeks, so I thought, ‘why don’t I give it a change?’ I feel really good with the two-ball that I have right now for this week. Hopefully I’ll roll in a couple more putts.’’
Ko said putting was ‘‘all done on feeling’’ for her and the new two-ball, which has two painted balls on it to aid with alignment, is ‘‘hard to go wrong with’’.
‘‘Sometimes one putter looks good, but then the day after it feels a little closed, the next day it feels a little open. But with this two-ball, it’s really great for alignment because you are pretty much aligning three balls together and I normally putt with the line on my ball, too. So I’ve got a long line, three balls. It’s hard to go wrong with it. Obviously you can go wrong with it, but I feel comfortable.’’
Victory in New York would also see her add another putter to her collection, a golden one, with her sponsor Callaway said to dish out a golden putter to any of its players who win a major.
And winning a major has been an obvious talking point around Ko this week; the teenage sensation has 11 professional tournament wins worldwide, including seven on the LPGA Tour, from 53 non-major starts, but is 0 for 13 in majors with three top-10s. She finished tied for 51st at the ANA Inspiration in April, the first major of the year.
‘‘I was wondering why that question didn’t come up,’’ she laughed as she addressed a media conference in Westchester on Thursday (NZ time), responding to a question about her major duck.
‘‘I don’t feel like I’m a perfectionist but people say I have that kind of a personality so . . . I try and force it a little bit. Weeks like ANA, I kind of tried so hard and tried to force some good scores and I tried to force everything, and that’s when I didn’t play as good, and I think that’s what’s kind of happened the last couple weeks.
‘‘So I think one of the big things is really self-pressure. I’ve been talking to [mental performance coach] David Niethe, talking to [coaches] David [Leadbetter] and Sean [Hogan] and trying to just enjoy the moment, and that’s all I can do. I can’t think about the past and I can’t think about what’s coming.’’
Adding to the pressure is the constant talk about records when Ko is about. She still has a shot at being the youngest women to win a major, with American Morgan Pressel being 18 years 313 days old when she won the 2007 Kraft Nabisco Championship (now the ANA Inspiration).
Ko turned 18 last month and would break the record with a win at any of the remaining four majors this year, though she is playing all the talk down.
‘‘I think when I hit 19, I think that will be great, because obviously the record, Morgan’s record, there’s a lot of talk more about this major-winning deal, because there is that record. But to me, I would just love to win a major sometime from now and 12 years, just sometime then. It doesn’t need to be this week; it doesn’t need to be the US Open. I’m just hoping it’s just one time in my career.’’
She did, however, concede she has geared her game toward peaking in the remaining majors this year after feeling fatigued earlier in the season.
‘‘I can’t play every week. Some people say, ‘hey, world No1, you should try and maintain it and play every week; why aren’t you playing?’ At the end of the day, I can’t play them all. So we’ve been trying to balance it out. I don’t feel tired for this week, so it was a good start.’’
Ko also felt she had been playing better than her recent results suggested. She’d been hitting the ball well, just not seeing the putts drop. She described Westchester as a ‘‘major course’’ with a premium on driving straight and hitting greens, usually Ko specialties.