Women’s golf world number one Jin Young Ko (28), who has made a perfect comeback with her second win of the season, has been training intensely with her swing coach Ishiu Lee during her short break to prepare for the upcoming major tournaments.
With her second win of the season at the Cognizant Founders Cup on the US Women’s Professional Golf (LPGA) Tour, which concluded on the 15th, Ko regained the world number one ranking she lost in November last year and completely shook off a brief slump due to a wrist injury. With two wins in the first half of the season alone, the South Korean has risen to No. 1 on the Order of Merit and No. 2 on the money list, raising hopes that she will win the Triple Crown (Player of the Year, Money List and Order of Merit) for the first time in four years after 2019.토토사이트
Despite his perfect comeback, Ko was still not satisfied. She hadn’t reached the level of play she was happy with. In particular, she felt that some of her swings, which she had refined over the past winter, were off, so she called her South Korean swing coach, Lee Siu, to the United States.
The window of opportunity was short-lived. After taking a break from the Bank of Hope Match Play after the Founders Cup, Ko will play in the Mizuho America’s Open, which starts on 1 June. She will then play the Shoprite Classic before taking a short break to play all four majors, including the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, the US Women’s Open, the Evian Championship and the AIG Women’s Open in August.
After meeting with her swing coach, Ko was eagerly anticipating his arrival and immediately hit the ground running, training intensely for a week. He set up a training camp at Trinity Golf Club near Dallas, Texas, where he lives, and sweated and sweated and sweated every day.
“Until I won the HSBC World Championship in March, I had good ball contact and was hitting shots the way I wanted to, but as I played more and more, I lost contact and made mistakes such as some cut shots, and I couldn’t produce good results, especially with my wedge shots.” “Because of that, I couldn’t make birdies on the par-5 holes throughout the match at the Founders Cup,” said swing coach Lee Siu in a phone interview with E-Daily. “That’s why I was frustrated at the Founders Cup because I couldn’t make birdies on par-5s throughout the match, so I focused on correcting those two things in training. Two wins in the first half of the year is a satisfying result, but it sets the stage for even better results in the rest of the season.
A ‘cut shot’ is a sharp swing that doesn’t change the direction of the ball too much, but creates unnecessary spin and doesn’t travel the desired distance. Players often describe this cut shot as “flying,” and when this mistake occurs on a wedge shot that needs to be hit accurately, it makes it difficult to keep the ball close to the hole, making it difficult to make birdies on par-5 holes where wedges are often used.
“Although he won the Founders Cup, he was very disappointed that he wasn’t able to perform to his 100% satisfaction,” said Lee. “He needs to make birdies, especially on par-5s, to perform well in the upcoming majors, and it’s important for him to improve his ball contact skills and wedge accuracy.”
After more than five years of world-class form, Ko continues to battle with herself. She is more concerned with maintaining a level of performance that she is happy with than with the results. Even last year, when she suffered a wrist injury, she struggled not because she was performing poorly, but because she was not satisfied with her performance.
According to her swing coach, Ko didn’t have much time to work on her game, so she didn’t waste any time to produce the results she wanted.
“He trained so much that the blisters on his palms were peeling off,” says the coach. “He checked his swing during rounds, practiced and checked again, and identified the problems and corrected them immediately and intensively. We both worked hard to get good results in a short period of one week, and as a result, he was satisfied and had more faith in his game. I expect even better results in the rest of the season,” he said of the training.
“I had been working hard on my own for about three months, but my swing pattern was not in the direction I thought it should be,” said Ko, who posted on social media after the training with Lee. “I had to practice a lot to the point of physical pain for about two to three days, and every time I gripped the grip, I heard an ‘evil’ sound, but I persevered to make the swing I wanted with a professional who had travelled a long way to the United States,” he said.
“We’re eight tournaments into the 2023 season and there are still a lot of tournaments to go,” he said. “I have to dive into the competitive life again. I’m looking forward to sharing some happy news with my fans who have been supporting me since (interruption).”
The LPGA Tour plays four majors every two to three weeks from June to early August. Ko, who has 15 career LPGA Tour wins, hasn’t won a major since the 2019 ANA Inspiration (now Chevron Championship) and Evian Championship. That’s why she’s not satisfied with two wins.