Lydia Ko’s latest coach drawing on the past ahead of LPGA opener

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Lydia Ko of New Zealand is now working with new swing coach Sean Foley. Picture: STUFF SPORTS.

Lydia Ko’s latest coach is going down memory lane with the former World No.1 to try to get her game back.

The Kiwi golfer will resume her pandemic-interrupted LPGA season on Friday morning (NZ time) in Toleldo when she contests the Drive On Championship.

She’ll do so with her sixth coach in the past four years, with Sean Foley taking over the reins after Ko cut ties with Jorge Parada.

Foley confirmed to New Zealand Golf Magazine that he was now working with Ko, saying he wanted to help her get “back to being Lydia”.

Best-known for a stint as coach of Tiger Woods when the dominant men’s player of his generation struggled to maintain his phenomenal success rate as he sought to remodel his swing while battling injuries, Foley has recently split with another former World No.1, England’s Justin Rose.

In their 11 years working together, Rose won all 10 of his PGA Tour titles, including his first major championship at the 2013 US Open at Merion.

Foley currently coaches two-time PGA Tour winner and long-hitter Cameron Champ and 2016 Masters champion Danny Willett, while it’s understood he also works with New Zealand’s Danny Lee.

He told NZ Golf Week that he wants to rediscover what made Ko the top amateur in the world, and then the leading professional in the women’s game before a lengthy form slump saw her fall to her current world ranking of 52.

“It’s tough to explain what we are doing,” Foley said.

“I am just challenging her to find what is already inside of her. I am answering her questions and just stripping all of the noise away.

“As you aware she is amazing but was a young woman having to deal with fame and the limelight. The light points to what is right about you, not what is wrong with you. She is a lovely person and has a focus I have rarely seen.”

On his Instagram page, Foley expanded on those thoughts.

“We have continued to go down memory lane, looking at what made Lydia one of the most dominant teenage amateur golfers in the history of golf.

“Along the journey it is easy to lose your way, especially when so much of it came so naturally. You are young and trying to get better and that is not always what happens. But players should never get to far away from their DNA, as what was learned during the early years is very cemented in the brain and memory.

“All I have tried to bestow upon Lyd, is more understanding to why what she did was so effective. It is now in a very simple place and I feel the lessons are more answering her questions, which is how it should be.”

Foley and Ko are both based in Orlando, but Ko is now embarking on a tournament schedule which will feature two events – including a Major – in Scotland next month.

Ko said practising during “unique circumstances” had been challenging, but her club had been open while “being careful, distancing, wearing masks.”

The 23-year-old said she wanted to “make sure that my game is still in sharp shape going towards Toledo”.

She said she’s been working out hard with her trainers to make sure she was a little fitter and stronger going.

She’s also been playing tennis and rock-climbing and discovered a fierce drive to win.

“Through the other sports I’ve been doing I’ve been noticing how competitive I was – I didn’t really think I was super-competitive.”

 

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