(CNN)24-year-old Lydia Ko has had more success than most golfers can imagine.
The Kiwi player has won two Majors and, at just 14, is the youngest player to ever win a professional golf tour event.
In 2015, when she was just 17 years, nine months and nine days, Ko also became the youngest player, either male or female, to become world No. 1 in professional golf.
When winning tournaments or setting records causes a stir, that’s not the be-all and end-all for Ko, a message reiterated by her coach Sean Foley: “Just because you win another event, yes, you become happy be for that day, but it doesn’t make you a better or worse person the day after.”
“Sometimes I identify with the way I played that day,” Ko told CNN Living Golf’s Shane O’Donoghue. “And sometimes when I’m not playing well, I’m like, ‘Oh man, you’re so stupid’ or something.
“And I think it’s very easy to connect your identity to that, but I just need to separate that. And my goal is to hopefully have the career grand slam, I’ve been close in the three majors that I’ve got and haven’t won yet. And that would probably be my ultimate goal.
In her golf career to date, Ko has won the Evian Championship and the ANA Inspiration. She has also won the other three majors, finishing second at the 2016 Women’s PGA Championship and placing third at the US Women’s Open and the Women’s British Open.
“And I’m sure I’ll be very, very happy, but I think sometimes results are so overrated and being happy off the golf course is what I think is the best thing that makes me happy on the course too will.”
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quick starter
Starting fast is something Ko knows how to do.
In addition to her record-breaking win at the New South Wales Women’s Open in 2012 at the age of 14, she became the youngest-ever winner of a Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) tournament that same year.
When she was 17, she set an LPGA record for most money made by a rookie, raking in $2,089,033.
In 2015, Ko became the youngest player in the “modern era” (post-1900) of either sex to win a major championship, winning the Evian Championship as an 18-year-old.
However, after winning the Mediheal Championship in 2018, her fate changed.
For the first time in her young career, Ko went through a barren spell, competing in 37 events between 2019-2020, failing to win one and finishing in the top 10 just eight times.
Ko recalls struggling for form and searching for her “consistency,” adding that she was “definitely thinking too much and trying to analyze too much.”
“I think before that I wasn’t that type of person and when you’re struggling you try to find answers and try to dig deeper and deeper and deeper,” the 24-year-old said.
“And sometimes it’s good because you’re able to see something from the ground up, but sometimes you can overcomplicate it.
“And in my case I had done that and by working with Sean (Foley) he was able to clear up some of the questions in my head and he was just as helpful, mentally and also taking things that were unnecessarily on my mind as the technique.”
She admits that she didn’t even really compete during her infertile phase, something Ko struggled with mentally.
Jump back
But this year Ko has experienced a renaissance.
She ended her winless run at the Lotte Championship in Hawaii and won a bronze medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. She called the opportunity to represent New Zealand in Japan a “great honor”.
And in early November, she trumped at the Saudi Ladies International to a dominant five-shot win.
Victory in the event, which boasts one of the richest prizes on the Ladies European Tour (LET) schedule – a prize purse of US$1 million – places her at number five in the world rankings and cements herself as one of the top players in world golf.
Despite early career success, Ko believes the 2021 season is her “most consistent” ever.
Ko says her consistency this year can be partly explained by the lessons she learned as her form plummeted.
“I think there was a time when I was trying to be who I might be, when I was playing … When I was No. 1,” she said.
“But another player told me you can’t try to be your past, you have to be the best version of yourself in the present. And I think that really hit me.
“It kind of sounds like common sense, but when you actually do it and you’re fighting, it doesn’t seem like common sense. And when she told me that, I was like, ‘Wow, that’s so true. ‘ And I think it made me focus more on the now and not try to be who I was before.”
Already in his eighth year on tour, Ko is no longer one of the youngsters.
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Although she started the sport with the goal of retiring at 30, she’s happier “on and off the golf course” than she’s ever been in her life, which has set her up for the future.
“I think just being happy off the course translates to being on the course,” Ko explained.
“And how I approach playing and how I get on the golf course every day is the mood I’m in. And I guess at the end of the day golf and out here is work but you still have to enjoy it and the time you stop enjoying it isn’t worth it.
“So yeah, it’s a grind, but I still have a lot of fun and enjoy it and try to accept more than, ‘Hey, sometimes it’s not going to be all sunny days and good days. All you have to do is be nice and keep going and do your best.’ And as long as you’re trying your best, that’s how it is.”
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