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The post How Lydia Ko is supporting a local small business at the U.S. Women’s Open appeared first on Golf.

SOUTHERN PINES, N.C. — Lydia Ko has a new logo on the side of her hat at this week’s U.S. Women’s Open, and those familiar with the local area will find it quite familiar.

Thanks to a partnership with American Express, Ko is sporting the logo of local coffee shop High Octane Coffee on the side of her visor throughout the week at Pine Needles.

“I’m really excited to support High Octane Coffee while partnering with AmEx this week,” Ko said. “When I first heard about the initiative and what they were trying to do, I thought it was such a neat idea.”

The partnership paired six golfers — Ko, Celine Boutier, Gaby Lopez, Stacy Lewis, Lexi Thompson and Rose Zhang — with local businesses rooted in the community. American Express then purchased sponsorship inventory to produce in-broadcast exposure during the event. Every company in the partnership is also women-owned.

Ko’s partner company is located in nearby Aberdeen, N.C. The shop is housed in a converted gas station just off the main highway that runs through town.

The company logo will be stitched on the right side of Ko’s visor throughout the week.

“I love the logo,” Ko said. “It’s very chic, but, like, cute.”

Ko said it is vital to give back to the communities the LPGA Tour visits each week.

“Every little bit counts,” Ko said. “And I’m just so happy to be able to support High Octane this week.”

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The post ‘A loss for words’: Lydia Ko’s candor stuns interviewer appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘A loss for words’: Lydia Ko’s candor stuns interviewer appeared first on Golf.

Lydia Ko found herself firmly in contention at the LPGA’s Palos Verdes Championship Sunday afternoon. She was in chase mode on the back nine as she attempted to catch eventual winner Marina Alex.

However, there was a problem. In the midst of her quest for LPGA win No. 18, TV cameras showed Ko laid out on the turf being stretched out by a physical therapist. It was hardly a heartening sight for those rooting on the 25-year-old to nab a win in Los Angeles.

Instruction

Luckily, the mysterious ailment never became severe enough to seriously hinder Ko on the finishing stretch as she played the inward nine even par, good for a final-round 70 that left her two behind Alex.

After the round, Golf Channel‘s Jerry Foltz caught up with Ko and asked her about the scene with the trainer from the course. Ko didn’t tip toe around what had been bothering her.

“It’s that time of the month,” Ko said. “I know the ladies watching are probably like, ‘Yeah, I got you.’ So, when that happens my back gets really tight and I’m all twisted. It’s not the first time that Chris has seen me twisted. I felt a lot better after he came.”

Ko’s candor left Foltz — quite literally — speechless.

“Uhh … thanks,” Foltz said as Ko laughed.

“I know you’re lost for words, Jerry,” she said. “Honesty it is.”

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The post How Lydia Ko rediscovered her golf game (with help from Sean Foley) appeared first on Golf.

The post How Lydia Ko rediscovered her golf game (with help from Sean Foley) appeared first on Golf.

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. — When she arrived at Mission Hills last spring, Lydia Ko was searching.

She was searching for a win. Ko hadn’t lifted a trophy in three years — a shocking drought following her incredible run as teenage World No. 1.

She was also searching for a major championship title. If Ko’s three-year winless spell was shocking, the five years she’d gone without a major title was damn near inconceivable.

And she was searching for a simple, effective golf swing. Ko, a self-proclaimed over-thinker, had a tendency to complicate the golf swing, which had been hampering her progress for years.

Instruction

But she was close to finding it.

After teaming up with renowned instructor (and GOLF Top 100 Teacher) Sean Foley in the summer of 2020, her game had been trending in the right direction. Heading into major championship season, Ko put together her best stretch of golf in years — seven top 10s in 14 starts — and her world ranking was steadily on the rise.

The two proved to be a formidable team. Ko loves to rely on thinking and feeling her swing, and there’s not a coach in golf more cerebral than Foley.

“There were a lot of questions in my head, and I needed a bit more clarity,” Ko told GOLF.com at the Chevron Championship. “That’s what he’s helped me with the most. Defining what is right and what is wrong is more important than technically knowing what needs to happen.”

The term “swing coach” is too limiting for Foley. That’s not to disparage his fundamentals; he has a terrific understanding of the technical intricacies of the golf swing. But his teachings only begin with golf. Talk to Foley for five minutes and you’ll learn about life.

“A great coach is a friend and a mentor,” Foley told GOLF.com. “It’s not all just technical.”

He’s exactly the type of coach Ko needs. The now-24-year-old was a teenage sensation when she began her professional career. She won in bunches, became the top-ranked golfer at age 17 and was compared to the game’s all-time greats. The game looked easy.

But all of a sudden, golf wasn’t easy. The wins became more infrequent, and then they stopped altogether. She started missing cuts. She fired her swing coach. She fired her caddie. Her world ranking dropped. What once looked so easy became decidedly difficult.

“My M.O. has always been players who are at the bottom of their game,” Foley said in an episode of Off Course with Claude Harmon. “The first time they’ve ever found the game to be super, super difficult.”

Ko certainly fit the profile. She was two years removed from her most recent win when she teamed up with Foley, and she’d dropped outside the top 50 in the world.

They got to work.

From a technical standpoint, Ko’s swing wasn’t in terrible shape, but there was room for fine-tuning. Her alignment had drifted to the right at address, causing compensations in her swing that needed to be addressed. Additionally, they worked on getting the feel at the top of her swing in a comfortable place.

There was also a mental component to the work.

“He’s more than just a swing coach,” Ko said. “Sometimes I talk about life things with him. He’s worked with and met so many people, so his perspective is different. It’s nice to talk to him about golf things and non-golf things. There is no b.s. He’s very straightforward and gives grounded advice.”

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The mental aspect of the golf is perhaps the area Ko has improved the most. The scar tissue from her lost years is still present, but it doesn’t define her.

“Philosophically, she’s improved a great deal,” Foley said.

So, even though Ko was searching when she arrived at Mission Hills last season, she wasn’t lost.

Ko was largely an afterthought heading into the final round at the 2021 ANA Inspiration. A solid week left her eight strokes behind 54-hole leader Patty Tavatanakit. Then, everything clicked.

Ko lit the course on fire. She made an eagle, eight birdies and zero bogeys. Her 10-under 62 was the lowest final-round in major championship history. And although it wasn’t quite enough to catch Tavatanakit, the word was out — Lydia Ko was back.

The next week, she validated that final round with her first win in three years. She’s won twice more in the time since and risen to No. 3 in the World Golf Ranking.

She’s not done searching — every golfer is a work in progress — but Ko returns to Mission Hills this week with plenty of confidence.

“To see herself build herself back up is really dope,” Foley said. “She’s worked for everything she’s earned.”

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The post How a quote from this PGA Tour star helped Lydia Ko nab her latest LPGA win appeared first on Golf.

It’s a great time to be Lydia Ko.

The world No. 3 nabbed yet another victory last weekend — the 17th win of her LPGA career — and she did so by out dueling a red-hot Danielle Kang. In addition to the clout, her dub at the Gainbridge LPGA added another $300,000 to her bank account and brings her career earnings to over $12.5 million, good for ninth on the LPGA’s all-time list.

Not too shabby for a 24-year-old.

“We’re very fortunate about the money we get to play for week in, week out,” Ko said.

But money is far from the main motivating factor for Ko when she gets in a zone on the course. The only thing on her mind when things get rolling? Make more birdies.

“I’m trying to make as many birdies as I can and shoot the lowest score I can, and money is a kind of a bonus,” she said. “You look and see an amount next to your name and you’re like, ‘Oh, that was a good week for that.'”

The birdies came in bunches in Boca Raton. Ko carded nine of them in her opening-round 63 at Boca Rio Golf Club, and she continued to pour them in as the week continued. Even as the temperatures dropped in Florida, Ko was able to keep her foot on the gas, finishing with a three-under 69 to nip Kang by a shot.

And while her work with swing coach Sean Foley plays a large role in her regaining her form over the last 18 months, it was a quote from world No. 1 Jon Rahm that fueled her win last week.

The quote that helped

“He said, ‘It’s not about how many times you hit the fairway, golf, at the end, you have to try and play like the best score you can in the circumstances,'” Ko said. “I think his quote really helped me to realize that, you know what? It’s golf. Sometimes I’m going to hit great shots; sometimes I’m going to hit not-so-pretty ones. I have to manage my way around and try and shoot the best score I can.”

A large part of Ko and Foley’s work together has been predicated on the mental components of golf. And the quote from Rahm helped her in that facet. Golf is not a game of perfect.

“Sometimes I try and become too much of a perfectionist,” she said. “And to kind of hear that I was like, ‘Yeah, you’re right. I’m just trying to play golf and not control everything out there.'”

That proved to be a winning formula last week, and if she can continue to harness that mentality, more victories are sure to follow.

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The post Lydia Ko holds off Danielle Kang for 17th-career LPGA Tour win appeared first on Golf.

The post Lydia Ko holds off Danielle Kang for 17th-career LPGA Tour win appeared first on Golf.

It was shaping into a familiar story on the LPGA Tour Sunday afternoon as Danielle Kang held the lead late in the final round for the second straight week. Only this time, she was being pushed by a Top 3 player in the world. 

Kang was flawless to start her day and held her lead until a bogey on the 13th hole squared her up with Lydia Ko, also playing from the final group. Ko had been plodding along all day, shooting even par on her front nine.

But sometimes in this game, plodding isn’t just good — it’s plenty good enough. Ko didn’t hit it closer than Kang coming home, but Ko made a 20-foot curling birdie putt on the 15th to push her ahead for good.

“I just tried to focus on me and play the best golf I can,” Ko said afterward. “I know at points it was a bit of a grind, but I’m glad I could get that done.”

It was a bit of a grind, right up to the final hole for Ko, who missed the 18th green, short-sided in a bunker. With Kang staring down a 15-foot birdie try, Ko splashed a high, spinny shot from the sand to a couple feet. When Kang missed her attempt, it was just a formality from there.

When asked after the round about if she’s back to feeling like herself, now nine months removed from snapping a lengthy winless streak, Ko admitted there had been plenty of internal questioning in the past.

“I think last year was kind of a big turn around year for me,” she said. “And even the fall of 2020, when we had that long time off I think it was kind of a time for me to look back at ‘What are the things for me to work on?’ and just take a whole new approach to things. 

“I started working with Sean [Foley] and I think he’s been a huge help in the technical standpoint, getting me to a point where it feels natural and I’m not trying to make positions. At the same time him clearing some of the questions and not so good ideas in my head as well. I feel like it’s been much more consistent … When you keep knocking on the door you feel like it’s going to open.”

A lot of pros keep that final sentence as their motto in contention: Keep knocking on the door, it’ll open eventually. Only so many pros are good enough to walk through it, though. Ko has now done it 17 times, an astonishing tally before her 25th birthday.

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The post This is the best way to cure jet lag, according to LPGA Tour star Lydia Ko appeared first on Golf.

The post This is the best way to cure jet lag, according to LPGA Tour star Lydia Ko appeared first on Golf.

Welcome to Road Rules, a GOLF.com series in which we pick the brains of expert golf travelers, ranging from professional golfers and caddies to globetrotting course raters and teachers. We’ll unlock their must-have travel items, go-to airline tips and more to inform you for your next golf excursion.

***

Professional golfers are jet setters by trade. One week, they’re playing stateside and the next they’re competing on the opposite side of the globe. It’s a perk of the job getting to see so many parts of the world, but it can also take a toll on their bodies.

While modern air travel has connected the world more than ever before, it can also present some challenges for athletes trying to compete at the highest level each week. Sitting on a plane for 12+ hours is stressful on the body, and that’s before taking jet lag into consideration.

For the domestic travelers reading his, jet lag is the phenomenon that occurs when traveling across many time zones at a time. While the clocks at your destination might show that it’s the middle of the night, your body clock is still adjusted to your jumping-off point.

Fitness

This lack of synchronization between your body and the clocks might not be a huge deal when the only thing on your daily agenda is shopping and tourist attractions, but for athletes prepping to compete, it can be bothersome.

Luckily for pro athletes — golfers especially — they become somewhat experts on the best ways to combat jet lag in their years crisscrossing the globe. According to LPGA star Lydia Ko, the remedy is simple.

“Just sleep,” Ko said at last week’s Pelican Women’s Championship. “My trick is sometimes — obviously I don’t do it when I have a tournament the week after — but I will not sleep the night before so that I am very, very tired on the plane so I sleep the whole flight.”

Ko said that she’s become quite good at this technique. So good, in fact, that it will sometimes worry the flight attendants on her trans-continental flights.

Split image of lpga pro lydia ko at golf tournament and an airplane flying away”Sometimes the flight attendants ask me if I’m okay because they’re worried I’m sick because I’ve slept through a 15-hour flight,” she said. “To all the flight attendants out there, I’m the most probably low-key, hands-off, hands-free passenger on board.”

If you’ve got a flight around the world soon, take a page out of Ko’s book and pull an all-nighter beforehand. It should allow you to get some Zs on the plane and wake up refreshed and ready to go by the time the plane touches down at your destination.

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The post Tour Confidential: LPGA fireworks, Martin Trainer (?) and Phil does it again appeared first on Golf.

The post Tour Confidential: LPGA fireworks, Martin Trainer (?) and Phil does it again appeared first on Golf.

Check in every week for the unfiltered opinions of our writers and editors as they break down the hottest topics in the sport, and join the conversation by tweeting us @golf_com. This week, we discuss a dramatic finish on the LPGA Tour, a shocking contender on the PGA Tour, and another win for Phil Mickelson on the senior circuit. 

1. In a wild LPGA finish, world No. 1 Nelly Korda won the Pelican Women’s Championship by birdieing the first playoff hole (eliminating Lexi Thompson, Lydia Ko and Sei Young Kim), after much turbulence down the stretch in regulation. What’s the bigger storyline: Korda’s continued excellence, despite a triple-bogey on the 71st hole (it was her fourth win of the year, and fifth counting the Olympics); Lexi’s continued shakiness when in contention (she missed short-ish putts on the last three holes, this coming five months after she was unable to convert a five-shot fourth-round lead at the Women’s U.S. Open); or Lydia Ko’s continued resurgence? (Write-in votes also accepted!)

Michael Bamberger, senior writer: Quite interesting choices! I would say Ko’s resurgence. Korda’s golf is excellent, superior in almost every way, and one poorly-timed triple doesn’t change anything. Lexi smashes her golf ball and short-putts poorly, so there’s nothing new there, really. But finding your game after losing your game is close to impossible. I’m voting for Lydia here.

Josh Sens, senior writer (@JoshSens): If we’re defining ‘bigger’ as ‘most unlikely,’ I’m with Michael. What Ko has done — pulling her game out of a death spiral — is a rare feat, and it’s been great to watch. But Ko has been playing great golf for a good stretch now. Korda has become so dominant, her wins have taken on an air of inevitability. That leaves Lexi’s story as the most notable story, to my mind. And the most relatable. Watching a world-class golf battle demons is compelling, even if it sometimes makes you squirm.

Josh Berhow, managing editor (@Josh_Berhow): Good options, indeed. But it’s gotta be Korda. The last time an American women’s golfer won four times in an LPGA season was a decade ago, when Stacy Lewis did it. And Korda even added an Olympic gold for good measure! It’s no secret she’s a special talent, but to see her fully take the reins as the top player in the women’s game has been pretty fun. And I was even more impressed by Korda’s resilience. Lexi struggled to close. Nelly made a triple and then followed it with birdie (to join the playoff) and then another (to win).

Nick Piastowski, senior editor (@nickpia): I’m going with Korda, but more for her finish, as Berhow mentioned. Birdie-birdie to end it — after a triple bogey? That’s something special. That steadfastness is certainly one of the reasons why she has won the way she has this year. But we also can’t ignore that all of these fantastic storylines were relegated to tape delay on Golf Channel. I’m not a TV guy, and I know that there are contractual obligations, but man, you’d figure there’d be some way to squeeze in the biggest names in women’s golf.   

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2. On the PGA Tour, Martin Trainer started the week at a whopping 2,000-1 odds to win the Houston Open, only to open with back-to-back rounds of 65 and lead on the weekend, before coming up four strokes shy of winner Jason Kokrak, in a tie for fifth. Before this week, Trainer had made just one cut since April. Where does Trainer’s run rank among Tour underdog stories in recent memory?

Bamberger: His career is not at the Jim Herman-level for overall oddness, but it’s close, pretty, pretty close.

Sens: Herman was the first to come to mind. But going back a bit further, was there anyone on the planet who expected Ted Potter Jr. to win at Pebble, with DJ among the gang there with him? Prolly no one other than Potter.

Piastowski: Way up there. It kinda reminds me a little of Matt Gogel, who stared down Tiger at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in 2002 — at the height of Tiger’s powers — then never won again. Those times when it actually does all come together — or at least the thought of them — are what keep us coming back.

Berhow: He ranked second-to-last in Strokes Gained: Tee to Green last season, yet was 38th in Houston. Also, he made a ton of putts. It’s a great story and fun to see him find it. Golf is a weird game. This one ranks up there among the unexpected and would have been even more so had he won.

3. For the third round in Houston, officials moved up the tees on the dogleg-right, par-4 17th some 75 yards — to 301 yards — giving players the option of either laying up, hitting left of the green or going for it. The setup led to eagles and double bogeys, including a double from leader Matthew Wolff, who was leading at the time and teed off on 17 with a wedge. Would you like to see more drastic tee-altering on Tour to keep players on their toes, or was this a setup step too far?

Bamberger: No, I think it adds to the test, tests another dimension, the player’s mental flexibility. I applaud it. But 301 is too short. That’s a long par-3.

Sens: More strategic decisions, risks and rewards. More better. Anything to break up the monotony of the bomb-and-gouge fest that too many events have become.

Berhow: The best hole in golf is the short par-4. I love this move, and no, 18 holes of it is no good, but for one hole, let’s have a little fun, eh?

Piastowski: Love it, love it, love it. Decision-making — instead of going driver-wedge, like Sens said — and a little carnage are fun theater. 

4. On the PGA Tour Champions, Phil Mickelson won the season finale, the Charles Schwab Cup Championship (and 64-year-old Bernhard Langer won the season-long points race for the sixth time). The win was Mickelson’s fourth in just six Champions starts in 2021. What does Phil’s dominance on the senior circuit tell you about what kind of threat he could still be on the PGA Tour?

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Bamberger: Not much. It tells you about the nature of the courses they play on the senior tour, compared to the regular tour. No rough, accessible pins. I got religion on this subject years ago, when Langer won a senior event on the eve of the Masters. His play had been dominant. I asked Craig Stadler what his senior play would mean for top-10’ing or whatever at Augusta; was there any relationship between what he had done on a short, simple Florida course and what he might do at Augusta. None whatsoever, said Stadler, in language more colorful than that.

Sens: Apples/oranges. What tells us the kind of threat Phil could still be is the fact that he won the PGA at Kiawah. The senior wins are padding for his bank account.

Berhow: It wasn’t that long ago when Mickelson made pretty clear (many times) that he had no intention to play on the Champions Tour, so to see him do it now and be as successful as he has is pretty cool. I think two things can be true — these setups favor a game like Mickelson’s, and Phil still has plenty of game. As for his PGA Tour prospects, I don’t think it changes much. When a course suits him and he has a good week, he can do special things. It won’t be consistent, but he can still find it.

Piastowski: I agree with all of the above, but winning also builds confidence, and I think Phil’s early success on the Champions played some role in him winning at the PGA. Win a few times, and you begin to think you can conquer the world, and that’s Lefty did at the end of May. 

5. The European Tour announced this week that under a partnership with UAE-based logistics company DP World, it will increase its overall purse money in 2022 to $200 million, or roughly twice as much as players vied for in 2021, with a minimum purse of $2 million for each event. In addition, the tour will be rebranded as the DP World Tour. The cash infusion comes amid an arms race that is raging in pro golf, driven by threats of rival circuits baiting away the game’s best players with huge guaranteed paydays. What do you make of this latest move on the gilded chess board?

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Bamberger: That when you can spend your money as you please, when you don’t have to be responsible to a board and to shareholders, that $200 million is nothing to get up-and-close with a great tool of capitalism, professional golf.

Sens: That competition shakes things up. And that watching this particular brand of it unfold is a bit like watching Succession — the main characters already have plenty of money, and not all of them are easy to root for.

Berhow: I can’t wait to see what pro golf looks like in three years. It’s the Wild West right now as leagues are trying to gain momentum and bring in big names. So much, or so little, could happen.

Piastowski: It’s great to be a pro golfer right now. But as I’ve mentioned here a few times, it might not be so great to be a fan should the stars get divided among tours. The best events are when the players are there. All of them.  

6. On Tuesday, GOLF will reveal its Top 100 Courses in the World list. Ahead of the announcement, and as the year winds down, what’s the best course you played in 2021 that you had never played before?

Bamberger: Pine Valley, National Golf LInks, the Tillinghast course of the Philadelphia Cricket Club, among others. I have played those three courses many times, in actual fact. But I take the view that every time you play a course, it’s as if you are playing it for the first time, because the course is not precisely the same as it was any other time you were there — and neither are you. Also, I can’t think of a course I played in ’21 that I had never played before. 

Sens: I didn’t get to as many places as I would have liked this past year, but even if I had, I’m not sure any course would have topped Lawsonia Links in Wisconsin. A revived Langford-Moreau design that is going to be even better when they finish the bunker work they’ve got going. Big, dramatic features. Tons of variety. Best of all, it’s public and bargain-priced. It’s a must.

Berhow: I played Pinehurst No. 2 a week ago (or at least 13 holes of it), so that’s a pretty easy pick. I heard the greens were maddening but really didn’t understand just how maddening they were until I was greenside in two on the first hole and made seven. Definitely maddening. Honorable mention: Lawsonia Links (absurd value) and White Bear Yacht Club (superb logo; also great golf course).

Piastowski: I played both Bandon and Sand Valley for the first time this year, and while those both are at the top of the list, I also wanted to mention here a gem I played during the summer. Rock Spring Golf Club in eastern New Jersey was 80 bucks with a cart, had a great restaurant — and is one of only two public courses in the U.S. designed by the famed Seth Raynor. It was really good.  

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The post Sean Foley describes how Lydia Ko regained her world-beating form appeared first on Golf.

The post Sean Foley describes how Lydia Ko regained her world-beating form appeared first on Golf.

From 2012 to 2016, young star Lydia Ko basically owned the LPGA Tour. She won the CN Canadian Women’s Open twice as an amateur before collecting 12 more victories between 2014 and 2016, including two major championships. It appeared nothing could stop her, until, mysteriously, her winning ways were no longer. Changes to her equipment, coach and caddies followed.

For 43 straight events, Ko remained winless, until finally breaking through in a playoff to claim her 15th career win, the 2018 LPGA Mediheal Championship. But after the win, a new barren stretch began. Ko slipped to No. 50 in the Rolex ranking, and last summer, she sought the tutelage of Tiger Woods’ former swing coach and GOLF Top 100 Teacher Sean Foley.

In April, Ko ended her second lengthy winless drought with a victory at the 2021 Lotte Championship in April — her 16th career LPGA title.

On this week’s episode of Off Course with Claude Harmon, which was filmed before a live audience at GOLF’s Top 100 Teacher Summit at Pinehurst, Foley described how Ko first reached out to him about eight months before they started officially working together.

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“I just showed her some swings from YouTube from when she was like 15 or 16,” Foley said. “And she said, my clubface is too closed there and my hips are too fast. Well, you’ve just been told that is not a good thing. So take a look at these videos. If you can put 10-12 pounds of muscle on and get close to these videos, call me again. And then eight months later, she called me, and then we got started.”

Foley explained that for players like Jordan Spieth and Lydia Ko, they game came very easy to them, so when they start to lose it, they have trouble putting their finger on what they did in the first place.

“[Ko] went completely against her DNA and made a lot of the wrong changes,” Foley said. “I think that what happens is when you do that, and I’ve been guilty of it myself as a coach, you don’t really see the negative effect for a while. So when you take someone like Lydia who is, as Mike Adams would say, a rear-post player — she has massive amounts of counter-rotation — and then you cut off all the rotation in the backswing and then start getting that person to go vertical, it just goes all over the place.”

In addition to the physical changes Foley and Ko have been focusing on — alignment, positioning and feel — Foley says honing Ko’s mental game and competitive mindset has also been a huge priority.

“[At the Saudi Ladies Invitational], she made 18 birdies in 36 holes this weekend, but still pointed out to the media this one nasty drive she hit,” Foley said. “That’s pretty unconscious to mention that nasty drive. So when I see an interview done where she doesn’t mention that, I know that we’re closer. I still think that we’re going to get a lot better. She’s so incredible for the game. I think more than anything, how I helped her get clear was, we just kind of went through the difficulty of being No. 1 in the world at 17.”

For more from Foley, including the mistakes he thinks he made with Tiger Woods, and Woods’ impressive wedge warmup routine, check out the full interview below.

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The post Off Course with Claude Harmon: Sean Foley describes how Lydia Ko managed to regain her world-beating form appeared first on Golf.

The post Off Course with Claude Harmon: Sean Foley describes how Lydia Ko managed to regain her world-beating form appeared first on Golf.

On this week’s episode of Off Course with Claude Harmon, Sean Foley explained how LPGA star Lydia Ko recovered from her long winless slump.

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The post 2021 AIG Women’s Open primer: Everything you need to know for the year’s last major appeared first on Golf.

The post 2021 AIG Women’s Open primer: Everything you need to know for the year’s last major appeared first on Golf.

After a summer of nonstop action, the final major of the calendar year has arrived — the 2021 AIG Women’s Open. It’s sure to be an exciting way to close out a year of high-level golf. Here’s everything you need to know about the championship.

Players to watch

Nelly Korda

This summer will forever be known as the summer of Nelly Korda. After a disappointing missed cut at the U.S. Women’s Open, the 23-year-old revamped her putting stroke (as well as her mindset) and has been a dominant force ever since. She won her first major, ascended to world No. 1 and then added a gold medal to boot. Now, she’ll look to cap it off with a strong finish across the pond.

Korda has two top-15 finishes in the Women’s Open in her young career and, considering her form this summer, another finish near the top of the leaderboard is all but expected. Can she keep up her stellar form and put a bow on the summer of Nelly?

Sophia Popov

Oh, what a difference a year can make. Sophia Popov came to the Women’s Open last year as a journeywoman flying under the radar. She left as a major champion.

Popov is no longer an unknown and will have a target on her back this week as the defending champ. Her 2021 campaign has been solid, with three top 10s, including a runner-up at the LPGA Match Play at Shadow Creek, but she hasn’t been able to put it together in majors thus far, her best finish being a pair of T60s.

However, the young German has proven to be a formidable links player, and her patented controlled fade will serve her well in the firm and fast conditions. A repeat of last summer’s performance should surprise no one.

Lydia Ko

This season has seen quite a few comeback stories, and Lydia Ko’s is right on top of the list. Just as Jordan Spieth rediscovered his form this year, Ko has followed a similar trajectory. The 24-year-old got back in the winner’s circle at the Lotte Championship for her first win since 2018, and she’s missed just one cut this season.

The secret to her resurgence? Linking up with GOLF Top 100 Teacher Sean Foley. Since teaming up with Foley last summer, Ko has looked like a whole different player. All that’s left is getting back on top in a major. She’s been close in 2021, coming in second at the ANA Championship and finishing T6 at the Evian, but as a player of her caliber, trophies should soon follow.

The course

The Women’s Open heads to famed Carnoustie Golf Links. A mainstay in the Open Championship rota, the links first hosted the ladies at the 2011 Women’s Open; 10 years later, it’s back on the women’s docket.

Carnoustie has long been known as one of the most difficult courses in the Open Championship rota, and that theme should hold true this week for the women. With upwards of 112 bunkers on the course, trouble lurks on every hole — and the closing stretch is one of the most demanding in all of golf.

Jean van de Velde famously made a mess of the finishing hole in 1999 — including a wade into The Barry Burn — and Nos. 16 and 17 have some nastiness of their own. No lead is safe at Carnoustie, and the brutal finishing stretch should provide for high drama come Sunday.

How to watch

Coverage of the Women’s British Open will be available throughout the week on Golf Channel and NBC. You can find the full TV schedule below. (All times ET)

Thursday, Aug. 19: 6 a.m. – 1 p.m. (Golf Channel)

Friday, Aug. 20: 6 a.m. – 1 p.m. (Golf Channel)

Saturday, Aug. 21: 6 a.m. – 1 p.m. (Golf Channel)

Sunday, Aug. 22: 6 a.m. – 12 p.m. (Golf Channel), 12 p.m. – 2 p.m. (NBC)

How to bet on the AIG Women’s Open

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