Lydia Ko reveals how nerves led to an embarrassing move

If you know anything about the LPGA star Lydia Ko“nervous” is not an adjective you can use to describe him.

The former world No. 1 (and current No. 3) has put together the kind of career record that can only be accomplished by someone with ice running through her veins.

This stellar record includes 22 major LPGA Tour victories, three major titles and one complete set of Olympic medals. And none of this is new—she’s been doing amazing things on the golf course since she was a real kid (she earned her first LPGA win at age 15).

It is hard to imagine how such a player could get nervous in the competition. Her playing partner at this week’s Grant Thornton Invitational, Jason’s dayshe could hardly believe it herself when Ko addressed the serious nerves she faced in her PGA Tour-LPGA Tour debut last year.

“I don’t understand how you’re nervous,” said Day, who was her teammate last year, during their joint press conference Thursday at Tiburon Golf Club.

But it turns out big like Ko can get nervous and she was very much so at the Grant Thornton 2023 kick-off last December. So nervous, she lost control of her kicks and even dropped one, at least as you can see.

“It was actually pretty embarrassing because I honestly don’t think I hit a single fairway on the front nine and I remember hitting a driver,” Ko explained Thursday. “I was like oh, man, I feel so bad that he has to play with me. It’s like there’s no choice, right?”

Why? For one, playing alongside PGA Tour pros took some adjusting.

“As popular as it is, it’s different. I haven’t had that much experience playing other pros as Tour men and especially someone I’ve seen and watched on TV for a really long time,” Ko said of teaming up with Day last year.

But she added that Day did everything he could to make her comfortable, saying: “Jason was great. He asked me questions about what I was working on in my game and we were talking about pitching and everything.”

Thankfully for Ko, the nerves seemed to fade halfway through the first round.

“It was a very new experience, but by Friday, the middle of Friday, I think I was able to get rid of the nerves and focus on what I was doing,” she said. “But our whole team with our caddies, we just had a good dynamic and just had a good time out there and I think that helped us, you know, just not think about the results and we were getting more excited and just we encouraged each other. up. In the end, I think that was one of the biggest things about why we were able to have such success last year.”