Lydia Ko was capable of snicker about her tough begin to final 12 months’s Grant Thornton Invitational on Thursday.
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If something about LPGA star Lydia Ko, “nervous” is just not an adjective you’d seemingly use to explain her.
The previous World No. 1 (and present No. 3) has put collectively the sort of profession report that may solely be completed by somebody with ice working by way of her veins.
That stellar report features a whopping 22 LPGA Tour wins, three main titles and a full set of Olympic medals. And none of that is new — she’s being doing wonderful issues on the golf course since she was a literal child (she captured her first LPGA win at 15 years previous).
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It’s exhausting to think about how a participant like that might get nervous in competitors. Her taking part in accomplice at this week’s Grant Thornton Invitational, Jason Day, might hardly consider it himself when Ko addressed the intense nerves she confronted in her debut on the blended PGA Tour-LPGA Tour occasion final 12 months.
“I don’t perceive the way you’re nervous,” Day, who was her teammate final 12 months as nicely, stated throughout their joint press convention Thursday at Tiburon Golf Membership.
Nevertheless it seems greats like Ko can get nervous, and she or he was very a lot so within the early goings of the 2023 Grant Thornton final December. So nervous, that she misplaced management of her tee photographs, and even duffed one, at the very least as she sees it.
“It was truly fairly embarrassing as a result of truthfully I don’t assume I hit a single fairway on the entrance 9 and I bear in mind duffing a driver,” Ko defined on Thursday. “I used to be like oh, man, I really feel so unhealthy he has to play with me. It’s like there’s no alternative, proper?”
Why? For one, taking part in alongside PGA Tour execs took some changes.
“As a lot as it’s acquainted, it’s completely different. I haven’t had that a lot expertise taking part in with different like male Tour execs and particularly any individual that I’ve regarded as much as and seen on TV for a extremely very long time,” Ko stated of teaming up with Day final 12 months.
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However she added that Day did every little thing he might to make her comfy, saying, “Jason was nice. He requested me questions on what I used to be engaged on in my recreation and we have been speaking about pitching and all that.”
Luckily for Ko, the nerves appeared to put on off midway by way of the primary spherical.
“It was a really new expertise, however by Friday, mid-Friday I feel I used to be capable of do away with the nerves and give attention to what I used to be doing,” she stated. “However our complete group with our caddies, we simply had an ideal dynamic and only a good time on the market and I feel that simply helped with, , simply not fascinated about the outcomes and we have been getting extra excited and simply pumping one another up. On the finish I feel that was one of many largest issues on why we have been capable of have such success final 12 months.”
