Last week, Lydia Ko just made history as captain of the first-ever Team World at the International Crown. It was a tough few days for her. First, because she lost her debut, and second, she just didn’t know what to expect from it, physically. Yet five days later at the Maybank Championship, Lydia Ko stood before reporters with an admission that revealed the hidden cost of achievement—one that even adrenaline couldn’t hide forever.

“Last week was really long. It was my first time playing The Crown, and I think you have the adrenaline and don’t realize how tiring it is,” she revealed. “After seven whole rounds last week, including the practice rounds, I was pretty fatigued coming into this week,” Ko said candidly during her October 31 press conference at the Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club.

The exhaustion she described wasn’t just physical; it was also emotional. It was the weight of leadership and perceived failure that lingered most. The International Crown ran from October 23-26 at the New Korea Country Club in South Korea. Ko’s Team World represented Africa and Oceania for the first time in the tournament’s history. That meant Ko carried unprecedented pressure beyond her own performance.

The format itself demanded everything. Four-ball partnerships. Singles matches. Foursomes alternate shot. Ko partnered with Charley Hull through the group stage. They went unbeaten through the first two days. The team earned four points with a 3-1-2 record, advancing to the semifinals.

Then Australia ended their championship dreams with a 2-1 semifinal victory. Despite the loss, Ko delivered clutch moments throughout the week. She sank a dramatic 25-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to halve a match against Japan. She won her singles match against Rio Takeda 3-and-2 in the third-place game. The viral moments with Hull—the bowing, the $200 putting bet she won from Hull’s caddie—all masked what was building beneath.

Now at Maybank, Ko shot 66 in the first round and followed with 70 on Friday. At 8-under through 36 holes, she sat tied for fourth, six strokes behind leader Hye-Jin Choi. Her strategy reflected her exhaustion.

“Just been trying to stay cool and keep my energy levels up. I think I’m going to probably play better being fresh than being overtired and fatigued. Yeah, just kind of stay in that mindset. I think there has been a lot of good, so hopefully, just slowly sharpen things up,” she said while keeping things simple this week.

Her body and mind told a different story than her numbers.

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Lydia Ko’s captain burden: when third place feels like failure

Ko averaged 69.8 strokes across her four International Crown matches. Team World earned $257,600 for third place, or $64,400 per player. By any objective measure, their historic debut was a success. Yet Ko couldn’t see it that way.

Ko and Wei-Ling Hsu fell 1-down in their alternate-shot match against Minjee Lee and Grace Kim in the semifinals. Ko confessed she “let the team down and let Wei-Ling down,” revealing the emotional weight of captaincy beyond mere statistics.

This wasn’t about her individual performance. Ko served as Team World’s captain and emotional leader. Every missed opportunity affected four players, not just one. The responsibility weighed heavily throughout the week and clearly still does.

The self-criticism seems particularly harsh given her recent form. Ko entered the Crown ranked No. 4 in the world. She won the HSBC Women’s World Championship in March. She posted a T14 at the Cognizant Founders Cup and a T9 at the Buick LPGA Shanghai heading into the team event. Nothing suggested she underperformed.

But captaincy doesn’t care about statistics. It operates on a completely different emotional frequency.

The historic nature of Team World amplified everything. Ko represented all of Africa and Oceania, not just New Zealand. That’s fundamentally different from national team captains who share cultural bonds and junior golf histories with their players. Ko’s squad came from four different continents. They rarely practiced together in the lead-up to the event.

The pressure of proving this composite team format viable for future editions fell squarely on her shoulders. Add Ko’s history of “firsts”—youngest Hall of Famer under the current system at 27, only golfer with a complete Olympic medal collection—and the expectations she placed on herself towered above reality.

As Ko continues through the fall Asia swing, one question lingers. Can she shake both the physical exhaustion and the emotional burden of perceived failure? Or will the captain’s weight continue casting shadows over solid performances?