Lydia Ko Reveals Major Struggle With Sight That Troubled Her LPGA Career: ‘I Was Legally Blind’

Ever since her 2025 HSBC Women’s World Championship win in Singapore, Lydia Ko has been on a roller-coaster ride on the LPGA Tour. She has seen a few good performances, but overall, the world #3 has not had a peek at the top of the leaderboard that often. Her inconsistent form has resulted in her possibly risking her position on the Rolex World Golf Rankings, with Minjee Lee closing in from #4. After deciding to skip the 2025 FM Championship, Ko gave a concerning update that might explain why she has not been in her best form recently.

The Hall of Famer joined Luke Kwon for a round of golf on YouTube. As they were having a go on the 18th hole, Ko was explaining how she would tackle the approach shot. With a pitching wedge in hand, she fell about 40 feet short of the cup before the ball rolled down further away from it. That’s when Ko told the host, “I have bad depth perception. I need a refund on my LASIK. That’s what I say.” Yes, the New Zealand pro has bad eyesight and had it fixed with laser eye surgery. You wouldn’t have guessed it, judging by how accurate she is on the course.

The host was also surprised by the revelation, as he confirmed, “Oh, you got LASIK?” To which, Ko made another huge confession. “Yeah. I was legally blind. I was like -6½ or -7 something. Or like close to being legally blind,” Ko revealed while pointing towards her left eye. She is dangerously close to having vision worse than 20/200. However, someone with a -6½ or -7 on one eye can still correct their vision by wearing contact lenses or glasses. In Lydia’s case, she chose to treat it with LASIK. But it’s still an incredibly bad vision to have for a professional golfer.

We can only imagine how challenging it might be for her to look across 500-yard par-5 holes. However, considering her success on the golf course, she might be far better than she gives herself credit. Either way, she might be heading to the Laser Surgery Clinic soon to get a refund for her last session.

Moreover, KO is not the only one who has had struggles on the fairways due to poor eyes sight. Michelle Wie West had recently opened up about her problems of astigmatism, which hampered her performance vene during her hey days. There’s also Gurleen Kaur, who shared about undergoing LASIK surgery as well in 2023.

Having said that, do stats suggest that Lydia Ko also has bad depth perception? Let’s take a look at her record from 2025 to get more insight into her eyesight.

Does Lydia Ko’s eyesight affect her performance on the course?

Lydia Ko is undoubtedly one of the best golfers on the LPGA Tour. She has been incredibly consistent ever since her first appearance on the Tour. Over the years, she has captured 23 titles, including 3 majors. One of her biggest wins came when she was only 15 years old. Ko won the 2012 Canadian Women’s Open, becoming the youngest golfer to capture a title on the LPGA Tour. The iconic picture of her holding the huge trophy is still fresh in many of her fans’ minds. What most of them would also remember is that she was also wearing glasses in that picture back then.

Being so young, self-proclaimed nearly legally blind, and relatively inexperienced, Ko was still able to dominate the strong field in Canada in 2012. In 2025, she continues to do so as her eyesight might have gotten worse with age. Someone with bad eyesight would ideally struggle to play on long par-5 holes. However, those are the holes she has mastered this season, having the 5th-best scoring average among all her peers. While she may have complained about her approach shot during the video, on the LPGA Tour, Lydia Ko is still 0.37 strokes on average with her irons and wedges. Her eyesight may be bad, but she certainly knows golf well enough to dominate it even when she can’t see the fairway clearly.