Nearing Retirement Age, Lydia Ko Sends Clear Message to Critics Who Have ‘Bad’ Things to Say About Golfer

Lydia Ko is on the path to retirement! For anyone who isn’t aware, the New Zealander expressed her desire to move away from the LPGA Tour as she gets closer to her 30s. Having turned 28 recently, the world no. 3 wants to shift her focus from professional golf to her family and personal life in the next two years. But before she goes, she has one goal in mind: to become the Grand Slam champion. To achieve that, Ko needs to win the U.S. Women’s Open and the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. With the first of the two coming up at the end of May, the 23x LPGA Tour winner has stepped away from the course after a disappointing run at the 2025 Chevron Championship.

As she recovers, re-strategizes, and prepares for the second major of the year, Lydia Ko decided to join Golf.com to share bits from her journey so far. While the video hasn’t been released on YouTube yet, the famed golf news outlet shared a glimpse of the interview on their Instagram. The caption read, “In 2023, she was crying in lonely hotel rooms. In 2024, she was crying atop of the Olympic podium. Fighting Back, with Lydia Ko, drops tomorrow on YouTube.” It began with the host asking Ko, “Do the lows stay with you or do the highs wash them away?”

The LPGA Tour pro replied, “To kind of overcome the self-doubts, it doesn’t matter what you write about me or what my next door neighbour says about me. Even if they’re bad, if I don’t think about it, then it’s really irrelevant in ways .” It seems that the 3x major winner finds it easy to keep the negatives out of her mind as long as they don’t directly affect her. Ko tried to share the positivity with Charley Hull when the latter had a bad round in the 2025 Ford Championship. During a press conference, she said, “I’ve been paired a lot with Charley. She’s good at everything, so it was a great pairing. I think we all played really solid. Charley was a bit of an inspiration for us yesterday, shooting the 9-under par.” Ko finished at T6 while Hull ended the tournament at T11, with one stroke separating them.

Coming back to the New Zealand golfer’s interview, she added, “I was just really proud of the way I have overcome my own demons.” This takes us back to a part of the caption that said, “In 2023, she was crying in lonely hotel rooms.” Ko’s biggest demons were self-doubt, as she mentioned in the interview. She had a lot of in 2023 when she failed to win a single LPGA Tour title. A player of Lydia Ko’s calibre is not used to not winning. As the video ended with “Lydia Ko Fighting Back” on the screen, it perfectly summarizes how the 28-year-old fought back from the drought and continued fighting until the outstanding season she had in 2024. Ko won 3 LPGA Tour titles and an Olympic Gold in Paris before entering the Golf Hall of Fame at the end of last season.

While her highs were celebrated and made the headlines regularly, Lydia Ko’s struggles in 2023 are often ignored. Knowing how important they are to her story from the last couple of years, let’s take a peek at what she faced during 2023.

Lydia Ko’s lows that made her push her limits

In 2022, Lydia Ko was on a high. She won three LPGA Tour titles and had eleven other top-10 finishes. At the end of the year, Ko also earned the Rolex Player of the Year award for her outstanding performance throughout the season. However, all that changed in 2023 when she began her drought. Yes, she did not win a single title, but that was not the only shocking stat about her from that season.

In 2023, the New Zealander had just two top-10 finishes. She missed 4 cuts and had no top 30s, as a result she, only managed to earn around $247,000. Ko’s lowest round score for the season in official events was 65. Clearly, the path to HOF was something that played in her mind during these struggles, “That would be a lie, I think, if you said no. No, matter what’s happened this year, obviously, it doesn’t summarize what’s happened in the past nine years.”

Going from there to the outstanding season she had in 2024, there is no question that Lydia Ko fought back to secure her place as one of the world’s best golfers. Wouldn’t you agree?