Lydia Ko is a regular at the Amundi Evian Championship. But this time, she showed up with a surprise face on the bag. Her husband, Jun Chung, was using his vacation days to caddie for her and, as she joked, doing it for “zero salary.” The LPGA shared a glimpse of their on-course partnership through an Instagram post. While she was leaning into humor in the post, she also admitted how having Chung on the bag has actually helped her.

“The best advice was — well, I don’t know if it’s an advice, but more like an ultimatum. He was like, oh, I’m not going to caddie for a wuss, so I think that made me be a little bit more kind of aggressive. And then he really didn’t have any bad advice. I told him to like keep up and shut up. That was kind of like my advice at the start of the week. I actually relied on him in like green reading as well, which has kind of been the thing that I struggled with on these greens the past few years,” Ko said in the post-round presser when asked about the best and the worst advice she received from Chung.

“I had more birdies the past four days than I probably did the last couple times I played here. Yeah, I think having him was very helpful, but, yeah, mostly just looking forward to being back in the norm of things with Paul,” she added.

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As Lydia Ko revealed, Chung’s comment helped her be more aggressive, and it was reflected in her final-round performance. She hit a round of seven-under 64 on Sunday. This featured seven birdies, five on the front nine and two on the 11th and 14th holes. Her putting was consistent, with a Greens in Regulation stat of 16/18 in the final round. Adding that to her three consecutive rounds of 69, she finished tied for 7th with Anna Nordqvist, at 13-under 271 at the $9.1 million Amundi Evian Championship.

This is her best finish at the Evian Championship since her T3 in 2022. In the past three years, she finished T61 and T39, including missing the cut in 2025.

But beyond this on-course performance, what she enjoyed most was the time spent with Chung, carrying her bag. This was reflected in the LPGA’s fun banter shared on social media. For instance, when Chung inquired about the pay, she said that he won’t get anything. And then to justify that, she said, “It’s like, what’s yours is mine, and what’s mine is mine.”

However, this is not the first time they walked a course together. Several years ago, Chung played in a U.S. Am Tour event in Monterey, California, and it was Ko who caddied for him. Notably, such partnerships aren’t unprecedented. Fans may recall Hannah Green’s husband, Jarryd Felton, caddying for her at the 2026 HSBC Women’s World Championship in Singapore.

“When he does come out to my tournaments, he’s always trying to help me out,” Lydia Ko told Golfweek in 2023. “It was one of the rare times I could do something for him. I was more excited.”

While this week was more about having fun and playing golf, it also changed the 23-LPGA Tour winner’s perspective on the role of a caddie.

“We had a lot of fun. I think having him on the bag has made me realize like how tough of a job a caddie really is. It made me become more appreciative of Paul who does it for — who we work together, and all of the other caddies. I’m not sure how they kind of go through those physical and mental I guess strenuous situations I guess week in, week out. Having him has made me more appreciative of their job I guess, yeah,” she stated.

While she wanted her regular caddie, Paul Cormack, back to get things back to normal, she acknowledged that Jun Chung acted as an A+ caddie for her. In fact, when she started off the championship, she hit a bogey on the very first hole. However, he said that it was okay and that she could do it. This gave her a lot of confidence.

While Chung will not caddie for her at the AIG Women’s Open, her final major of 2026, she would like to carry the confidence and momentum she gained from the final round.

Lydia Ko on preparing for the AIG Women’s Open

Lydia Ko started this season on the wrong foot with missed cuts in the first two majors. However, she has made a comeback and wants to carry that momentum.

“I know Europe has had a little bit of a heat wave the past few weeks so I’m not really sure how that is going to affect the golf course. But most of the time we turn up to the AIG Women’s Open it’s pretty windy, and I honestly don’t expect anything else,” Ko said when asked about how the final round leaps into the preparation for the AIG Women’s Open.

“I personally think I won in some of the windiest AIG Women’s Opens that I played, so just knowing that I’m playing a lot of good golf.,” she added. “I think it was a little stressful when I missed the first cuts of the first two majors, especially at Riv, because that’s like the pinnacle event that I wanted to play well this year.”

Ko’s 2026 campaign has been a roller coaster. She started with a solo 4th and T5th at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions and the Honda LPGA Thailand, respectively. Then, she finished tied for 27th and tied for 56th in her next two events. It’s been the same throughout the season so far.

But when it comes to the majors, she missed the cut at the Chevron Championship and the US Women’s Open. However, at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, she finished T15. Now, she has made it to the top 10. With this upscale growth, she might see chances of being in contention at the AIG Women’s Open 2026.