Lydia Ko’s New Guy

It’s been a year of changes for Lydia Ko: first her coach, then her clubs and, repeatedly, her caddie.  We were forewarned.  Ko announced early in the season that she would be using a number of caddies on a trial basis while she searched for a good fit that would lead to a permanent partnership.  Her reasons for shopping around made sense: she’d never hired a caddie on a long-term basis and she didn’t know many of the courses she would play during her rookie year.  The Caddie Factor’s a mysterious relationship that develops between golfer and caddie, part alchemy, part trust, part psychotherapeutic support.  Ko intended to proceed with deliberate caution.

Lydia Ko began her season at the New Zealand Women’s Open with Michael Henderson on her bag.  That was in January, but then she turned to Scott Lubin, who’d looped for Jack Nicklaus on the Champions Tour, to carry her bag at the Pure Silk-Bahamas LPGA Classic.

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April was a busy month for Ko as she auditioned one caddie and then another.  Mark Wallington, who’s looped for Sophie Gustafson, Michelle Wie, and Danielle Kang, was on Ko’s bag at the Kraft Nabisco Championship, Ko’s first Major as a pro.  For whatever reason, Wallington didn’t last long.  In Hawaii Steve Kay picked up her bag for the LPGA LOTTE Championship, bringing 25 years’ experience looping on the PGA Tour to his on-course interview.

By the time she got to the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic Ko had gone through three caddies, four if you count her father.  For the Lake Merced track Ko hired a local looper, explaining that Domingo Jojola knew the Lake Merced track well.  That Jojola had caddied for Ko at the 2012 US Junior Girls probably helped him get the Swinging Skirts gig.

Ko was still on the hunt for a steady caddie as the second Major of the season, the US Women’s Open, approached.  IMG, Ko’s management group, contacted Jim Furyk’s long-time caddie Mike Fluff Cowan, who had the unusual opportunity to loop back-to-back the 2014 US Opens at Pinehurst. For whatever reason, Cowan’s gig with Ko didn’t extend beyond the Open.

By August, however, Lydia Ko seemed to have settled in with Greg Johnson, who’s looped for Juli Inkster, Lorena Ochoa, Michelle Wie, and Lexi Thompson.  That’s a fairly impressive list, and the partnership seemed to have the elusive magic Ko was hunting.  With Johnson on her bag Ko tied for 2nd at the WalMart NW Arkansas, survived the RICOH Women’s British Open, and won the Marathon Classic.

Although Ko and her mother asked Johnson to stay on for the remainder of the season after her Marathon Classic victory, there was a new guy carrying Ko’s bag this week in Malaysia, Jason Hamilton, Yani Tseng’s former caddie.  Hamilton had looped for Ko briefly a couple of months ago.  Although Ko said she hoped the arrangement would be “a long teamwork for a long time,” we’ll have to see if Hamilton can survive Ko’s T8th finish at the Sime Darby LPGA Malaysia and the five events leading up to the season-ending  CME Group Tour Championship.

Golf Channel’s Randall Mell asked Ko what she was looking for in a caddie.  Her response is telling:

"I don’t really have that fire in me . . . My mom and I feel I need someone who can be a little humorous, and who can kind of have that fire for me. . ."