Women’s world No.1 Lydia Ko has fired renowned coach David Leadbetter, who believes the New Zealander’s parents are to blame for the decision.
“It was a bit of a mess the last few weeks,” Leadbetter told New Zealand Radio Sport‘s D’Arcy Waldegrave.
“Her father has got a little bit more involved, trying to throw some swing technique at her. Changing her caddie was a crazy decision. Her parents are lovely people but I think they are little naive.
“Lydia is not a machine and is not going to win every week.”
Leadbetter urged the two-time major winner to take control of her golf career.
Leadbetter said his final advice to Ko was to become more independent.
“[Lydia] needs to take control of [her] own life, take control of [her] golf game,” said Leadbetter.
“Own your game. You are the player, you need to make these decisions.”
Statement on behalf of David Leadbetter:
“These things happen in the world of coaching, whether it’s Jurgen Klinsmann with the US National Soccer Team or Novak Djokovic who just separated from his coach Boris Becker this week. This turnover is all part of the coaching business.
We as a team want to thank Lydia for the privilege of helping her develop her game over the past three years. During which time she has amassed close to $7.5 million in prize money, has won 12 LPGA titles including two Majors, twice won the CME Championship, youngest Rookie of the Year in 2014, youngest Rolex Player of the Year in 2015, won the silver medal at this year’s Olympic Games in Rio, and achieved a host of other records. At present Lydia is number one in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings. Our goal from our very first coaching session with Lydia in November of 2013 was to create a vision and blueprint for this extraordinary talent designed around improving her full swing shot-making abilities, power, and short game performance. Lydia’s tournament results and statistics in each of the last three seasons clearly demonstrate the effectiveness of our plan.
Lydia is not only an exceptional player, but also an exceptional person. She is a perfect role model for any young golfer to follow on how to conduct oneself on the golf course, interact with the public, and give back to the game. Lydia has been an absolute pleasure to coach and she felt the staff at the Leadbetter Golf Academy Headquarters at Champions Gate has been like an extended family to her.
We, the Leadbetter Golf Academy team, have prided ourselves on working with great talent through the years. Our team, including Sean Hogan, Director of Instruction at The Leadbetter Academies, plus other members of Lydia’s support team who have helped guide her, will walk away knowing that we have helped a great talent reach the highest pinnacle. We are proud of the part we have played in supporting her success. She has created a record that will be incredibly hard to beat! We believe that her success reinforces our position as leaders in the development of champion golfers around the world.
We wish Lydia the very best for the future and know that, going forward, if she is able to withstand the many outside pressures associated with being number one in the world, and if her team keep their expectations realistic, then she can go on to even bigger and better things.”
