Ko confirms new swing coach

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February 8, 2017

World number one Lydia Ko confirmed Gary Gilchrist as her new swing coach on Wednesday.

The South Korean-born superstar has been without a coach since ditching David Leadbetter in late 2016 after three years together.

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Interestingly, Gilchrist is the coach of Ko’s rival Ariya Jutanugarn. The Thai world number two enjoyed a superlative 2016, notching up five wins. However, this doesn’t faze Ko.

“It just shows how good a coach Gary of is,” the 19-year-old told the New Zealand Herald.

“It’s not necessarily a rivalry thing, it just gives me confidence he’s a great coach and this will be good going forward.

“We have worked more on the setup and that will change the swing itself.

“They are subtle changes. It might not even look so different but to me, it feels different and has cleared up my mind. If I keep my swing as simple as possible then I’m confident.”

Meanwhile, Gilchrist revealed part of his goal is to get the enjoyment factor back into Ko’s game and tweak her driving.

“It’s about having a common goal which for her was to start enjoying the game again,” said the South African, who has also coached the likes of six-time LPGA Tour winner Shanshan Feng.

“I think for her it started to get a bit over technical – which wasn’t I’m sure the goal of David – that’s how she started to struggle a little bit with that enjoyment. And I think at times she was started to lose a little bit of confidence in her driving.”

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