Lydia Ko prepped for U.S. Women's Open at Erin Hills by watching Grant Horvat on YouTube
ERIN, Wisconsin – Lydia Ko prepped for the 80th U.S. Women's Open not by watching Brooks Koepka's victory at Erin Hills in 2017 but by watching Wesley Bryan's revenge on YouTube.
'I think it's the series where they do it with Grant Horvat, and it's going to major championship courses,' said Ko during a pre-tournament press conference. 'I think they played at the ANWA course recently with Alexa Pano. I got into YouTube golf because of my husband, and I won't be shy to say I watch it on my own now. It's probably not the preparation that many of the other players did, but it was just a good way for me to kind of see the golf course.'
The Horvat video from Erin Hills, which was posted eight months ago and is more than 90 minutes long, already has 1 million views.
Now that she's seen Erin Hills in person, Ko's assessment: difficult but fun.
While the official yardage of 6,829 makes it a beast of a course when fully stretched out, Ko said she doesn't feel like Erin Hills is the kind of track that suits one player, noting that creativity playing the angles in the wind and particularly around the greens will be paramount. Ko ranks 127th in driving distance this season, but if the LPGA had strokes-gained categories for creativity and mental strength, she'd top them both.
Those characteristics are arguably even better now coming into her 14th U.S. Women's Open, as the 28-year-old Kiwi plays with more freedom these days.
'I think just getting in the Hall of Fame (in 2024) and winning the gold at the Olympics (in 2024 in Paris), I think there was like an internal handcuff that I had kind of put on myself,' said Ko, 'whether it was pressure or expectations, and I think with that all kind of being done, I think I was just able to play with a lot more freedom. And I think there was a clear case at St. Andrews (in 2024) where I was just enjoying being here, enjoying the town, and I think I kind of slowly crept up the leaderboard, and I feel like that's what I've been doing pretty well since then.'
In some ways she regrets that she didn't approach the game in such a manner earlier, but she also noted that being more focused at a younger age likely played a role in her early success.
'It's hard to say what was the right way to do it,' she said, 'but I think those things have made me feel a little bit more relaxed on the golf course.'
A victory at the Women's Open this week would give Ko her fourth different major title, which by the LPGA's standards would give her the career grand slam despite there being five majors.
Ko stated the goal of winning a career grand slam after she won the AIG Women's British Open at St. Andrews last August. She also said that while that goal helps keep her motivated, she's not going to wake up from a dead sleep years from now regretting that she never won a U.S. Women's Open, as much as she'd like one.
'I'm obviously very proud of the things that have happened,' said Ko, 'and I would be over the moon if I – especially like this week, to come off with a trophy. But I don't think that's going to, like, connect me more so to my identity later on.'
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