At 9.41am, at the first hole, she grins. "Have a good day," she tells Ariya Jutanugarn and Ryu So Yeon and stuffs her yardage book with the word LYDS on it into her back pocket and flexes her yellow driver. She looks as calm as a still river but underneath the smile is the current of conflict. You can't see the struggle, but it's there.
Lydia Ko used to be No. 1 and now she's No. 11; she used to collect titles like phone covers and now hasn't won one since July 2016; she used to hit fairways with the cool of a blindfolded Robin Hood and yesterday she missed six of 14; she used to produce great golf on demand and now she's very good and what separates one from the other is just inches in precision. So little, so much.
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