Having always thought that Lydia Ko would find some sort of adversity this year while she was racking up top-20 finishes on the LPGA Tour, I didn't expect three consecutive finishes worse than 40th. After a tied-44th and tied-42nd, Ko rolled out a tied-61st at the LPGA Mediheal Championship over the weekend which saw her post her worse scoring average for a tournament in which she made the cut this year.

Lydia Ko is in search of a new swing coach. She and Ted Oh have parted ways. "We just mutually decided that it was time. We ended on good terms...I have a lot to thank Ted for. He gave me a really solid blueprint simplifying my swing." She's in no rush to find a new coach.
— Randall Mell (@RandallMellGC) April 30, 2019

Ko's scoring average of 73 at the Mediheal Championship is only surpassed by her 74 average when she didn't make the cut that the Australian Open, that is to say that Ko is in a bit of a hole right now. Over the weekend, Ko shot three rounds over par and one round under, to finish +6 while the leaders shot -7.

As expected, there's plenty of negativity around Ko from the mainstream media in Aotearoa and the timing of Ko's three poor results has coincided with her making another coach getting the cut. My insight always leans into the positive though and we are not dealing with Ko struggling all year, resulting in her wanting to change her coach etc and this string of three results is a blip on what was otherwise building as decent start to the year for Ko.

Prior to this lean patch, Ko had played six tournaments and finished outside the top-20 just once when she missed the cut. Ko has now played nine tournaments with five top-20 finishes and four outside the top-20, that five/four split kinda sums up where Ko is right now and while things aren't as bad as many folk make them out to be for Ko, she is still grafting to find a sustainable level of consistency.

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The last time I checked, 36 putts meant ‘no bueno’ 🤣 ... well, at least the food was 💯 in LA!!!

A post shared by Lydia Ko (@lydsko) on Apr 28, 2019 at 4:33pm PDT

Here's the usual check in with Ko's major stats...

Driving Accuracy

LA Open: 70.19% (90th)

Mediheal Championship: 68.64% (105th)

Greens In Regulation

LA Open: 70.37% (52nd)

Mediheal Championship: 70.10% (56th)

Putts Per GIR

LA Open: 1.77 (19th)

Mediheal Championship: 1.79 (34th)

Putting Average

LA Open: 29.30 (13th)

Mediheal Championship: 29.65 (25th)

Scoring Average

LA Open: 70.33 (15th)

Mediheal Championship: 70.71 (18th)

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Peace and love 27.