Lydia Ko's Winning Bag | 2024 AIG Women's Open
In what she says was her final Olympic games, the most decorated Olympic golfer of the modern era, Lydia Ko, completed her Olympic medal collection with a gold medal! Ko had already won silver in 2016 and bronze in 2021, and completed the Olympic trifecta with a two-stroke victory at Le Golf National in Paris this past weekend! With the Olympic Gold Medal, Ko has now qualified for the LPGA Hall of Fame!
Ko played two brands throughout her gold medal-winning bag, with most of it primarily composed of PING with some Titleist additions at the bottom of the bag.
Driver: PING G430 MAX 10K
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana PD50 Stiff
Ko continues to play the PING G430 MAX 10K Driver as it's incredibly forgiving setup helps her find more fairways and attack more greens with her irons. Ko hit 48 of 64 fairways at St. Andrews, which was excellent. She actually hit the fewest amount of fairways in the final round, hitting 11 of 16, but still shot her best score of the Open with a three-under, 69. Distance has not ever been Ko's focus off the tee, as she tends to value accuracy more, and at an Open venue with wind and rain, that makes sense as she averaged 249 yards off the tee, with Sunday's final round averaging just 240 yards. One of the highlights for KO with her driver though had to be on the par 5 14th, where she used driver off the deck for her 2nd shot that helped setup a birdie that pulled her to within one shot of the lead at the time.
3-Wood: PING G430 Max (15 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana PD60 Stiff
Moving into Ko’s long game where she plays a PING G430 Max 3-Wood. Like her driver, Ko opts for forgiveness over low-spin and potentially distance. With the conditions and setup of St. Andrews, having another forgiving option to use off the tee and into par 5's was vital to her major victory.
Hybrids: PING G430 (19 + 22 degrees)
Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD HY 65 Stiff
Staying in Ko’s long game, but moving to the hybrid section of her bag. She stays with the PING G430 line for her hybrids, playing 19 and 22 degree hybrids. This provides an evenly distributed gap between her fairway wood and irons, and does so with a high launching, forgiving option. With her not being the longest player off the tee, these hybrids come in handy for approaching greens from a distance, and give her a little more stopping power than the PING fairway woods.
Irons: PING i230 (5-7), PING Blueprint S (8-9)
Shafts: Aerotech Steelfiber FC70 Stiff
For her irons, Ko plays a combo set composed of PING i230’s for her mid-irons, and Blueprint S’ for her short irons. She gets a little more forgiveness in the player’s cavity style iron of the i230 and slightly easier launch, while the Blueprint S provide her a true players iron for a little more workability and consistency. Her irons were excellent all week long, as she hit 58 of 72 greens in regulation, and limited any blow up holes by finding just a single greenside bunker.
Wedges: Vokey Design SM10 (46.10F @ 44, 48.10F @ 49, 54.10S, 58.08M)
Shafts: AeroTech SteelFiber
Ko deviates from PING for her wedges, opting for Vokey SM10’s for wedges. Interestingly, she goes with an SM10 in place of her pitching wedge in addition to the more standard gap, sand and lob wedge options. Ko's wedges provided the shot of the tournament. Tied for the lead on the 72nd hole, Ko stuck a wedge to within 7 feet and then buried the birdie putt which gave her the outright lead, and proved to be the difference. They shined around the greens too, especially on Sunday where Ko was able to get up-and-down from some tricky spots thanks in part to some sensational wedge play around the green.
Ko's trusty Center-Shafted Scotty Cameron P5 GSS Prototype continued to deliver when she needed it most. Her putting wasn't nearly as dominant as it was during her win at The Olympics, but when she needed to make putts she did, including that eventual championship-clinching putt on the 72nd hole. She averaged 31 putts per round, which is solid, but not out of this world, but with how St. Andrews played and the conditions the players were subjected to, it was enough to win the tournament.