Lydia Ko's Gold Medal Winning Bag | What's in the Bag?
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
Starting off Ko’s bag is the latest driver from PING, the G430 MAX 10K. This driver is the most forgiving driver PING has ever released, and while it may sacrifice some potential distance, it makes up for it with ultimate forgiveness and ultimately, less mishits and more fairways. This was mostly true for Ko during the Olympics. Her longest drive was only 276 yards, which was tied for 52nd longest, so she was by no means one of the longer players at Le Golf National. Accuracy wise, she found just over 64 percent of the fairways, which was tied for 27th best. While she wasn’t the longest, nor necessarily the most accurate, she still performed quite well compared to the field, gaining 2.846 strokes off the tee, which was 15th best overall.
3-Wood: PING G430 Max (15 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana PD60 Stiff
Moving into Ko’s long game where she games a single PING G430 Max 3-Wood. Like her driver, Ko opts for forgiveness over low-spin and potentially distance. With Le Golf National a tricky course off the tee, she gave herself another forgiving option off the tee, plus a club with a little more launch than a low-spin model for when she was attacking greens from a distance.
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. These irons, along with her hybrids and fairway wood helped her find 73.61 percent of the greens in regulation. She only missed 19 greens in regulation for the tournament, which was key to her victory. Overall, she finished 31st in Strokes Gained Approach to Green, gaining 0.926 strokes on the field.
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 were one of the stalwarts during her victory. In addition to playing a role in her approach game, they were excellent around the green. She missed just 19 greens in regulation, yet converted 12 of her 19 scramble opportunities, which included 2 of her 4 sand saves. Ko’s wedge play helped her lead the tournament in fewest amount of bogeys made with just 6. Overall, she finished 9th in Strokes Gained Around the Green, gaining 2.277 strokes on the field.
If Ko’s wedges were one of the stalwarts of her win, her putter was the star. Playing a Scotty Cameron P5 GSS Tour Center-Shafted mallet, Ko was unbelievably good on the greens. She made 94 feet of putts, which was 8th best for the week. She also averaged 1.66 putts per GIR, and when you consider she hit 53 greens in regulation, that results in a whole lot of birdie conversions. That translates too, as Ko finished 2nd in the field in total birdies with 20. That putting performance helped her lead the Olympics in Strokes Gained Putting, as she gained 8.052 strokes on the field from the putting surface.