Ko and Harrington Win Again

If you’re not following the LPGA, you are missing one of the great golf stories in recent years. This past weekend, Lydia Ko notched her tenth professional win at the relatively tender age of seventeen. To put this in perspective, Tiger and Rory were each 24 by the time they achieved this feat.

To put an exclamation point on the milestone, the win at the Women’s New Zealand Open was her second in a row. The previous week, Ko won the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open.

There’s a lot to like about Ko beyond her game. In playing her National Open this past weekend, Ko passed on bigger money ($200,000 purse vs $1,500,000 purse) and the chances for points toward the LPGA’s season championship.  She also quietly passed an envelope of $500 to the clubhouse to seed the post tournament celebrations. Whether it is Ko, her parents, or her advisers, the teen is getting it right.

Padraig Harrington hasn’t exactly been on a winning streak lately, but I for one was glad to see him back in the winner’s circle.  The three time major winner (2007, 2007 Open Championship 2008 PGA Championship) won the Honda Classic in a playoff and now will get another shot at the Masters. Since the Honda was his first win since 2008, the question is whether the win was an outlier, or the start of a trend for the 43-year-old. I’m hoping it is the latter.

While I am not one of those “what’s in the bag” fanboys, I was interested to see that Harrington—a Wilson Staff player—was using a center-shafted, face balanced mallet. I have used a center shafted mallet for years, but I see almost none on Tour. The Wilson Staff model is the Infinite South Side Putter. What I like about the center shafted putter I play is that I can get my eyes directly over the ball, and it works perfectly with a straight-back-and-through stroke. None of that open-to-closed-curving-stroke nonsense. The simpler the putter stroke, the better I like it. Good putting is one of the things that keep this relatively short hitter at a 14 handicap.

Padraig did very well with the putter on the back nine in the final round, rolling in four birdie putts outside thirteen feet, including a 16-footer on hole 18 to send it to a playoff. 

Wilson Staff Men’s Infinite South Side Putter on Amazon.