Even Cupid’s under pressure to hit his marks this week.
Lydia Ko, Tiger Woods and Adam Scott are the focus of this special Valentine’s edition of the Hot Seat.
Will the golf gods show these popular icons some love with Ko making her first start of the 2018 season so near her beloved New Zealand home, with Woods making his return to his L.A. area roots and with Scott looking to make a return to the top 50 in the world rankings?
Our special heat index measuring the temperatures the game’s top players face this week:
Tasmanian Mountain Pepper – Lydia Ko
The new year starts with yet another shakeup to Ko’s team.
While the changes aren’t quite as sweeping as a year ago, when Ko made her start with a new coach (Gary Gilchrist), a new caddie (Peter Godfrey) and new equipment (PXG), she is making significant changes.
Ted Oh is the new coach, and Jonny Scott will be the new caddie at the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open.
Oh told GolfChannel.com he didn’t overhaul Ko’s swing in their recent boot-camp-style work together over five weeks in Phoenix, but trained eyes will see some change in her swing. They spent nine-hour days together in that intense preparation.
“The days would have been longer, but the sun went down,” Oh said.
A lot of the focus was on Ko’s “scoring clubs,” her short irons, wedges and short game. She didn’t give herself as many birdie chances as she would have liked last year, when she ranked third on tour in putts per greens in regulation but dropped to 10th in scoring. She was second in scoring in 2016 and second in 2015.
Ko, the greatest teen phenom the women’s game has ever known, is coming off her first winless year since she began playing LPGA events as a 15-year-old. She’s looking for her first victory since turning 20.
Ko fans may have to be patient, because these off-season changes could require more time to adjust. The former No. 1 has slid to No. 10 in the world rankings.
Riviera Roast – Tiger Woods
Woods is making his first start in 12 years at Riviera, which stands as the only venue he couldn’t conquer that really meant something to him.
He’s 0-for-10 at Hogan’s Alley, a course just an hour’s drive north of where he grew up. He has never played a course more on the PGA Tour without winning.
Woods has come close in this event. He lost in a playoff to Billy Mayfair in 1998, when the event was contested at Valencia CC. He tied for second behind Ernie Els the very next year, back at Riviera. He has four top-10s in this event, but Hogan’s Alley never yielded to his will, even when Woods was at the height of his powers early in his career.
Still, it remains a special place to Woods. He was 16 when he made his first appearance in a PGA Tour event there. He has Genesis Open host duties now, with his foundation running the event.
While the odds are against Woods breaking through and winning this week, it’s still a win for golf that he’s there, making his L.A.-area home a stop in his return to the game.
Rope-Burn Rash – Adam Scott
Scott slid outside the top 50 in the world rankings with his missed cut at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am last weekend, marking the first time the former world No. 1 hasn’t been among the top 50 in almost eight years.
Scott is back in action at the Genesis Open, an event where he has thrived. He won at Riviera in ’05 and finished second there in ’06. He was runner-up there just two years ago. All of that bodes well as a place for him to start climbing back up in the world rankings to assure he will be eligible for the U.S. Open this summer and the WGC-Mexico Championship in two weeks
Source: Internet
