Top-Ranked Golfer Lydia Ko Reportedly Leaving Callaway For PXG Next Season

Top-ranked golfer Lydia Ko "will be leaving Callaway for PXG" in '17, with the new company "offering a sweeter financial deal," according to Jamie Diaz of GOLF WORLD. Since winning a Silver Medal for New Zealand at the Rio Games, Ko has been on the "worst stretch of golf since turning professional" in '12. She not only did not post a top 10 in her five tournaments prior to the season finale CME Group Tour Championship, she also "finished out of the top 40 three times." For the first time there is "some question whether Ko, with her clear potential to be a true all-time great, will be able to sustain a long enough reign to compile the kind of numbers that approach those" of Golf HOFer Annika Sorenstam. There are "hints that she could fall prey to the 'early success, early burnout' syndrome that captured her idol, Se Ri Pak, and other Asian superstars" (GOLF WORLD, 11/21).