Tee Sheet: Lydia Ko Talks Rory, Says "Nothing Will Fulfill Us Fully Until We're Done"

FRISCO, TX. — So you accomplished your life-long, career-long goal. Now what? Well, we're all bearing witness to that reality with Rory McIlroy. Folks are calling it the Masters winning hangover. There's a dark cloud looming around the most recent career grand slam winner, the angst is apparent—but why?

As much as we can all try and take a stab at explaining it, it's a question that only another insanely accomplished golfer can shed light on, and Lydia Ko did just that during her pre-tournament presser at the KPMG Women's PGA Championship.

If you're unfamiliar with her game, Lydia Ko is the best of her generation. She quite literally has nothing left to prove. She's the youngest LPGA major winner, winning the Evian Championship in 2015 at 18 years, 4 months, and 20 days old. Her Olympic medal collection is tri-colored (aka she's won a golf, silver, and bronze medal). And she qualified for the LPGA's Hall of Fame—all before turning 30 years old.

New Zealand's Lydia Ko celebrates with the New Zealand national flag and her trophy after winning the Evian Championship on September 13, 2015 in the French Alps town of Evian-les-Bains. AFP PHOTO / JEAN PIERRE CLATOT (Photo credit should read JEAN-PIERRE CLATOT/AFP via Getty Images)

The 28 year old is as accomplished as a golfer can be in this day and age, and yet she still shows up. And that's not to say that McIlroy isn't showing up, we're just seeing another side to him—one that's so unfamiliar, but perhaps that's what happens when you win a Masters Tournament. You're coming off the craziest emotional high of your life, you're allowed to be a little out of sorts, you've deserved as much.

McIlroy addressed questions about his post-Masters malaise at the RBC Canadian Open a couple weeks back, candidly stating, "I don't know if I'm chasing anything. I would certainly say that the last few weeks I've had a couple weeks off, and going and grinding on the range for three or four hours every day is maybe a little tougher than it used to be.

You have this event in your life that you've worked towards and it happens, sometimes it's hard to find the motivation to get back on the horse and go again.”

Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland walks off the seventh tee during the third round of the 125th U.S. OPEN at Oakmont Country Club on June 14, 2025 in Oakmont, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images)

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All I'll say is well said Rors, and I'll raise you Lydia Ko's two cents on the matter.

"I think I thought my life or maybe the way I thought about myself would change when I got in the Hall of Fame and did a lot of the things I wanted to do before it actually happened, and I'm sure Rory is thinking the same in similar parts, where everybody was like, oh, Masters is the one he was missing," Ko shared during her Tuesday presser ahead of KPMG. "Like what if? And then he did it. And as much as I'm sure he's so happy and relieved, he's just as good the day before, like before he won it."

It's hard to imagine how difficult setting that bar for yourself can be, but Ko explains it beautifully.

"I think sometimes when it's right there in front of you and see all these statistics, you feel like you should do more. I think that some of the things we've already gotten, we take for granted. I think that's what I realized most, and that's what made me realize I've still got to go out there and practice and put in the time to play well the week after. That's the thing about golf. Our season is so long that there's really not much time to just kind of relax. Even the off-season goes by so fast. There's not much time to honestly sit down on that thought."

For these athletes, the next big thing is always on the horizon for them. We see them again and again carrying on business as usual as if they didn't do something remarkable just days prior. In golf we don't allow ourselves to sit in the moment enough until we look back on the year for those like 14 days in December when there's hardly any pro golf on and we're all recounting what the hell we just witnessed over the last 50 something weeks.

It's why we obsess over nostalgia, dare I say slightly more than other sports. We want the next fill in the blank great player, while longing for what we once had, meanwhile what we're seeing week end and week out is just as incredible.

Lydia Ko of New Zealand looks to hit a tee shot on the sixth hole during the first round of the KPMG Women's PGA Championship 2025 at Fields Ranch East at PGA Frisco on June 19, 2025 in Frisco, Texas. (Photo by Sam Hodde/Getty Images)

As if the world No.3 didn't drop enough gems she ended with one final piece of advice for repositioning after crossing a major hurdle. "I'm pretty sure he wanted to win the U.S. Open when he teed it up. It's the same. We're greedy in that sense, like nothing will fulfill us fully until we're done. I think that's—I don't think that's a bad way of putting it. I think that's the reason why we play. That's why he's at his level because of his competitiveness."

For Ko, a win this week at KPMG would be everything and she feels it's possible.

"I was talking to my caddie about this, and I was like, I shouldn't have won the British Open. That's where I probably had not the best record going into St Andrews last year, especially coming off the week at Olympics a couple weeks prior.

So if I made the impossible possible, I feel like as long as I'm playing good golf and I'm smart and I'm committed out there, hopefully I can give myself opportunities. Whether this is the one or maybe future sites, I'm not really sure, but I do really like it out here."

A Lydia Ko that thinks she can win is a dangerous Lydia Ko.