ERIN, Wis. — One of these days, we’ll see Lydia Ko starring in a YouTube golf video, but for now, she’s content just watching golf on YouTube. And plenty of it. So much that she’s actually leaned on it to prep for this week’s U.S. Women’s Open at Erin Hills.
Ko used part of her press conference Tuesday to explain that one of the difficult aspects of one of the most trying tournaments on the calendar is learning a new course every year. That’s major championship golf, but it requires a heightened level of attention. So much that players will arrive earlier than normal — that was the case for Ko, who showed up over the weekend — and even begin studying weeks in advance, like a 12-handicapper ahead of a buddies trip.
So Ko found herself watching Erin Hills content on YouTube, particularly the Bryan Brothers video where they attempt to shoot scores that would qualify for a made cut at a previously-hosted major championship. Grant Horvat, another popular YouTuber, often hosts one of the “rounds” on his channel and plays in the videos, too, creating content that hundreds of thousands — if not millions — of people tune in for, Ko being one of them.
“I got into YouTube golf because of my husband,” Ko said with a smile. (Her hubby is a golf fanatic.) “And I won’t be shy to say I watch it on my own now. It’s probably not the preparation that many of the other players did, but it was just a good way for me to kind of see the golf course.”
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Ko has confessed to her YouTube golf fandom in the past, at least privately. During a GOLF Magazine cover shoot in February, Ko intimated that she wants to even get involved on the other side of the camera at some point. If it happens, it’ll likely be with the Taco Golf account, a fellow New Zealand native. Until then, she uses it as great background fodder during her treadmill workouts.
The video Ko mentioned features both Bryan brothers and Horvat competing from the same set of tees that players played from during the 2017 U.S. Open. It’s treated as a revenge game of sorts for Wesley Bryan, who actually competed in that Open and finished second-to-last at 15 over par. What they found in 2024 was a slightly easier test, in part because the wind was down, and an Erin Hills without wind can be a refreshingly scoreable track. Brooks Koepka proved that with his 16-under winning tally.
Ko said the video mostly just helped her get a sense of the property, a sprawling plot of country land with rolling hills of fescue, carved out via the last glaciers that covered Wisconsin thousands of years ago. She’s smart enough to know that the way Erin Hills played during the men’s Open in 2017 will be very different than this week, but she likes how it doesn’t feel scripted for any one type of player.
“I said to myself on Monday, this course is hard,” Ko said, “but if it’s hard for me, I feel like it’s going to be hard for everyone. It’s not like it’s hard for a certain type of player.
“I think in that way, it just gives me the freedom to be out there, concentrate on how I want to go about things, and hopefully if I do a good job with that, that will give me some good opportunities. But I think this is also the type of golf course you need to hit a lot of quality golf shots and also get a little bit of good bounces and luck, as well. I think when you win, you end up kind of going through what happened the past four days, and all of those kind of come into mind.”
Ko’s YouTube study session calls to mind Rory McIlroy’s prep for the 2022 PGA Championship at Southern Hills. McIlroy used his pre-tournament press conference at that major to highlight preview videos made by the Fried Egg and Golf Digest, even sending the videos to his caddie, Harry Diamond. When you can’t visit a major course in advance, YouTube isn’t a bad place to start. You know, just like the rest of us have to do.
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