Ko, who tied for second at the Lotte Championship on Saturday, her best finish this season, is splitting with caddie Gary Matthews after nine events together, her management team confirmed Sunday.
Lydia Ko shot a stunning 65-64 on the weekend at the Lotte Championship to slide into second place at that Hawaii event, just three strokes out of a playoff with victor Christie Kerr.
The 19-year-old has recorded four top-10 finishes - including a second placing at last week's tournament in Hawaii - and was 11th at the first major of the year in California.
"I'm like well, never in 19 years have I been fired, and I'm still working for the person".
Numerous golf media outlets reported Ko had parted ways with South African Gary Matthews nine tournaments into 2017.
Those opportunities, bountiful as they may be in the future, will come without Matthews looping for her. "What was so odd for me, we worked unbelievably well in Hawaii, the communication and everything was just phenomenal". Sounds like a great weekend for her caddie, who presumably got a cut of the $139,773 that Ko won, right?
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Matthews said Ko is a lovely person, but was blunt in his assessment.
"I was like, "This is a bit odd; I didn't think I did that bad of a job", he said of being axed. "Otherwise she'll just keep doing it", Matthews told Golf Digest.
"It was definitely nice to be able to putt a lot better this week, even though I wasn't hitting the ball as good".
Ko has been world number one for 77 successive weeks, despite her lead atop the world rankings being closed of late by rival golfers So Yeon Ryu and Ariya Jutanugarn.
Ko is scheduled to play in next week's Volunteers of America Texas Shootout.
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