NZ golfing great Sir Bob Charles believes Lydia Ko was her own worst enemy during her final round meltdown at the LPGA's Marathon Classic.
On Monday, Ko appeared to have been on track to snap her two-year title drought, leading the tournament by five shots with just six holes remaining at the Ohio tournament.
But a nightmare final stretch saw the former world No.1 drop hit two late bogeys followed by a double bogey to finish one shot behind American winner Danielle Kang.
A winner of over 70 PGA titles, including Britain's Open Championship in 1963, Sir Bob claims he knows what was behind Ko's late meltdown.
"Your thinking processes just get all jumbled up and distorted," Sir Bob tells Newshub. "You lose your focus on what you're trying to do, which is beat the golf course.
"You start thinking 'gee, im playing with somebody who could perhaps beat me' and you can't have that. You've got to concentrate on your game and put a score on the board."
The 71-year-old sympathises with Ko's predicament, recalling a couple of occasions from his five decades of professional golf experience during which he'd fallen into the same trap.
"Probably the worst one was when I had a five-shot lead with nine holes to play and things started to go wrong. Couple of three putts and then the old mind starts wandering and wondering whether you're going to get there or not," he says.
"Of course, I didn't on that occasion. In fact, I didn't even get in a playoff. A guy pulled up six shots on me in nine holes."
Sir Bob's second example was during a Senior PGA tournament at Chicago's Medinah Country Club, when he admits he succumbed to the pressure of one of the game's all-time greats breathing down his neck through the final round.
"I had a three shot lead with four holes to play. I went bogey, bogey, bogey and wound up in a playoff with Gary Player. We had to go 18 holes the next day, and I think he shot 69 to my 71."
As painful as such experiences are, Sir Bob believes a golfer of Ko's pedigree is well equipped to shrug off such mental shortfalls.
"Mishaps like this happen to everybody. She'll bounce back from it. She knows how to win and she'll realise she'll have more opportunities to win tournaments.
"She obviously had a brain lapse.. It wasn't a physical thing, it was just a mental thing. Most people can bounce back from that, particularly Lydia because she's won so much in the past. She knows how to win again."
