Updated Feb. 25, 2026, 9:28 a.m. ET
Lydia Ko’s humble and hard-working nature aligns with the values of her shoe sponsor, Ecco.Ko, who has been with Ecco for about a decade, prefers spikeless, flat golf shoes that feel broken-in when new.After a drop in her iron play in 2025, Ko has focused on improving that area of her game for the current season.Ko recently reflected on her career, including winning an Olympic gold medal in 2024 to qualify for the LPGA Hall of Fame.
Last year at the HSBC Women’s World Championship in Singapore, Timo Vollarath was taken by Lydia Ko’s approachable nature. A young fan holding a handmade sign called out “Dame Lydia!” as the LPGA Hall of Famer went over to hug her.
“It’s really unbelievable,” said Ecco’s Vollarath, from the floor of the PGA Merchandise Show nearly a year later, “how humble and how hard-working she is. That’s really what the Ecco Golf brand is all about.
“We are never going to be the loudest brand out there. We’re never going to be the brand who goes out and says, ‘Oh, be stronger, hit it further, hit it harder.’ We’re from Denmark. We are quiet. We are sleek. We are down to earth. We are humble. And that’s what she is also.”
Vollarath, head of global marketing for Ecco’s golf division, went on to call the company’s longtime brand ambassador a “global citizen,” noting the diversity of her fan base. That’s also important to a business that’s in 83 countries.
The 28-year-old Ko, a former prodigy who passed nearly every milestone of life under a spotlight, has been increasingly and wonderfully vulnerable about her journey in recent years. She’s funny too. At this time last year, she was dishing on what it was like to model for Vogue in a backward dress.
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“I was like, dang, I really don’t understand fashion,” she said.
Coming into this week’s HSBC Women’s World Championship, where Ko is the defending champion, she’s back in the same kicks she wore in 2024, the season she won the Olympic gold medal to qualify for the LPGA Hall of Fame, then followed it with a third career major title at the AIG Women’s British Open.
Ko won the 2025 HSBC wearing Ecco’s Street720 model, but has returned to the Tray, a shoe that’s coming back to the collection by popular demand.
When she was younger, Ko would take whatever free pair came her way and take off. Now, a woman who inspired so many to follow in her footsteps is more particular about what goes on her feet and where they take her.
Ko first started wearing Ecco shoes about a decade ago because they offered the first shoe she didn’t have to break in – “a new shoe that didn’t feel like a new shoe.”
Not having to worry about blisters is no small thing in a walking sport. It took some doing, however, to convince her to go spikeless.
“Unfortunately, I hit it in the hay,” she quipped, “and we play in the dew. The shoe needs to perform.”
After playing a British Open without slipping at all, she became a believer.
Ko also noted that she wants her golf shoes to be “quite flat.” Even the smallest lift can make a difference.
“I don’t know what that does performance-wise,” she admitted, “but I feel a little more grounded.”
To win 23 times on the LPGA, every minute detail matters – from the ground up. Now a free agent when it comes to her clubs, Ko continued to tinker with her equipment even after a top-5 finish in January at her home course, Lake Nona, at the season-opening Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions.
She finished in the top 5 again last week in Thailand, and said she feels like a more consistent and fundamentally strong version of herself this season. Ko noted that her iron play had dropped off quite a bit in 2025, when she ranked 113th in greens in regulation. As she endeavored to straighten out her driver, she lost ground with her irons and made that an area of focus leading into 2026.
“As golfers, we’re all crazy, right. We always want to adjust and be a little bit better,” said Ko. “If we try to be the same, I don’t think you would be good anymore.”
After the Winter Olympics recently wrapped up in Italy, Ko reminisced on her three Olympic medals and the role the Games have played in her life. Particularly the gold she captured in Paris two years ago.
“I think there were moments in my career where I felt like there was really no chance,” she said, “and I wasn’t really sure if I was ever going to win again.”
And then, standing on the podium in see-through slippers, a gold medal draped around her neck, Ko told the media she felt like Cinderella. A fairy-tale moment in a story that’s not yet finished.
