Lydia Ko capped 2022 with a victory at the CME Group Tour Championship in a season that saw her reach world No. 1, claim the Rolex Player of the Year award and the Vare Trophy for low scoring average.
It was undoubtedly a successful season, and yet Ko will have a new caddie on the bag in 2023.
David Jones will take the reigns after Ko and Derek Kistler spent the latter half of 2021 and all of 2022 together. Ko’s sister and manager, Sura, confirmed the news to Golfweek.
It won’t be the first time Jones has looped for the New Zealander. The duo has worked together once before, when Jones caddied for Ko at the 2021 Lotte Championship. Ko just happened to break a 1,084-day winless streak that week with a resounding seven-shot victory at Kapolei Golf Club in Hawaii.
Jones has experience on both the LPGA and PGA Tour, most recently caddying for Canadian Nick Taylor. Ko’s new caddie was on the bag for In Gee Chun when she won the 2016 Evian Championship and helped guide Sung Hyun Park to two major championships: the 2017 U.S. Women’s Open and 2018 KPMG Women’s PGA.
Ko or her team have not commented with any reasons as to why the change was made.