Ko bogeyed her last two holes yesterday in a round of four-under 67 at Kasumigaseki Country Club.
But she was flawless today with five birdies and no bogeys in a sparkling 66 as she moved to 10-under par for the tournament and a four-way tie for third, five behind leader Nelly Korda.
“Yeah, there might have been some F-bombs after my round yesterday!” laughed Ko, the world No 11.
“I was just so upset at myself because normally I feel like my wedges are the stronger part of my game and I hadn’t hit a single wedge within 30 feet all day yesterday.
“I hit such a great drive down the 18th and I only had like 105 yards to the pin. You have a 30-feet radius with a gap wedge and I missed that 30 feet,” lamented the Rio 2016 silver medallist.
“I was really upset at my wedge game and I was hoping that with the way I was feeling frustrated I didn’t want that to affect the way I went into today.”
It didn’t.
She was always in control today, going to the turn one-under par, before unleashing a back-nine birdie blitz at 10th, 12th, 13th and 17th to move into a potential podium place.
“I just tried to play my heart out and I played the back nine really well today,” she said.
Ko tore up the golf record books as a teenager and now wants to be the first golfer to win two Olympic medals.
At the age of 14, Ko became the youngest player, male or female, to win a professional tournament at the New South Wales Open in 2012.
Rio silver
At 15 she was the youngest player to win a US LPGA Tour event and at the age of 18 was the youngest to capture a major at the 2015 Evian Championship.
The Seoul-born Ko, then aged 19, took silver behind Park In-bee at the Rio Olympics before enduring a four-year win drought that ended at the Lotte Championship in Hawaii in April.
Two weeks earlier she had carded a sensational 10-under 62 in her final round at the ANA Inspiration, one of the five women’s majors.
More of the same tomorrow would do nicely, she said.
“That’s the crazy thing about golf that you never know until that last putt drops on the last hole,” recalling that the silver and bronze medallists in the men’s event last week shot 61 and 63 respectively on the last day.
“Rory Sabbatini shot 10-under on the last day last week to become the silver medallist.
“At the end of the day who knows, I might fall more behind or I might be one of the Olympians that end up standing on the podium.
“But I’m going to try my best out there, have fun and see where that finishes me at the end of Saturday.”