Lydia Ko July 2018 Mixtape

DJ Ko

DJ Ko

Having shown signs of a resurgence, Lydia Ko has settled back into her normal service throughout July on the LPGA Tour. June saw Ko grab two top-10 finishes (3rd, 9T) as well as a 17T and 31T in a very steady month and after playing three tournaments in July, Ko continues to perform steadily without too much deviation from the status-quo, positively or negatively.

Ko started July at the Thornberry Creek LPGA Classic where she finished 23T, with three rounds under par and her final round +1. Unfortunately, the major slip up in July was Ko missing the cut at the Ladies Scottish Open, where Ko put up rounds of +2 and +1 which weren't good enough to get her into the weekend's action.

The big fish in July though, was the Women's British Open and this came with Ko's best performance of the month. Ko finished 11T, once again shooting her first three rounds under par and then a last round of +1 pulling her back a wee bit. 

Lydia Ko made five birdies and carded an opening round 4-under 68 at the 2018 Ricoh Women's British Open.

Lydia Ko (-5) posted a 71 (-1) in the second round of the 2018 Ricoh Women's British Open. Ko had four birdies and three bogeys on her round.

Lydia Ko (-7) posted a 70 (-2) in the third round of the 2018 Ricoh Women's British Open. Ko had two birdies and was bogey free on her round.

While Ko's July wasn't as good as her June, it was still a very solid month and even taking into account that Ko missed the cut in the Scottish Open, finishing 21T and 11T results in a net positive. Somewhat interesting is the fact that Ko had better scoring averages in the three July tournaments than her June tournaments. Ko's three scoring averages in July were all below 70.4; 70.259, 70.333, 70.344. 

In June, Ko had two of four tournaments with scoring averages under 70.4 and just one tournament that had a scoring average better than any of her July tournaments. Obviously there are a lot of variables at play with scoring averages for specific tournaments, so it's difficult to compare them all. The trend here however, sits with Ko's tournament scoring average only bobbing up over 71 for one of the 18 tournaments she has played this season.

That just happens to be the first tournament of the 2018 LPGA Tour, the Women's Australian open and since then, Ko's tournament scoring average has consistently sat below 71. I view that as a low key fantastic reflection of Ko's 2018 campaign as she hasn't had the huge ups and downs and has instead built a foundation of reasonable consistency in her play. 

Sure, there has been a tournament win and a 3rd, along with missing the cut a few times which are ups and downs. Ko has however, spent much of the 18 tournaments played, finishing in the better half of the leaderboard and since her win at LPGA Mediheal Championship in late April, Ko has gone on to record three top-10 finishes in the nine tournaments played.

As always, here's Ko's stats from June to July...

Driving Accuracy

June: 69.08% (94th)
July: 67.53% (116th)

Greens In Regulation

June: 68.42% (64th)
July: 69.27% (60th)

Putts Per GIR

June: 1.76 (8th)
July: 1.77 (13th)

Putting Average

June: 28.63 (3rd)
July: 28.77 (3rd)

Scoring Average 

June: 70.39 (15th)
July: 70.34 (17th)

Having included the Women's British Open - which started August 2nd - in the July Mixtape, there are now three tournaments in August on the LPGA Tour. Next up is Indy Women in Tech Championship, due to start August 16th and hopefully, as the LPGA Tour look a little break to swing back to USA from the United Kingdom, Ko plays all three tournaments. Her 2018 season is trending in a positive direction having steadily improved and we could be in for an interest second stanza to 2018.

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Peace and love 27.