Despite the 2020 shenanigans, Lydia Ko enjoyed a far better LPGA Tour campaign this year than she did last year and whether it's Ko adding 10m to her driver or finishing this year as one of the best short-game players on tour, there is reason to be super optimistic about where Ko is heading. Playing 13 tournaments this year, Ko sat in the middle of the pack for business and Ko tended to play two-three tournaments per month, which resulted in Ko finishing the year in a lovely pocket.

When the LPGA Tour started up again in late July, Ko was a wee bit inconsistent with her results but still managed to ensure that she didn't bottom-out and miss cuts. That's kinda relevant because the first tournament of this year was the Women's Australia Open in February where Ko did miss the cut before rolling through July, August and September with results of tied-28th, 2T, 12T, 14T, 28T, 6th, 42T.

That's seven tournaments in the restart period with four top-20 finishes.

Through October, November and December, Ko played five tournaments and all five saw Ko finish in the top-20.

All up that is 13 tournaments with one missed cut and nine top-20 finishes. Of those nine top-20 finishes, Ko finished in the top-10 five times and the last four tournaments of 2020 had Ko enjoying three top-10 finishes.

The most notable aspect of Ko's golf this year was her driving distance, that went from 245.47m last year to 254.41m this year. Ko went from having an average driving distance that was ranked 152nd to being ranked 57th and one could point to any number of key factors, while I lean into Ko's yoga and good vibes boosting her driving distance.

It wasn't a perfect development of Ko's game though, as her driving accuracy of 70.08 percent from last year dropping down to 66.62 percent this year. Even for those who don't dabble in golfing antics, this is an equation that is fairly easy to understand as Ko boosted her average driving distance by 10m and sacrificed some accuracy in the process. Given Ko's work this year, us golfing plebs can digest this as driving distance being a greater factor in Ko's performances compared to relying on her accuracy.

Here are Ko's average driving distance and driving accuracy for each year of her LPGA Tour career...

2012: 254m / 77.94 %.

2013: 250.78m / 77.55 %.

2014: 249.58m / 79.19 %.

2015: 250.39m / 75.44 %.

2016: 246.73m / 70.88 %.

2017: 243.25m / 78.41 %.

2018: 245.38m / 69.63 %.

2019: 245.47m / 70.08 %.

2020: 254.41m / 66.62 %.

As you can see, Ko's had the perfect balance of driving distance and accuracy to start her career which is obviously why she burst on to the scene as a golfing beast. Then, as one can imagine with Ko rolling through different coaches, different ideas and whatever else life can throw at a young wahine, Ko's driving distance dropped off to stay below 250m for four years in a row - worst case is that the driving accuracy drops with it.

This year, Ko had the lowest driving accuracy of her career and she played pretty well so at the very least Ko was hitting the ball further and putting herself in some kind of better position for her short game. Ko was 3rd for the whole LPGA Tour for 'sand saves' and while this does allude to Ko's driving accuracy (Ko's accuracy was down so she's more likely to end up in a bunker), it also highlights Ko's prowess with her short game as once she found herself in a bunker, she was one of the best on tour at getting out of that bunker and making the next putt.

With a sand save percentage of 68.25, Ko got out of the bunker and made her putt 68 percent of the time. That's due to Ko's putter being hotter than most as Ko was 4th for Putts per GIR and 5th in Putting Average. Putts per GIR means Putts per Greens In Regulation and GIR means whether a player can get on to the green within two shots fewer than par (for a par 3, GIR means the first shot made it to the green, for par 4, the second shot etc). Putts per GIR then means how many putts, once the player hits the GIR.

When Ko hit the GIR, she averaged 1.77 putts and she was 4th on the tour for that.

Ko averaged 29.13 putts per round and was 5th best on tour.

Another key stat for Ko was her scoring average of 70.26 which she was ranked 6th for on tour. All of the above tells the story of Ko doing enough with her driver to put her in a solid position, then Ko was among the best with her short game and that resulted in Ko having one of the best scoring averages on tour. This is also interesting as it provides context for what the whole tour was up to this year...

In 2020, just two players had a scoring average below 70 and 15 players averaged below 71.

In 2019, 10 players averaged below 70 and 39 players averaged below 71.

Funnily enough, Ko was 39th in scoring average last year with 70.97.

2020 was obviously a strange year and for whatever reason, Ko was better in an LPGA Tour campaign where the best players on tour were worse than 2019. I took this back a few years to 2017 to lay it all out nicely...

2017: 12 players under 70, 38 players under 71.

2018: 4 players under 70, 30 players under 71.

2019: 10 players under 70, 39 players under 71.

2020: 2 players under 70, 15 players under 71.

That four-year window has been a niggly period for Ko, perhaps the toughest patch of her career and apart from last year Ko was still able to have a top-10 scoring average in 2017, 2018 and 2020.

For those buggin' about Ko's financials, Ko finished 9th in total prize-money and that's her best finish since 2016 when she finished 2nd. Again, even through what has been painted as horrible patch for Ko in recent years, she was still among the best on the LPGA Tour as far as prize-money goes. In 2017, Ko finished 13th and then 12th in 2018 before dropping down to 48th last year as she bottomed-out.

When you check the headlines in Aotearoa, you'll peep a fetish for wins and Ko had no wins this year. Ko even amplified this notion by slipping up with a win in her grasp and while Ko has been unable to snare a win, this year saw Ko revert back to consistently being among the best female golfers in the world and when Ko's doing that in her typically positive, wholesome and hearty fashion; Ko's still reppin' Aotearoa to the maximum.

In fact, given where we have come from Ko in poking holes in her coaching rotations, stressing about her dramas and looking at superficial Ko matters in recent years, this is a young lady who has absorbed all of that from mainstream media in Aotearoa and general golf folk around the world. Ko is 23-years-old right now and went through all those issues just as she turned 20 which should put into perspective how hearty Ko has been as she hasn't just battled through all of this at an age when most people aren't capable of sniffing anything professional, Ko emerged with greater positive vibes, more mana and better golf.

Driving Accuracy

2019: 70.08% (102)

2020 End: 66.62% (121)

Greens In Regulation

2019: 67.73% (96)

2020 End: 68.91% (36th)

Putts per GIR

2019: 1.78 (23)

2020 End: 1.77 (4th)

Putting Average

2019: 29.15 (7)

2020 End: 29.13 (5th)

Scoring Average

2019: 70.98 (39)

2020 End: 70.26 (6th)

Hit an ad to support the Niche Cache and join the homies who keep things floating on Patreon.

Peace and love.