Lydia Ko Mixtape: August, 2020
Given that Lydia Ko missed the cut at the Women's Australian Open in February, the wave of 2020 mayhem might have come at a decent time for Aotearoa's young trooper as she has enjoyed the most consistent period of recent years since the LPGA Tour rolled back into action. This is the August Mixtape, although we have to go back to late July when Ko played the Drive On Championship and finished tied-28th as the LPGA's first tournament back and since then, it's been rather lovely for Ko.
Before we go any further, Ko wrote a letter to her younger self via LPGA.com and it's well worth a read considering all that Ko has experienced in the last decade. If anyone from Aotearoa was in a position to offer valuable advice to their younger self and thus anyone else, it is Ko.
Of course, you may have heard about Ko's drastic final round at the LPGA Classic the following week. Unfortunately for Ko, she kinda imploded on the final hole and was unable to get the win that Aotearoa's mainstream media was frothing for, although Ko did see her close homie Danielle Kang grab the first of back to back tournament wins; if Ko was going to implode for the benefit of anyone else, it had to be Kang.
To show how fragile LPGA Tour golf can be, Kang's restart results look like this: 1st, 1st, 5T, 32T, 49T.
Ko has similar, yet less up and down, results: 28T, 2T, 12T, 14T, 28T.
My markers for gauging Ko are consistency and top-20 finishes. Ko had a streak of three tournaments with top-20 finishes there and when she slipped up a bit, those results didn't balloon out as Kang's did, or perhaps as Ko's did in previous years. At the very least, we are working with a 2020 version of Ko that dwells among the LGPA Tour's best more often than not and considering Aotearoa's sporting excellence, Ko's playing her part for Aotearoa.
Per the 'Race to CME Globe Season' rankings, Ko is 14th in the world. Again, for Aotearoa to have a wahine golfer 14th in the world is reason to celebrate and I have embraced an idea that the LPGA Tour has enjoyed hefty growth during Ko's professional career, making Ko's presence among the best despite hefty change, even more impressive. For example, the worldwide nature of women's golf has changed throughout Ko's career and that's been amplified during Ko's down patch of recent years...
2018 Countries in CME Globe Top-10
USA: 4. Thailand: 2. Japan: 1. Korea: 1. Canada: 1. NZ: 1
2019 Countries in CME Globe Top-10
USA: 3. Korea: 4. Australia: 1. Canada: 1.
2020 Countries in CME Globe Top-10
USA: 3. Korea: 1. Japan: 1. England: 1. Sweden: 1. France: 1. Thailand: 1. Australia: 1.
To pretend as though the LPGA Tour is the same now, as it was when Ko burst on the scene is foolish and rather unfair on Ko. Ranked 13th in total prize-money and 18th in the Rolex Player of the Year rankings, Ko is still a top-tier golfer on tour and those rankings come from Ko playing six tournaments while 28 players have played eight or more tournaments.
Another example of the improvement in LPGA Tour golf is scoring average. In 2014, Ko had the 5th best scoring average of 70.07 and the best scoring average that year was 69.53. Fast forward to 2019 and the top-10 for scoring average are all below 70, with the best being 69.06 and this year the best scoring average is 68.09. Everything is simply better and again, to pretend that it's not and Ko should be doing the same is foolish.
Here are how Ko's stats from this August period compare to her 2019 stats...
Average Driving Distance
2019: 245.47 (152)
2020: 254.33 (83rd)
Driving Accuracy
2019: 70.08% (102)
2020: 63.67% (160)
Greens In Regulation
2019: 67.73% (96)
2020: 68.33% (65)
Putts per GIR
2019: 1.78 (23)
2020: 1.75 (10)
Putting Average
2019: 29.15 (7)
2020: 28.85 (9)
Scoring Average
2019: 70.98 (39)
2020: 70.60 (12)
Ko appears to have given up some driving accuracy to hit the ball further, adding almost 10m to her drive from last year. That's a notable jump considering Ko averaged 245m in 2018, 243m in 2017 and 246 in 2016. All that yoga is paying off for Ko as she grows into an adult (kinda overlooked factor that Ko was a teenager, now a woman) and if she can package a longer drive, with more accuracy then she'll have scope for tangible improvement.
Other than that drastic improvement, the rest a minor improvements and however Ko felt about her caddy/coach situation over the past 12 months appears to have resulted in a better work on the course. It looks as though there are only two tournaments in September, then three tournaments in October, two in November and three in December. Ko seemed to enjoy the busy schedule and while these remaining months won't resemble the frantic August, ideally Ko could find a groove to her best golf. Next up is the ANA Inspiration in California, starting next Thursday.
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Peace and love.