As Lydia Ko prepares for the LOTTE Championship in Hawaii starting tomorrow morning, she does so as one of the premier female golfers in the world. That's not just a vibe, or kiwi bias as Ko's start to 2021 has put her near the top of the LPGA Tour and as always this is not strictly about winning tournaments with Ko settling into a top-10 groove.

Ko started the year with a tied-2nd at Gainbridge in late February where shot -13 and averaged a score of 68.75. Chucking in all the variables of professional golf, a scoring average of 70-ish appears to be the magic mark for Ko as her next two tournaments were tied-8th at the Drive On Championship and tied-26th at the Kia Classic. These results came with Ko averaging 71 and 71.50, which then dips below 70 for her 2nd placed finish at the ANA Inspiration where Ko averaged 68.

That's four tournaments this year, with three top-10 finishes. Don't think that Ko is merely loving 2021 as her work this year is a continuation of Ko battling through adversity, staying positive and finishing last year with three top-10 finishes in her last four tournaments. Ko's worst results in her last eight tournaments have been a tied-13th in her penultimate tournament last year and the tied-26th at the Kia Classic this year. Ko has not missed a cut since the Women's Australia Open last year - the only LPGA tournament before 2020 poo'd its pants.

Four tournaments, means 16 rounds of golf for Ko. In these 16 rounds Ko has shot over par just once, while finishing on par in three rounds. That leaves 12 rounds out of 16 in which Ko has shot under par and six of those rounds have been -3 or better. 12 rounds under par for Ko is good enough to have her ranked 12th in that category for the LPGA Tour.

Anything near the hole, Ko is slick. Ko's best stat is Putts per GIR where she averages 1.73 putts when hitting 'Greens in Regulation' (on the green two shots fewer than par) and she is 30th for GIR - 71.53 percent. Ko is 15th in Putting Average and also 10th in Sand Saves, all of which means that Ko is in the LPGA's upper echelon when approaching the green and putting.

With an overall Scoring Average of 69.81, Ko is 8th for that category. In the stat breakdown for Ko below, you can see that Ko has improved her play and in some categories, Ko's improvement doesn't lead to a higher ranking. For example, Ko has a better Putting Average and Scoring Average but these don't correlate to better rankings.

In this we can see how the LPGA Tour is growing and developing as it has been throughout Ko's career and this is a low key idea to tuck away when pondering Ko. The LPGA Tour has changed immensely in the time that Ko has been a professional and it's silly to think that just because Ko or any other player was once really good on tour, they will automatically dominate for numerous years to come.

Take Thailand's Patty Tavatanakit (21-year-old), who is in her second year on the LPGA Tour and won the ANA Inspiration. Every year there is a new emerging talent, while the rest of the tour makes their own improvements. In 2017, the highest average driving distance was 279.25m and this year that has jumped up to 285m. Tavatanakit is second in average driving distance this year, smacking the ball 283.78m per drive.

Compare that to Ko, who averages 259.93m per drive. Ko is 63rd in Driving Distance and 102nd in Driving Accuracy, which includes a minor improvement in her Driving Distance across the last few years; Ko has added 14m to her Driving Distance since 2019.

Ko enters the LOTTE Championship 3rd in the Rolex Player of the Year rankings, 2nd in Race To CME Globe Season rankings and 3rd in Prize Money. The LOTTE Championship marks the start of a busy section of the tour with three tournaments to play in April, the last of which is in Singapore and will be followed a week later with a stop in Thailand. We'll learn a bit more about Ko's 2021 vibe through this LPGA grind phase - starting in Hawaii.

DRIVING DISTANCE

2019: 245.47 (152nd)

2020: 254.41 (57th)

April 11 2021: 259.94 (63rd)

DRIVING ACCURACY

2019: 70.08% (102)

2020 End: 66.62% (121)

April 11 2021: 66.96 (102)

GREENS IN REGULATION

2019: 67.73% (96)

2020 End: 68.91% (36th)

April 11 2021: 71.53% (30th)

PUTTS PER GIR

2019: 1.78 (23)

2020 End: 1.77 (4th)

April 11 2021: 1.73 (5th)

PUTTING AVERAGE

2019: 29.15 (7)

2020 End: 29.13 (5th)

April 11 2021: 28.88 (15th)

SCORING AVERAGE

2019: 70.98 (39)

2020 End: 70.26 (6th)

April 11 2021: 69.81 (8th)

Peace and love.