2021 Lydia Ko Mixtape: The Gritty Kiwi
News that Lydia Ko would take a break and skip the next two LPGA Tour tournaments opens up a nice passage to suss out where Ko sits in Autumn 2021. Playing eight tournaments so far this year, only four players have played nine tournaments and Ko rounded off the South East Asian leg of the tour with a tied-7th in Singapore followed by 11th in Thailand. Ko enters her break ranked 1st in CME Globe Season and 1st in Official Prize Money.
In Ko's eight tournaments this year, she has dipped outside the top-20 in just two tournaments. The first of which was a tied-26th at the Kia Classic and then at the LA Open Ko missed the cut, which was her first missed cut since the start of last year. Four top-10 finishes and three of those were 2nd or better. Such consistency is what puts Ko as the best LPGA Tour golfer in 2021.
Thailand golf is extremely fun right now and is of a similar ilk to Brazil's surfing excellence in the World Surfing League. At the LPGA Thailand, three Thai players finished ahead of Ko with Ariya Jutanugarn winning the tournament, Atthaya Thitikul coming 2nd and Patty Tavatanakit finishing tied-3rd; all three are 25-years-old or younger.
Having emerged on the LPGA Tour almost a decade ago, Ko is now a hearty veteran on tour and she has grown into a true gritty kiwi during her career. There is big-picture grit in how Ko battled her struggles, continuously smiling and staying positive to endure some down years, settling into her veteran status. Imagine how many child prodigies shine and then vanish under the weight of external hype - not Lydia Ko.
There is genuine grit in how Ko plays her golf and anyone from Aotearoa will appreciate how Steven Adams plays his basketball in the NBA, or how Chris Wood goes about his work as a goal-scoring striker in the Premier League. Adams and Wood perform at the highest level in a kiwi style, now I'm seeing through the fog to view Ko in the same fashion.
Golf at the moment is all flash off the tee. Patty Tavatanakit is 21-years-old and not only do these Thai players highlight the regular flow of new youngsters doing what Lydia Ko once did, Tavatanakit has burst on to the scene with an Average Driving Distance of 281.31m which is good enough to be ranked 3rd.
Four players average over 280m driving distance. All four are 25-years-old or younger.
Back in 2015 no player averaged over 280m driving distance.
With an ADD of 260.05m (63rd) and Driving Accuracy of 67.86 percent (124th), Ko isn't so good at the flashy stuff off the tee. Sure, Ko has added over 10m to her ADD in the last two years but that's more in tune with the LPGA Tour's growth and while much of the headline-grabbing attention revolves around the driver, Ko does her best to nudge it down the fairway before she shines with the basics.
Sub Par Holes - 1st.
Birdies - 1st.
Rounds Under Par - 3rd.
Scoring Average - 4th.
Sand Saves - 4th.
Putting Average - 7th.
Greens In Regulation - 24th.
Putts per GIR - 3rd.
Despite Ko not being among the best with the driver and thus not top-10 in Greens in Regulation (how often you reach the green in 2 shots fewer than par), Ko is excellent at handling her business near the hole. Sand Saves is the best example of this as Ko is 4th best at getting out of a bunker and sinking the next putt within 2 shots, which when combined with 'Putts per GIR' basically means Ko rarely putts more than twice on a hole.
Somehow, Ko isn't so good off the tee and is 1st in birdies. Of course it would be great if Ko was fantastic with her driver, yet that's not really who she is as a golfer and Ko appears to have matured into who she is and what she does well. These gritty elements of Ko's golf are what make her the best player of tour right now and they are improvements on last year...
Scoring Average
2020: 70.26.
2021: 69.03.
Greens in Regulation
2020: 68.91%.
2021: 74.44%.
Putts per GiR
2020: 1.77.
2021: 1.69.
Putting Average
2020: 29.13.
2021: 28.53.
Sand Saves
2020: 68.25%.
2021: 72.41%.
That's why Ko is consistently performing at a high level this year. With tournaments coming every month until late November, we should expect Ko to take another break later this year and her current break is wisely tucked away behind the two tournaments in South East Asia. Winning tournaments is nice and that's all mainstream media seems to judge Ko on, yet if Ko can churn out this level of consistency during our winter months she will be nicely poised to reclaim her perch as the best player in the world.
Peace and love.