2021 Lydia Ko Mixtape: Olympics? We've Already Moved On
Fresh off of becoming the only human to win two Olympic golf medals, Lydia Ko stormed home with a final round of 63 to finish tied-2nd at the Women's Scottish Open. Ko started the Scottish Open a week after snaring the bronze medal in Tokyo and literally went from sweltering Tokyo summer weather to a links course in Fife Scotland where Ko's winter swag was on point.
Two extremely different conditions, two similar results for Ko. Chuck in the tied-6th result at the Evian Championship prior to the Olympics and Ko has three top-10 finishes in her last three outings, bouncing back from the pre-Olympic dip in her form that saw her register results of T61, T52 and T22.
Not only is Ko in delightful form regardless of whether she is cooling down with ice or warming up with a beanie, her Olympic peers couldn't keep up. Gold medalist Nelly Korda and silver medalist Mone Inami did not play in the Scottish Open, while Aditi Ashok and Hannah Green who finished 4th and T5 didn't make the cut of the Scottish Open. Emily Pederson was tied-5th with Green in Tokyo and she finished T27 in Scotland, leaving Ko as the only player from the Tokyo top-five to back it up in Scotland with a quality finish.
The gritty kiwi Lydia Ko vibe is further amplified here. That vibe started with how Ko has dealt with adversity throughout her career, then it went further as Ko plays her golf in a gritty kiwi style considering her work with the driver is far less emphatic than the rest of the tour. In true gritty kiwi styles Ko's excellence is in her mindset and her ability to compete at the highest level without hitting the ball as far or accurately with her driver as others.
Ko is averaging 259.62m driving distance this year, which is an improvement on the previous two years but is still ranked 64th on the LPGA Tour. With Ko's 63.10 percent driving accuracy ranked 143rd, Ko is well outside the top-50 drivers on the LGPA Tour, yet she is ranked 2nd in the CME Globe Season and 3rd for total prize-money.
Ko is 3rd on the LPGA Tour for Putts per Greens in Regulation, Putting Average, Scoring Average, Birdies and Sub Par Holes. The gritty kiwi vibe is built around Ko's ability to execute the basics to a world-class level and the fact that Ko performed in the heat of Tokyo, then the gales of Scotland reinforces the gritty kiwi Ko angle. In any conditions, in any country; Ko is a monster on the LPGA Tour.
The Scottish Open serves as a lead in to the Women's Open which is also in Scotland over the weekend. The Women's Open is a major and Ko will apparently take a well deserved break afterwards and we can see how far the LPGA Tour has come since Ko first burst on the scene as LPGA.com shared that three players under the age of 20 will take part at the Women's Open and all three have wins on the European Tour.
Here are Ko's last four Women's Open results...
2017: T59.
2018: T11.
2019: Cut.
2020: T14.
Here are Ko's major statistics tracked over the last three years...
Average Driving Distance
2019: 245.47m - 152nd.
2020: 254.41m - 57th.
2021: 259.63m - 64th.
Driving Accuracy
2019: 70.08% - 102nd.
2020: 66.62% - 121st.
2021: 63.10% - 143rd.
Scoring Average
2019: 70.98 - 39th.
2020: 70.26 - 6th.
2021: 69.69 - 3rd.
Greens In Regulation
2019: 67.73% - 96th.
2020: 68.91% - 36th.
2021: 71.50% - 57th.
Putts per GIR
2019: 1.78 - 23rd.
2020: 1.77 - 4th.
2021: 1.73 - 3rd.
Putting Average
2019: 29.15 - 7th.
2020: 29.13 - 5th.
2021: 28.76 - 3rd.
Sand Saves
2019: 55.95% - 10th.
2020: 68.25% - 3rd.
2021: 57.33% - 9th.
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