2022 Lydia Ko Mixtape: Autumn Plateau
This time last year Lydia Ko was cruising to four top-10 finishes in her first five tournaments. Most folks think the new year instantly brings new vibes and that 2022 would shuffle all the niggle aside, yet most dwell in a similar spot to Ko where the opening months are a hefty grind. Ko started nicely with a Tied-10th and a win at the Gainbridge LPGA event, then came results of 23T, 12T and 25T as the grind took over.
Part of that grind featured loitering pandemic things. Amplifying the niggle Ko faced in battling pandemic dark arts was LPGA Tour travel as Ko missed the LPGA Thailand event before playing at the Women's World Championship in Singapore. Two tournaments in USA, then a trip to Asia where Ko battled those dark arts to only play one of the two events and then back to USA for two tournaments.
The two-tournament excursion to Asia also came a month earlier than last year. Dealing with the pandemic flu while traveling and playing at an LPGA Tour level doesn't seem conducive to winning or churning out best performances consistently. That's a splash of context to Ko's year thus far and with that in mind, five tournaments played and a worst result of 25T is fairly decent.
Last year Ko started well and then hit a bit of a plateau before the Tokyo Olympics. Ko wound up being exceptional right before, during and after the Olympics but there were results of 61T and 52T in the lead up. Chuck in a 35T, missed cut and 26T in the first half of 2021 for Ko and this year feels more solid for Ko with less volatility in her results.
This is reflected in her CME Globe Season Ranking (and prize money) where Ko is ranked 7th. All of Ko's major stats apart from Sand Saves are worse than last year but there is still the basic premise of Ko being a top-10 LPGA Tour player. Ko has taken her Sand Saves up to 80 percent and while this shows the class of Ko in dealing with tricky spots, she may also be finding herself in bunkers more often.
Drops in Driving Accuracy and Greens in Regulation could back that idea up. These measurements provide low hanging fruit for growth and after five tournaments played, this serves as a lovely checkpoint for Ko's season. Ko's Driving Accuracy has dropped below 65 percent for the first time in the last five years, suggesting this is more a blip and a slight increase here would flow on down Ko's golfing estuary.
There are good signs in Ko keeping her GiR over 70 percent and Putting Average below 29, both for the second seasons in a row. Ko was fantastic last year and the more she can align this year's mahi with last year, the better her golf is. Last year Ko won the Lotte Championship in Hawaii and that's the next stop on tour, starting next week. How Ko performs in Hawaii and then settles back into a flow of USA tournaments will be intriguing given a hectic start to the year.
Average Driving Distance
2015: 250.39m - 60th
2018: 245.38m - 134th
2019: 245.47 - 152nd
2020: 254.41m - 57th
2021: 259.21m - 64th
2022: 259m - 72nd
Driving Accuracy
2015: 75.44% - 43rd
2018: 69.63% - 107th
2019: 70.08% - 102nd
2020: 66.62% - 121st
2021: 65.52% - 129th
2022: 57.50% - 135th
Greens in Regulation
2015: 77% - 2nd
2018: 71.99% - 24th
2019: 67.73% - 96th
2020: 68.91% - 36th
2021: 73.06% - 34th
2022: 71.94% - 46th
Putts per GIR
2015: 1.74 - 2nd
2018: 1.77 - 16th
2019: 1.78 - 23rd
2020: 1.77 - 4th
2021: 1.72 - 1st
2022: 1.75 - 20th
Putting Average
2015: 29.38 - 19th
2018: 29.07 - 12th
2019: 29.15 - 7th
2020: 29.13 -5th
2021: 28.79 - 2nd
2022: 28.80 - 16th
Sand Saves
2015: 59.09% - 1st
2018: 57.53 - 7th
2019: 55.96% - 10th
2020: 68.25% - 3rd
2021: 59.34% - 3rd
2022: 80.95% - 1st
Scoring Average
2015: 69.44 - 2nd
2016: 69.60 - 2nd
2017: 69.86 - 9th
2018: 70.05 - 7th
2019: 70.98 - 39th
2020: 70.26 - 6th
2021: 69.33 -3rd
2022: 70.10 - 19th
Rounds under Par
2015: 72 - 2nd
2018: 67 - 6th
2020: 26 -10th
2021: 54 - 5th
2022: 13 - 35th
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