Scoring average

Lydia Ko is well and truly back, having iced her most successful season in years by bagging the treasured Vare Trophy for the first time in her career.

In addition to winning the trophy awarded to the player with the lowest scoring average on the LPGA Tour, Ko had a whopping 11 top-10 finishes, won a tournament on both the LPGA Tour and European Tour, and won an Olympic bronze medal.

But how does the 24-year-old Kiwi’s 2021 season stack up statistically among her peers, and in comparison to her golden years? In short, pretty damn well. The Kiwi ended the year in the top-five in scoring average (69.33), putting average (28.79), top-10 finishes (11), birdies (311) and official prizemoney (US$1.53 million), and finished fourth in the Rolex player of the year standings.

Not bad at all. Here is a closer look at the key statistical categories.

Ko’s 69.32 wasn’t the best among LPGA players this year, but it was enough to win the Vare Trophy due to Nelly Korda (68.77) and Jin Young Ko (68.86) not playing the minimum 70 rounds to be eligible.

The Kiwi bettered her scoring average from 2015 (69.44) and 2016 (69.60), two hugely successful years for Ko, who spent a remarkable 85 weeks ranked first in the world between October 2015 and June 2017.

Ko did play significantly more rounds in both 2015 (93) and 2016 (94) compared to the 77 she carded this year.

Greens in regulation

Here’s a category Ko was well off her best, ranking 34th on tour with a 73.1 per cent strike rate.

That’s well behind No1 Lexi Thompson, with the American hitting the greens in regulation with a 78.8 per cent success rate.

Ko finished second in the category during her hugely successful 2015 season (77 per cent), and was seventh in 2014 (74 per cent).

Despite winning five times during the 2016 season, Ko ranked 31st with a 70.39 per cent hit rate.

During her troublesome 2019 season, Ko hit just 67.73 per cent (96th) of greens in regulation.

Putting

Ko was near her best with putter in hand this year, finishing first in putts per greens hit in regulation (1.72) and second in putts per round (28.79).

Only Inbee Park (28.71) finished ahead of Ko in the putts per round category, with the Kiwi giving her tour-leading mark of 28.31 in 2016 a good nudge. Ko was also first in putts per greens hit in regulation (1.71) in 2016.