Lydia Ko returns to world number one in women’s golf

Lydia Ko (Keith Allison, Wikimedia Commons)

This has been an interesting time in women’s golf. On Monday, Lydia Ko of Auckland, New Zealand became the third female golfer to be ranked world number one in the last month, as she joins Atthaya Thitikul of Thailand, and then Nelly Korda of the United States.

Ko currently has 7.52 average points. Korda is second with 7.44 average points and Thitikul is third with 6.78 average points. Ko also has 421.34 total points, which is the most in women’s golf at the moment.

It should be noted of all of the golfers ranked in the top 10, Ko has entered the second most tournaments with 56. Only Nasa Hataoka of Japan has played in more, as she has entered in 59 events.

In 2015, Ko reportedly announced her plans to retire from women’s golf by the age of 30. That would mean she has five more years on the LPGA Tour as she is currently 25 years old.

It was in 2015 when Ko was first ranked world number one. She was ranked first from February 2 to June 14, 2015, and again from October 26, 2015 to June 11, 2017.

What makes the announcement of the fact that Ko is number one in the world so bizarre is the timing however. She became first in the world at a time when there was no LPGA event this past weekend. See, in women’s golf, rankings from results are based on a two-year cycle. In that time, Ko has won four LPGA events–the 2021 Lotte Championship in Kapolei, Hawaii, with an amazing four-round score of -28, the 2022 Gainbridge LPGA Event in Boca Raton, Florida, the 2022 BMW Ladies Championship in Ko’s native country of South Korea and the 2022 CME Group Tour Championship in Naples, Florida.

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