Since her victory at the season-opening Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions in January, Lydia Ko has been on the precipice of entry into the LPGA Hall of Fame. All the 27-year-old New Zealander needs is one more qualifying win/qualifying point to join 35 others in a Hall that is among the hardest gain entry in any sport.
Of course, to put yourself in this position means you’ve had to accomplish some impressive things of the course of your career. And winning 20 LPGA titles and two Player of the Year honors counts for jut that. But on Thursday another stellar accomplishment happened that shined even more light on the remarkable career Ko has had since turning pro in 2014.
During the opening round of the CPKC Women’s Open in Canada, Ko shot a two-under 70 at Earl Grey Golf Club in Calgary to sit in a tie for sixth. More important than her score was the fact that Ko didn’t make a bogey. Again. Indeed, stats guru Justin Ray surfaced this statistic:
Let’s put a little context into the 131 number. In that time period, Ko has played in a total of 885 rounds. So that means 14.8 percent of Ko’s rounds have been bogey-free. Pretty amazing.
Then there’s the added context from Ray about Ko’s peers and what the number is in comparison there. To have 55 percent more bogey-free rounds than the next closest player in the last 10 years is truly shocking.
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Here’s one more way, however, to put in perspective Ko’s accomplishments. We asked the PGA Tour to find the players with the most bogey-free rounds since 2014 and here’s the results that were pulled.
Hideki Matsuama, 78
Charles Howell III, 73
Brian Harman, 69
Justin Thomas, 67
Russell Henley, 67
Matsuyama played in 867 rounds, Howell in 768, Harman, 1,017, Thomas 809 and Henley 863. And as for the number of wins in that time, Thomas has the most with 15 victories.
Ko followed up her Thursday performance with a one-under 71 on Friday (which included two bogeys) to begin the weekend tied for fourth, three shots back of Lauren Coughlin. Again, a victory locks up LPGA Hall of Fame status for Ko. And who would be surprised if she did that with a bogey-free final round?