The Kobra Has Struck!

Yes, I have officially nicknamed Lydia Ko "the Kobra." I think that's a sufficiently cool name for the newest golf sensation in women's golf.

Oh, you think I'm going overboard? I can understand why... but let me tell you why I don't think I am.

Did you know that, as of 27 August 2012,  Lydia Ko is now #45 on the Rolex World Rankings? It's true. She's up 140 spots from last week. She's now ahead of more-established pros like Michelle Wie (47), Karine Icher (50), Melissa Reid (54), Katherine Hull (57), and Sophie Gustafson (63), just to name a few.

See that photo at the side of this post? That came from Lydia's LPGA.com bio page! Care to guess how many amateurs have a page at the pro site? It does look kinda funny, what with 1 win year-to-date but no wins and $ 0.00 earnings in the career column. (After all, she doesn't have a career yet.) I'm guessing it's a rush job since, at the time I checked it, it didn't show her Rolex World Ranking yet.

Of course, that 1 win is her LPGA win. She also has that ALPG win at the South Wales Open back in January. That gives her 2 pro wins this year.

The site does have a stat page, which I found interesting. (In addition to the Canadian Open, Lydia has 2 other LPGA tournaments on the books -- the 2012 U.S. Women's Open, where she finished T39, and the 2012 ISPS Handa Australian Open back in February, where she was T19.) Lydia averages 251 yards off the tee, 78% of her fairways, 72% of her GIR, and just over 30 putts per round. I wanted to find her height -- to get an idea of how typical her length is -- but apparently it's not listed on the web. I can tell you she's listed as a +5.8 handicap on her page at the Harbour Golf NZ website.

She also has a personal website, but it's under construction at the time I wrote this. Apparently her success has caught everybody offguard.

What I find really cool is that, because she's still an amateur, her U.S. Women's Amateur should count as a major just like the U.S. Amateur and British Amateur did for Bobby Jones. That gives her 2 pro wins worldwide, plus a major, in less than 8 months. Is there any golfer, male or female, who can make such a claim this year?

Hmmm... didn't think so.

And, as I mentioned in yesterday's post, Lydia is now qualified for the CME Group Titleholders event in November -- their Tour Championship -- and she'll be heading for the Ricoh Women's British Open in a couple of weeks.

So, no, I don't think I'm going overboard at all. The Kobra has struck, folks. And women's golf is about to find out just how dangerous a teenage girl can be... even before she gets a driver's license. ;-)