Women’s Australian Open Top-10 Player Power Rankings

So far as the numbers go, Lydia Ko has an acceptable but not exceptional long game. She wins on her work around the green and on the putting surface. But when she falls outside the top 20 in the field, it’s been because her long game has failed her. Therein lies the problem for Ko.

She’s making her first start of the 2017 season this week at Royal Adelaide and she’s been very busy off the course developing her new sportswear line and, more recently, setting up the New Zealand Women’s Open as a new LPGA Tour event.

It’s difficult to assess the extent to which these off-course interests may have detracted from her Women’s Australian Open preparation time. If, in fact, Ko is working on swing changes, she needed more than a few days between the New Zealand negotiations and tee time at Royal Adelaide to get things sorted out. She’s making my top 10 list because she has a history of consistently excellent athletic performance, but I’m not looking for her to top the board this week. It’s a warm-up event for Lydia Ko.