Golf: Ko looks destined to be top of world

Lydia Ko will be chasing history tonight. Photo / Getty Images

The consistency that has carried Lydia Ko to third in the world looks like it will lift her to top spot sooner rather than later.

As Ko has demonstrated time and again during her young career, the 17-year-old rarely falls out of the running while playing on the biggest stage.

That has again proven true at the Evian Championship in France, where Ko carded a three-under par 68 in the second round of the year's final major to preserve her record of never missing a cut on the LPGA Tour.

Ko will be chasing history in tonight's (NZT) final round - aiming to become golf's youngest ever major winner - but she also has her eyes on the world No 1 ranking.

Victory would provide that promotion but, even if she fails in her quest, Ko will surely not be kept from the front of the field for long.

A stellar debut professional season on the LPGA Tour has already produced two wins and eight top-10 finishes from 19 events, continuing a pattern of performance she showed as an amateur.

In 2012, from four LPGA events, there was only one top-10 finish - her win at the Canadian Open - but Ko never finished outside of the top 50. That feat was replicated from 12 events in 2013, repeating her victory in Canada and adding a further five finishes inside the top 10.

While Ko has endured a pair of placings outside of the top 50 this season, her average finish from 35 career events on the LPGA Tour is still a solid 17th.

The teenager has already finished second in one major, last year's Evian Championship, and if she goes one better this time around it will be a prestigious win.

It's been 146 years since Young Tom Morris won the 1868 British Open at the age of 17 years, five months and eight days, but Ko has the chance to beat that by a couple of weeks.

At the halfway mark she was sitting in a share of sixth, five shots back from American Brittney Lincicome, having improved on her two-under par opening round at the Evian Resort Golf Club.

Ko has shown few signs of the wrist injury that saw her take a two-week break from the game, returning in style to resume her inexorable march to the top of the world.