Setting Goals for Golf: Jason Day and Lydia Ko Approach Career Milestones

AUGUSTA, Ga. — At the start of each year, the process of choosing performance and process goals becomes the discussion for any person trying to better themselves, something that is no different for LPGA and PGA Tour professional athletes. Although they may challenge themselves with specific scoring statistics, such as hitting a greater percentage of fairways or lowering their total putts per round, their goals often also include achieving their personal career milestones.

For Jason Day, winning this year’s Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club would be a rewarding accomplishment in his golf career. Equally satisfying, Lydia Ko has set a lifelong goal of receiving an invitation to the LPGA Hall of Fame this year, requiring just one more win for automatic qualification.

At age 36, major champion Day will be making his 13th career start in the Masters this week. He has recorded four top-10 finishes at Augusta National, including a tie for second with Adam Scott in his first appearance in 2011, a third-place finish in 2013 and a tie for fifth in 2019.

Day joined the PGA Tour in 2008 and has won 13 titles over the last 16 seasons. He has averaged six top-10 finishes and 10 top-25 finishes in an average of 20 starts a year since his rookie year. Currently ranked 20th in the PGA Tour’s FedExCup standings, Day recorded three top-10 finishes in his first five starts of the 2024 season.

At age 26, Ko has steadily built her career over the past 10 years with a solid number of exceptional achievements. She has won 20 LPGA Tour titles, including two major championships, and received numerous honors, including two Rolex Player of the Year awards (2015, 2022) and two Vare Trophies (2021, 2022). Ko’s scoring average in 2022 (68.988) ranks as the second lowest in LPGA history with at least 70 rounds played, behind only Annika Sorenstam’s average in 2002 (68.697).

Ko has also made two Olympic appearances resulting in silver (2016) and bronze (2021) medals.

At the 2023 Grant Thornton Invitational last December, Day and Ko teamed up to win the competition by one stroke over Corey Conners and Brooke Henderson with a three-day total of 26-under (190). They recorded 25 birdies, one eagle and one bogey, and their partnership demonstrated their determination to be goal-setting champions.

Forecasting a win for Day this week is based on several factors. Having played Augusta National 12 times, his course knowledge and comfort with the layout at the Masters gives Day a real advantage over the field. Three top-five finishes in past appearances indicate that Day will have success this week, but so do his recent PGA Tour accomplishments, as securing his 13th PGA Tour title at the 2023 AT&T Byron Nelson after overcoming injury and personal struggles has encouraged Day’s confidence. For this year's Masters, Day will need to focus his approach and recreate what went well in his last T-5 finish in 2019, when he carded a pair of 67s in both the second and final rounds.

Comparatively, Ko captured her 20th LPGA Tour title at the 2024 Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions and has two additional top-five finishes this year, skillfully leading up to next week’s Chevron Championship, held at The Club at Carlton Woods. Ko won this major in 2016 and hopes to secure her next win this April.

Both Ko and Day are excellent at scrambling. This season, they are making par or better at the highest percentage of their careers when they miss the green. Ko has ranked in the top 10 in scrambling percentage every year since 2014 but failed to do so last year. According to KPMG Performance Insights, Ko is ranked 32nd in strokes gained putting this season, earning 0.83 strokes on the greens, close to half a stroke more than Day’s performance.

As April offers both Ko and Day the perfect month for reaching their career milestone goals, many LPGA and PGA Tour fans will be watching these professional athletes work to write another chapter of golf history.