No Money Shots for Ko

World Number One Lydia Ko has so far found the Australian Open course at Grange difficult as she embarks on defending her title starting tomorrow (Thursday).

The New Zealander believes the key will be to stay patient and focus on her game.

"This (Grange Golf Course) is a tough course, so to me its more me focusing on my game and trying to do the best I can," Ko said.

"I think the real key for me is I think is to just be patient out there, its a tough course so I might have a lot of opportunities or I might not.

"But I need to stay real patient and try and give myself the most opportunities I can.

"A lot of fun the greens are pretty firm, there are bunkers in the most perfect places."

A lot of Prizemoney has been won from being Number One in the world however Ko insists she doesn't think about what can be won from any shots out on the course.

"I mean Prizemoney to me I don't really think about it when I'm playing," She explained.

"I'm not going to think about hey this one shot is going to cost me a hundred thousand dollars or fifty thousand, it would be stupid to think it in that relation of money because then it gets almost a little too complicated.

"We are all going out there to try and make the most birdies we can and trying to shoot the lowest we can."

Ko knows just because she is currently the greatest player in the world doesnt mean she will win every tournament she plays in.

"Just because I'm number one it doesn't necessarily mean I will win every week," Ko said.

"Some people think because you are number one you should win and number two you should come second.

"I think if you came second every single week you would probably be the number one ranked player in the world.

"When we are out there I'm not thinking about oh she is number 40 in the world or she is fifth in the world, out there we are all players and I think that's an important thing.

It's been a huge couple of years for Ko who has won almost $5million in prizemoney as she embarks on her second Australian Open win in as many years.

Photo credit: Peter Argent and Andrew Frackowski