With the countdown on to the Halberg awards on February 18, Newshub is running through the credentials for the sportsman and sportswoman of the year contenders.
In part six of the series, David Di Somma looks at why golfer Lydia Ko should take out the Sportswoman trophy.
Question: Is Lydia Ko the Kane Williamson of golf?
It may seem a random notion but there does seem to be some parallels.
In 2015, Williamson was rated the best Test batsman in world cricket and he had a phenomenal record of scoring runs almost at will. Ko too is number one in the world and, like Williamson, has a calm demeanour and is achieves in a non-fuss fashion.
Williamson though plays a team sport and the pressures of him are completely different to Ko.
Every week she fronts up and beats the best the game has to offer from Europe, the US and Asia. She competes on different continents, different courses and in different conditions, yet her strike rate is without peer.
Like Williamson, Ko has no real killer part to her game apart from her mental approach.
She doesn't drive a long ball and she doesn't really tear up courses, though in winning the Evian Championship in France she clinched her first major with an eight under 63! She became the youngest ever to win a major at 18 years four months and 20 days.
Her strength as we all now is she rarely plays badly and has an amazing short game. Her approach shots and her putting are usually outstanding.
We know she's a star, but she is a serious star. She will single-handedly pull thousands of fans to Clearwater for the New Zealand Open. Without her the course would be a wasteland.
And it's not just her golfing ability. She has a nice understated way about her and can be very funny. After winning at Clearwater she was asked what she thought of the 'Go Ko' T-shirts people were wearing. She answered: "I have one myself but if I wore it that would just be weird."
She is engaging and seemingly unaffected by the fame and fortune she's had bestowed upon her in recent years. You sense she is now very much the young businesswoman plying her trade on the golf course, rather than the more naïve teenage prodigy she once was.
But as she travels the world she is in demand and now has high powered agents and managers to look after her.
She is without doubt New Zealand's top contender for Sportswoman of the Year. Her only real serious threat really is Lisa Carrington. But she competes in a truly niche sport, not a global one like Ko.
That Lauren Boyle finished second to super fish Katie Ledecky and Linda Villumsen won time trial gold at the World Championships shouldn't be trivialised though.
All four could and should be on the podium at Rio – some more than once.
For Ko, the Halbergs should see her complete the hat-trick for Sportswoman of the Year. She'd be hard to beat for the Supreme award as well, though Dan Carter or the All Blacks could well nudge her out.
Answer: Maybe Kane Williamson is the Lydia Ko of cricket.
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