Like other regular occurrences, such as the rising of the sun, your own breathing and, er, Dundee United losing, Lydia Ko will defend yet another golfing title over the next few days. Last week she successfully retained the New Zealand Women’s Open in her homeland. This week, she has made the trip over the Tasman Sea to defend her ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open crown.

While those rockin’ all over the world veterans Status Quo recently announced that 2016 will mark their final series of plugged in, electric shows after 124 years of relentless touring – or something like that - the current status of Ko is that there’s simply no stopping her.

Not even an earthquake, measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale, could knock the 18-year-old off her stride ahead of her final round in Christchurch last weekend. "I was going to blame the earthquakes for my putts not dropping," said Ko, who was in the process of limbering up for her closing 18 holes when the tremors began. "I had my headphones on so I didn’t know if I was getting into the rhythm of the song. My caddy, Jason, thought that it was his beer from yesterday kicking in."

Ko is a true sporting phenomenon, who did not buckle under the weight of the expectations that were heaped on her as a 14-year-old, and a young woman who continues to display a wider sense of awareness beyond her day job of battering a ball around a field. Last year she donated her winnings from an event to the Nepal earthquake fund. Last weekend she performed the same act of generosity when she unveiled plans to put her winnings from the New Zealand Open back into her own country to help the rebuilding job in Christchurch which was ravaged by an earthquake five years ago.

Despite her extraordinary talents and accomplishments, Ko remains an ordinary teenager trying to muddle through the things that ordinary teenagers do. Take driving a car, for instance. She recently passed the test in the US that means she can tootle about with L-plates. “But I’m not driving over here, it’s confusing enough in the States,” said Ko, who is joined in the field this week by the Scottish duo of Catriona Matthew and Kylie Walker. “I've always been interested in driving. Everyone said it's like a golf kart but they lied. I've got a new car, a Lexus RCF, and it's not one of the easiest cars to start off learning. It's a fast car, I feel like I should be going 80 miles per hour but I'm only going 30 miles per hour. I'm not doing the car much justice.”

Ko will start as favourite down under but in this game of numbers, she prefers to down play her status as the number one player in the world. "Just because I'm the No. 1, it doesn't mean I necessarily win every week,” she added. “Some people think that because you are No. 1 you should win every week and No. 2 should come second every week. But if you finished second every single week, you'd probably be the No. 1 ranked player in the world.”

On the men’s front, meanwhile, Jordan Spieth, the world No 1, and Rory McIlroy, the global game’s No 3, cross words in the PGA Tour’s Northern Trust Open. Glasgow’s Martin Laird is the lone Scot in the Californian field while, in the far east, the tartan quartet of Stephen Gallacher, David Drysdale, Simon Yates and Marc Warren are in action at the European Tour’s Malaysian Open.