03/26/26 05:35:00
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03/26 17:33 CDT Lydia Ko posts career-low 60 and only leads bye 1 shot in
LPGA's Phoenix stop
Lydia Ko posts career-low 60 and only leads bye 1 shot in LPGA's Phoenix stop
PHOENIX (AP) --- Lydia Ko opened with four straight birdies and never stopping
rolling Thursday until she closed out the best round of her LPGA Tour career
with two more birdies for a 12-under 60 on a day of extreme low scoring in the
Ford Championship.
Defending champion Hyo Joo Kim had a 61, making it the first time since the
2003 Kellogg-Keebler Classic two players were double digits under par in the
opening round.
"I don't think I've ever actually started a round with four birdies, so it was
nice to take advantage of the good start and continue that on my back nine," Ko
said. "I think like as every golfer, when things go well you also think about
the things that could go terribly wrong. I feel like I stayed patient and was
rolling it really well."
A moderate start to her 13th season came to life on the Cattail course at
Whirlwind Golf Club when the 28-year-old Ko got into a rhythm after a rare
putter change and started piling up the birdies.
She said the idea of 59 --- Annika Sorenstam has the only sub-60 round in LPGA
history, 25 years ago on a different course in Phoenix --- entered her thinking
when she birdied her 14th and 15th holes of the round after starting on No. 10.
But she didn't hit a 7-foot birdie putt firmly enough on the par-5 seventh. Ko
finished with two more birdies for her career low round.
"That would have been nice to hole that one," Ko said. "But who knows? Maybe if
I holed that one I might not have holed the other two. You can't think about
?what if?' Birdied some other ones that I didn't expect, so kind of just evens
out in that sense."
It was the ninth round of 60 or lower on the LPGA, the most recent by Lucy Li
at Pinnacle Country Cub in Arkansas in 2024.
Kim also started on No. 10 and shot 28 on the front nine, finishing
birdie-eagle-birdie, including a hole-out from the fairway on the par-4 eighth
hole.
Nelly Korda, who opened the year with a 54-hole win in Florida and was
runner-up last week in California, holed out from the 18th fairway for eagle in
the middle of her round and shot 63, one of her career best. She was three
shots behind.
They all played in the morning and it was unlikely they would be caught by
anyone in the afternoon, when temperatures were pushing 100 degrees (38
Celsius).
Jeeno Thitikul, the No. 1 player in women's golf, was among those who had a
late start. She was only 2 under at the turn.
The big surprise for Ko was not so much her score but the equipment she uses.
The Kiwi rarely tinkers with her putter but decided to switch to a different
model earlier this week.
"It's been a while since I have tried a different model," Ko said of her Scotty
Cameron 12 she used at Whirlwind. "It just rolled good. Went in the bag on
Tuesday. ... This has only been one round but it's a good start. You know,
really couldn't have been any better."
Ko was among six players from the morning wave who shot 65 or better. The
course must not have seemed all that easy to Lexi Thompson, who plays a limited
schedule and made her 2026 debut with a 75 that left her 15 shots behind.
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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
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