Lydia Ko had a historic round to start the Ford Championship

Things got off to an incredible start on Thursday in Phoenix.

Leading up to the Ford Championship much of the story had been about the Korda sisters, Nelly and Jessica, lining the same field for the first time since 2023. Given their success across the LPGA Tour this was obviously something of note, but at the end of the day a golf tournament begins and the golf is what matters most.

Once balls got in the air matters turned to Lydia Ko. She finished the opening round as the tournament’s leader following an incredible 12-under round, a career low for the highly-decorated Ko.

“I think the number 59 did cross my mind by the time I holed my birdie putt on 6, but it wasn’t like the pressure was — like it wasn’t like I had a lot of pressure to like break 60. It was just more like oh, it’s really cool to be in this position. I think that’s my career low score. I think the lowest score that I had before that is maybe at the Australian Women’s Open maybe, somewhere along those lines. Yeah, definitely a fun round to have. 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 as well. I think like as every golfer, when things go well you also think about the things that could go terribly wrong as well. I feel like I stayed patient and was rolling it really well. Yeah, I actually put in a new putter this week. Like I’ve had my old putter for a really long time, like the same model, so it was kind of different just to have something else. Lottie said on the second hole, like, oh, you got a new putter. I was like, well, at least I holed the first one so it was a good start. And maybe it’s a honeymoon phase, who knows. But you take a more easy day like this on any occasion.”

Lydia is known for her down-to-earth perspective so it is interesting to hear how humble she was about something so remarkable (shout out to her new putter, by the way). It was indeed her career low for a round and not surprisingly the first time that she rattled off 12 birdies in a round. Her previous high was 11 during the 2016 CME Group Tour Championship.

It was a remarkable day for Ko as she set the new 18-hole scoring record (shocker) and put herself in strong position to win the whole tournament.

Let’s see what Friday brings.