New Zealand’s world No. 1 Lydia Ko fired a first-round 66 on Thursday to seize a share of the lead in the weather-disrupted first round of the US LPGA Founders Cup.
Ko, at 17 the youngest golfer ever to claim the world No. 1 ranking, shook off the weather delay that pushed back the start of the round by four hours.
Teeing off on 10, she had three birdies in her first nine holes. She added birdies at the first, third and fifth before her only miscue of the day, a three-putt bogey at the seventh.
Photo: AFP
She rebounded with her seventh birdie of the day at the par-four eighth and capped her round with a par to share the clubhouse lead with Germany’s Sophia Popov and US golfers Kim Kaufman and Tiffany Joh.
Ko said her score could have been lower.
“I think I had like three [putts] that were perfectly on line, but I left it short, and that three-putt on seven,” she said. “But I guess everything balances out.”
“I hit the pin with my chip in 18 — that could have been a much further par putt. So I think six-under is a good start and I just have got to take the positives out of it,” Ko added.
Darkness halted play with half of the 132-strong field yet to finish.
In the Taiwanese contingent, Min Lee was five shots off the lead after carding a one-under 71, while former world No. 1 Yani Tseng was one-under after playing six holes. Hsu Wei-ling shot a one-over 73 to sit alongside Candie Kung on the leaderboard, who only managed to complete five holes of her first round.
After waking up before 5am only to see her tee time pushed back, Ko said she was looking forward to a good night’s sleep.
However, she said the rain-soaked course had its advantages.
“They weren’t really easy,” she said of the conditions, “but even if we were hitting a long club into the greens, because it was soft, it was more receptive.”
“I guess you might lose some distance with the drives, but then you can be a bit more aggressive on the greens,” she said.
Ko has now broken par in 21 straight LPGA tour rounds, a streak that started at last year’s season-ending Tour Championship.
The South Korean-born Kiwi, who owns six LPGA Tour titles and 10 worldwide, arrived in Phoenix after a strong showing overseas.
She won the Women’s Australian Open and the New Zealand Women’s Open back-to-back before finishing runner-up to former world No. 1 In-bee Park of South Korea in the HSBC Women’s Champions in Singapore earlier this month.
Popov and Joh both posted rounds with six birdies and no bogeys, while Kaufman had seven birdies with one bogey to join the leading group.
They were one stroke in front of South Korea’s Chun In-gee and Thailand’s Moriya Jutanugarn, both in the clubhouse on 67, with Dewi Claire Schreefel of the Netherlands also at five-under through 10 holes.
Additional reporting by staff writer
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
After fleeing Sudan when civil war erupted, Al-Hilal captain Mohamed Abdelrahman and his teammates have defied the odds to reach the CAF Champions League quarter-finals. They are today to face title-holders Al-Ahly of Egypt in Cairo, with the return match in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, on Tuesday next week. Al-Hilal and biggest domestic rivals Al-Merrikh relocated to Mauritania after a power struggle broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and a paramilitary force. The civil war has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced more than 12 million people, according to the UN. The Democratic Republic of the Congo-born Al-Hilal
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
Matvei Michkov did not score on Monday, but the Philadelphia rookie had a hand in both goals as hosts the Flyers earned a 2-1 victory over the Nashville Predators. Ryan Poehling and Jamie Drysdale got the goals for the Flyers (31-36-9, 71 points), who won their third straight. Michkov and Travis Konecny assisted on both. Ivan Fedotov stopped 28 shots to earn his first win since March 1, ending a personal six-game losing streak. Zachary L’Heureux got the lone goal for Nashville. Michael McCarron and Brady Skjei got the assists for the Predators (27-39-8, 62 points), who have just four goals in their
RSS