Lydia Ko tried to preserve her power after her victory final weekend within the LPGA Tour’s season opener, however she clearly did sufficient to maintain her sport sharp.
The previous world No. 1 shot a 6-under 65 on Thursday to share the first-round lead with Nelly Korda on the LPGA Drive on Championship.
Nanna Koerstz Madsen was one shot again, and second-ranked Ruoning Yin was a part of a giant group at 67 that included one other previous main champion, Sei Younger Kim.
Ko’s victory on her house course at Lake Nona was her first since 2022. She had a 45-minute lesson along with her Korea-based coach on Monday, then made the roughly 2 1/2-hour drive to Bradenton Nation Membership on the Gulf Coast.
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“Yeah, you might be clearly coming in with good momentum, and it’s good that we’re going from Florida to Florida. It’s not like we’re in Florida after which we’re having to go to Houston or something like that,” Ko mentioned. “So it’s good that we are able to play a pair weeks and it’s a drive for me, as a result of I reside in Orlando. Simply makes the beginning of the season stress free.”
Ko, who began on the again 9, made the flip in 2 underneath — thanks partly to a chip-in birdie — and closed with consecutive birdies to match Korda, who performed within the morning. She mentioned the wind died down late within the day, making the closing stretch simpler.
Korda is one other former No. 1 who went winless on the LPGA Tour final 12 months — a marketing campaign that was interrupted by a again harm. She opened with a bogey however performed her subsequent 9 holes in 6 underneath.
Enjoying in entrance of enthusiastic galleries in her hometown, Korda birdied the second and third holes to get into pink figures, then stayed aggressive in gusty wind. Her second shot into the par-5 eighth gap was pretty much as good because it will get.
“Gosh, I feel I had 257 into the pin and hit my 3-wood actually good,” she mentioned. The wind “was serving to off the left. Performed it properly off the slope to a tap-in.”