Golf: Lydia Ko makes strong start to 2023 season with early lead in Saudi Arabia

Lydia Ko. Photo / Photosport

Maybe Lydia Ko should take a 12-week break from golf every year.

The women’s world number one, who last played at the LPGA’s season-ending CME Tour Championship in November, has made a superb start to her 2023 season by shooting an eight-under 64 and share the first round lead at the Saudi Ladies International on the Ladies European Tour.

The Kiwi sits atop the leaderboard with Thailand’s Anannarukarn Pajaree, ranked 84th in the world. Fellow Thai and world number four Thitikul Atthaya, who reached world number one last season, is a shot back after shooting a 65 along with India’s Ashok Aditi, who battled Ko down the stretch before missing out on the medals at the Tokyo Olympics.

Defending champion Georgia Hall is six strokes behind Ko and Pajaree after an opening round 70.

Ko opened her round with a birdie at the opening par four before adding two more and the par three third and the par five fourth at the Royal Greens Golf and Country Club. Another par five birdie at the ninth hole saw her go out in a 32. Her back nine was almost a carbon copy including birdies on the two par fives to go four-under on the longest holes for the day.

The Saudi Ladies International has a US$5m prize fund, supported by the Saudi Public Investment Fund, with the winner taking home US$750,000 ($NZ1.2m).

“It’s cool to see I have an officially under par round as a Mrs,” Ko, who got married in Korea over the off season, said after her first round.

Ko won the event in 2021 but missed last year’s edition, said she had to be more aggressive today and make the most of the conditions.

“I knew today, or between today and tomorrow was the day to take advantage of the calmer conditions,” she said.

“When I came here in November the wind picked up in the afternoon, and I think this time of the year and with the forecast it’s only going to be stronger and probably some of the strongest winds I’ve seen out here, so I knew that today with some of the pin positions I needed to be a little bit more aggressive.”

Ko got married during her lengthy off season but said she still played plenty of golf, which included a trip back to New Zealand and a hole in one and course record at Tara Iti, rated the second best course in the world.

“Had a few weeks to prepare for this one, but I played a lot of golf, maybe a bit too much golf, on my honeymoon. But my husband loves golf and that’s something that we can mutually do together, so we took advantage of that. And actually thanks to him it made my transition into off-season practice a lot easier.

“Yeah, if somebody said, hey, you’re going to play eight rounds of golf over two weeks on your honeymoon I probably would’ve laughed at that person, but it became reality and I had so much fun.”

“Honeymoon is only once in a lifetime, so we really enjoyed it. To say I had a hole in one, I’m not sure many people can say that.”