Ko in solid start to season after good second nine
Lydia Ko has made a solid start to her 2022 season, staying within touching distance of the leaders after round one of the Tournament of Champions in Orlando, Florida.
Ko shot a one-under 71 at the Lake Nona Golf and Country Club to sit in a tie for 14th, four strokes behind Mexican Gaby Lopez.
Lopez began a new year and her seventh LPGA Tour season with a simple, and potentially prophetic, Instagram post: “Surprise me, 2022,” she wrote.
She then made six birdies in a fiveunder 67 to lead by one shot over a foursome of players at 68 including three major champions: world No 1 Nelly Korda, who won her first major last year in the PGA; Danielle Kang, the 2017 PGA champion; and US Open champion Yuka Saso, who bogeyed her final hole.
Also at 68 was Ryann O’Toole, a
34-year-old American who won for the first time last summer.
Lopez is a two-time winner on the LPGA, her last being a triumph at the
2020 Tournament of Champions across town, when she outlasted Nasa Hataoka in a seven-hole playoff at Tranquilo Golf Club.
Looking back, Lopez said she enjoyed carrying the crown as “champion of champions”. Apparently, she enjoyed it enough to jump right back in the mix.
Ko, ranked No 3 in the world heading into the new season, didn’t have the best of starts after bogeying two of her first three holes of the day.
She had a better second nine, sinking four birdies in five holes, but will be ruing a bogey at the 18th to finish her round.
On the PGA Tour, Danny Lee rocketed up the leaderboard at the American Express in La Quinta, California, thanks to four straight birdies to finish his first round.
Lee shot a bogey-free seven-under 65 to sit in a tie for fifth, three shots behind leaders Lee Hodges and Patrick Cantlay.
Cantlay played the first seven holes in seven-under, making an eagle on the par-five sixth and five birdies. The FedEx Cup champion added birdies on Nos 11-13, two of them par 5s, and closed with five straight pars.
“I got off to a roll at the start and made a bunch of putts and then I kind of lagged on the way coming in,” Cantlay said. “But I was happy with everything. I thought I did everything well and it’s a golf course I really like. It’s in perfect shape and so, if you get the ball rolling on line, it should go in.
“I grew up a couple hours away, so there are a bunch of friendly faces in the crowd and so it’s really fun,” Cantlay said. “It’s the best part of what I do is when you get on a roll like that and you’re making a bunch of birdies.”
KH Lee and Cameron Young are tied for second on eight-under.
Elsewhere, Ryan Fox had a tough start to his 2022 season at the European Tour’s Abu Dhabi Championship, carding an even-par 72 at Yas Links in the UAE.
Fox was tied for 77th at the end of his first round, nine strokes behind leader Scott Jamieson.