Pressure builds for Ko as first major looms

There’s two weeks until tee-off, but Lydia Ko is already feeling nervous ahead of the first major of the year.

The 17-year-old, refreshed after a successful but ‘‘tiring’’ homecoming tour, tees off in the JTBC Founders Cup in Phoenix, Arizona on Friday morning, trying to better her second-placed finish in the same tournament last year.

With Ko’s biggest rivals all in the field, the tournament is an ideal hit-out before the ANA Inspiration – formerly the Kraft Nabisco Championship – gets underway at Mission Hills on April 2.

The world No 1 is coming off two wins in the Australian and New Zealand Opens before she faded to finish second to world No 2 Inbee Park in the humidity of Singapore.

Ko said she was trying to treat each championship the same, but there was something about the pressure of majors.

‘‘The first major I played was US Open, and I couldn’t even line up my ball on the first green because I was so nervous. I think even though I try and think of it as just another tournament, something in me just goes, it’s a major. It makes me nervous.’’

Ko said the experience she had in majors would help her, but it did not help that everyone told her she was going to be the youngest to win one.

‘‘To me it’s more important that I have fun playing the majors and I play more consistently in them.’’

Park will again be Ko’s main threat in Phoenix, a rivalry the 17-year-old is starting to see as ‘‘the big two’’, a play on the original ‘‘big three’’ of Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer.

She will also come under pressure from defending-champion Karrie Webb, world No 3 Stacy Lewis and the always-competitive Michelle Wie, with whom Ko will be paired in the opening two rounds.

‘‘I think it gives me confidence seeing that I played well before here, and it’s a course that I know,’’ Ko said. ‘‘I think 19-under was the winning score last year, so it just shows that there are a lot of birdies out there.’’