After Lydia Ko birdied the first round of the Ford Championship in Chandler, Ariz., her teammate, Lottie Woad, noticed an addition to Ko’s bag: a Scotty Cameron T12 prototype putter. Ko isn’t one to replace putters without extensive testing and serious consideration so the newcomer has been a conversation piece.
When Load called it, Ko said something along the lines of, “I punched the first one, so it’s a good start.”
Ko then birdied the second, on his second hole of the day, the par-4 11th … and the third on the 5th 12th … and the fourth on the par-4 13th, a 40-footer that Ko called “the longest putt I’ve hit in a while.” Four birdies in his first four holes was something Ko – the 28-year-old winner of 23 LPGA titles and three majors – said he had never done before.
Then came two more birdies, on 16 and 17, and an opening 30 on the Cattail course at Whirlwind Golf Club. And two more birdies, on 1 and 2, to open his second nine. However, two More birdies, on 5 and 6, to go 10 under for his round.
That’s when it came to Ko: 59 was within reach, a score recorded only once in LPGA history, by Annika Sorenstam half a century ago.
Ko knew that covering up with the other three birds would protect him, but he didn’t allow gravity at that moment to hold him down. Instead, he said, “It was like, oh, it’s really nice to be in this position.” Ko added, “I think like any golfer, when things go well you think about things that could go wrong.”
Not much went wrong on the day, unless you count the par-Ko on the 5th 7th, which severely hampered his hopes of signing golf’s most elusive number. From about 7 feet, Ko guided his birdie attempt to the inside right. “To be honest, I think I hit it a lot softer and it broke a little more than I thought it would,” he said. “It would be nice to cover that one, but who knows, maybe if it had rotted I wouldn’t have covered the other two.”
The other two came on the par-4 8th and par-4 9th. The birdie-birdie finished with a career-low score.
“I felt calm,” Ko said after his round, in which he hit nine fairways and 17 greens in regulation. “I think when you’re in it you just focus and there aren’t a lot of extraneous thoughts going in and out of your head. You focus on what you’re shooting in front of you and then – and don’t get too carried away with your result.”
A hot putter helps, too.
Ko said it had been a while since he tried a new flatstick, but when he got his hands on the new Scotty, it was love at first sight.
“It’s very unusual for me to change my putter,” he said. But he switched, stepping out of his Scotty Cameron P5 GSS Tour CS model, a move that, he says, surprised his Scotty reps. According to GOLF’s Jack Hirsh, the T12 prototype made its debut on the PGA Tour about a month ago and was “very interesting.”
After her round of banner shows, Ko said of her singer, “Maybe it’s the honeymoon period, who knows. But you’ll take an easy day like this any time.”
The second act of the honeymoon begins on Friday, with Ko leaving at 12:39 pm local time.
