Staff WriterIf your idea of a relaxing start to the year involves holing putts, dodging bogeys, and politely refusing to blink, the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions is already delivering.
After two rounds, Lydia Ko and Lottie Woad are knotted at 8-under par, setting a pace that feels less like January golf and more like somebody accidentally pressed fast-forward on the season.
Ko’s Friday was the cleanest kind of tidy: a bogey-free 67 built on five birdies and the sort of putting efficiency that makes coaches cry happy tears. Through 36 holes, she has the lowest amount of putts (52) in the field and remains the only player who has not recorded a bogey. For added difficulty, she also did it while hitting 7/14 fairways and 12/18 greens in regulation on Friday—proof that scoring isn’t always about perfect tee shots, it’s about what you do when perfection takes the day off.
Woad, meanwhile, looks every inch like she belongs at the grown-ups’ table. The English star carded a 69 on Friday with four birdies and one bogey—her lone blemish coming after a three-putt on No. 9. It’s the kind of mistake that usually sends a player into a sulk; Woad simply shrugged, kept moving, and stayed right on the leader’s shoulder. If you want the extended director’s cut of her recent rise, the tournament helpfully points you here: Lottie Looks Back: Woad Reflects on 2025, Looks Ahead to 2026 on the LPGA Tour.
The chase pack is one swing away
Just one shot back at 7-under are Amy Yang and Nasa Hataoka, and they’ve taken very different routes to the same postcode.
Yang posted a 69 with four birdies and one bogey, leaning heavily on fairways and greens: 13/14 fairways, 15/18 greens in regulation, and 30 putts. She arrives with a slightly unusual recent schedule note—her last two starts were The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican and the LOTTE Championship, and she did not qualify for the CME Group Tour Championship—so this early-season sharpness will feel particularly welcome.
Hataoka countered with a second-round 71, featuring three birdies and two bogeys. She’s also part of a neat little local storyline: she’s one of two LPGA players in the field that are members of Lake Nona, along with Ko. When your “home” advantage includes knowing exactly how the ball reacts on these greens, it tends to show up on a leaderboard.
A Lim Kim lurks, again
Defending champion A Lim Kim is tied for 5th at 6-under par total after a bogey-free 69 in Round 2. Even more telling: she has recorded six-straight rounds in the 60s at this event. That’s not just good form—it’s a repeatable relationship with the place, like someone who always orders the same meal because it never disappoints.
Celebrities, chaos, and a Stableford sprint
While the pros chase red numbers the traditional way, the celebrity competition runs on a Modified Stableford format—perfect for anyone who believes golf should reward bravery and punish boredom.
Aaron Hicks leads the celebrity field with 78 points after a round featuring an eagle, seven birdies and three bogeys to shoot 66. Two-time winner Mardy Fish is right behind with 76 points, which means the weekend could get lively in a hurry—especially when Stableford starts tempting people into shots they’d never admit to attempting in polite company.
Leaders’ snapshot
| Category | Lydia Ko | Lottie Woad |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 Race to CME Globe Rank | N/A | N/A |
| 2026 LPGA Tour Wins | 0 | 0 |
| 2026 LPGA Tour Top 10s | 0 | 0 |
| 2026 Official Season Earnings | $0 | $0 |
| Career LPGA Tour Wins | 23 | 1 |
| Career Official LPGA Tour Top 10s | 116 | 3 |
| Career Official Money | $23.3 M | $831.4K |
About the leaders: pedigree meets momentum
Rolex Rankings No. 6 Lydia Ko
This is Ko’s fifth start at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, and she’s finished inside the top 10 in all four previous appearances—plus she won the event in 2024. A Lake Nona resident and Hilton Grand Vacations ambassador, she’s also opening her 2026 season with the kind of crispness that suggests the off-season didn’t involve much loafing.
Ko first joined the LPGA Tour in 2014 and now owns 23 career victories including three major championships. Her Hall of Fame credentials are already stamped too: she was inducted into the LPGA Hall of Fame in 2024 following her gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics, becoming the youngest player to be inducted under the current criteria and the first inductee since Lorena Ochoa in 2022. Add in a trophy cabinet of LPGA Tour awards and a three-Olympics medal set (2016 Rio silver, 2020 Tokyo bronze, 2024 Paris gold), and you get the sense she’s rather good at this golf lark.
Rolex Rankings No. 11 Lottie Woad
Woad is making her first appearance at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions after winning the 2025 ISPS HANDA Women’s Scottish Open to qualify. This is also her first start of the 2026 season, and it comes with serious momentum: she became the first athlete to earn LPGA Tour status via the LPGA Elite Amateur Pathway in July 2025 when she tied for third at The Amundi Evian Championship.
Her amateur résumé is equally loud. At Florida State University she was named the 2023 ACC Freshman of the Year, a WCGA All-American three times (2023-25), and the 2024 ACC Golfer of the Year.
She also became the first Englishwoman to win the Mark H. McCormack Medal in August 2024, awarded to the World Amateur Golf Ranking No. 1 at the conclusion of the elite amateur season. And for good measure, she won the 2025 KPMG Women’s Irish Open as an amateur on the Ladies European Tour.
Tournament scoring records to keep an eye on
- 18 holes: 60, Jessica Korda (R3, 2021)
- 36 holes: 129, Danielle Kang (2021)
- 54 holes: 192, Danielle Kang (2021)
- 72 holes: 260, Jessica Korda (2021 and Danielle Kang (2021)
What to watch this weekend
The leaderboard says shared lead; the details say different kinds of danger. Ko’s bogey-free start and elite putting suggest control. Woad’s poise—and her ability to absorb a sloppy three-putt without unraveling—suggests staying power.
And with Yang and Hataoka just one back, plus A Lim Kim doing her annual impression of a metronome at this event, the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions is shaping up as a proper early-season scrap rather than a gentle opening chapter.
If the next two rounds keep anything like this pace, someone’s going to need a very big trophy shelf—and possibly a quiet lie-down.
