Staff WriterThe Ford Championship opened like someone had tipped a box of fireworks onto the practice green and lit the lot. Birdies flew, eagles arrived in bunches, and Lydia Ko walked away with the kind of 60 that makes a leaderboard look mildly unwell.
By the end of the first round at Wild Horse Pass, 16 players had gone bogey-free, 18 players had made at least one eagle, and 74 players had posted rounds in the 60s. That is not a gentle start to a tournament. That is an armed robbery on par.
Ko, the Rolex Rankings No. 8 and already one of the most decorated players of her generation, was the woman holding the smoking putter. She signed for a 12-under 60, set a new 18-hole tournament scoring record, and did it without a single dropped shot. Twelve birdies, 17 greens in regulation, and only 25 putts. It was clinical, bright, and slightly absurd.
Lydia Ko turns the place into her own private target range
There are low rounds, and then there are rounds where the hole begins to look like a bath plug from six counties away. Ko’s belonged firmly in the second category.
This was her career-low LPGA Tour round, her lowest score since a 62 in the final round of the 2021 Chevron Championship, and her best opening round since the 2022 Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio. It was also her lowest score in three appearances at the Ford Championship and her fifth straight round in the 60s at Wild Horse Pass.
More than that, it was oddly tidy for a round of such violence. Ko hit 17 of 18 greens in regulation, the 40th time she has done that in her career, and the first since the final round of the 2024 CME Group Tour Championship. Since joining the LPGA Tour in 2014, she ranks fifth in that category. That tells you this was not one of those madcap days built on miracle recoveries and eight-foot survival putts. This was a dismantling.
She also became the first player in her career to record double-digit birdies in a bogey-free round. For someone with 23 LPGA Tour wins, three majors, 118 career top-10 finishes and a place in the LPGA Hall of Fame already secured, that says something.
Hyo Joo Kim keeps the pressure on
If Ko’s 60 was the headline act, Hyo Joo Kim’s 61 was the sort of supporting performance that would headline most other weeks.
Kim went bogey-free as well, making nine birdies and an eagle to sit one behind. She hit 10 of 14 fairways, found 16 of 18 greens, and needed just 24 putts. It tied her career-low LPGA Tour round, last seen back in 2014 at the Evian Championship, and extended her run to five straight rounds in the 60s at the Ford Championship.
There is form, and then there is turning up with the engine already warm. Kim won last week’s Fortinet Founders Cup, becoming just the second player since 1980 to win an LPGA event in her teens, 20s and 30s, alongside Inbee Park. Now she is trying to follow a victory with an immediate title defence push, something only a handful of players have managed in recent years.
So while Ko grabbed the spotlight, Kim made sure it was not a solo act.
Nelly Korda lurks where Nelly Korda usually lurks
Nelly Korda is tied for third after a bogey-free 63, and that sentence alone is enough to make the rest of the field check the rear-view mirror.
The 2024 Ford Championship winner opened with seven birdies and an eagle, hit 12 of 14 fairways, found 16 of 18 greens, and took 26 putts. It was the 50th bogey-free round of her LPGA career and only the second time in 2026 she has opened a tournament with a round in the 60s.
Korda’s position is familiar because her game usually looks that way when she is not trying to wrestle a course into submission. She tends to dismantle it with geometry, common sense and a swing that seems to have been assembled in a laboratory by very calm people.
Her comments afterwards offered a neat reminder that Wild Horse Pass is not simply yielding because players are swinging from the heels. There is strategy involved, especially when driver is not always the sensible option.
Nelly Korda on what her strategy is this week when she can’t use driver
“Just try to place myself in the right spots. Sometimes these fairways get baked out. Same with the greens. So closer doesn’t always mean that it’s good, just because then you have a tricky pitch shot in where you can’t get too much spin on it and get it to stop so you try to lay back a little bit. Also there are some holes where it kind of necks in a little bit too much so you’re trying to play for more of a percentage play where you still have a club in your hand that you can capitalize on and get it close.”
That is the kind of quote that explains why scores can be low without the golf being mindless. This course is asking for judgment, not just horsepower.
A crowded leaderboard and a course under siege
Tied for fourth at 8-under are Weiwei Zhang and Frida Kinhult, both carding bogey-free 64s.
For Zhang, it was just the eighth bogey-free round of her career and her first of 2026. It comes in only her third start of the season, following a runner-up finish at the Blue Bay LPGA in her home country and a missed cut at the Fortinet Founders Cup.
Kinhult’s 64 matched her career low and marked her first round in the 60s this season. It was her third time posting a 64 in LPGA competition and her best round since the opening round of the 2025 JM Eagle LA Championship.
The texture of the leaderboard matters here. This is not one player sprinting away while everyone else fiddles with a yardage book. The Ford Championship has become a proper shootout already, and the danger for Ko is obvious: one ordinary stretch of holes and the pack will be on top of her.
Ko’s 60 was brilliant, but not accidental
Ko’s post-round remarks painted the picture of a player enjoying herself without drifting into silliness. She knew where she was, knew what number was out there, and kept the pedal down without letting the mind run completely wild.
Lydia Ko on her career-best 18-hole score of 60
“I think the number 59 did cross my mind by the time I holed my birdie putt on 6, but it wasn’t like the pressure was — like it wasn’t like I had a lot of pressure to like break 60. It was just more like oh, it’s really cool to be in this position.
I think that’s my career low score. I think the lowest score that I had before that is maybe at the Australian Women’s Open maybe, somewhere along those lines. Yeah, definitely a fun round to have.
I don’t think I’ve ever actually started a round with four birdies, so it was nice to take advantage of the good start and continue that on my back nine as well. I think like as every golfer, when things go well you also think about the things that could go terribly wrong as well.
I feel like I stayed patient and was rolling it really well. Yeah, I actually put in a new putter this week. Like I’ve had my old putter for a really long time, like the same model, so it was kind of different just to have something else.
Lottie said on the second hole, like, oh, you got a new putter. I was like, well, at least I holed the first one so it was a good start. And maybe it’s a honeymoon phase, who knows. But you take a more easy day like this on any occasion.”
There is a lovely honesty in that. Even the best players in the world, while making birdies in industrial quantities, still leave room in the brain for catastrophe. Golf never quite lets you forget itself.
An ace, a donation, and what comes next
One of the day’s other bright moments belonged to Jenny Bae, who made the first ace of her LPGA career at the par-3 sixth with a 9-iron from 152 yards. It was more than a number on a card. CME Group donates $20,000 for every hole-in-one on the LPGA Tour in 2026, with proceeds benefiting St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. That running total is now $40,000.
As for the tournament itself, the first round has already shifted the tone. Ko has the lead, but it is a lead perched on a volcano. Kim is one shot back, Korda is close enough to hear the conversation, and the scoring conditions suggest this thing could keep moving like a fruit machine with loose wiring.
For Ko, the immediate prize is obvious: convert a dazzling start into a serious run at her 24th LPGA Tour title. For the rest, the mission is equally clear. Keep making birdies, keep the pressure on, and hope the woman who just shot 60 finally starts behaving like a human being.
At the Ford Championship, that may be asking a bit much.
