{"id":349743,"date":"2026-03-27T01:34:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T01:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/349743\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T01:34:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T01:34:10","slug":"dame-lydia-ko-goes-close-to-joining-sub-60-club-as-she-lights-up-latest-lpga-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/349743\/","title":{"rendered":"Dame Lydia Ko goes close to joining sub-60 club as she lights up latest LPGA event"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"New<\/p>\n

\nNew Zealand golfer Dame Lydia Ko.
\nPhoto: Matthew Huang\/Icon Sportswire \/ PHOTOSPORT\n<\/p>\n

Dame Lydia Ko has shot her best ever round on the LPGA tour.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old New Zealander has grabbed the club house lead during the first round of the Ford Championship in Arizona, coming close to one of the greatest feats in golf.<\/p>\n

One of the early starters at the Whirlwind Golf Club just outside Phoenix, Dame Lydia fired a blistering 12 under par 60, just shy of joining the magical 59 club.<\/p>\n

It is her best single round score since joining the LPGA Tour as a professional in 2014, with her previous best a 10-under par 62.<\/p>\n

“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,” Ko said after her round.<\/p>\n

“The number 59 did cross my mind by the time I holed my birdie putt on 6 (her 15th hole of the day), but it wasn’t like the pressure was – like it wasn’t like I had a lot of pressure to break 60.<\/p>\n

“It was just more like, ‘Oh, it’s really cool to be in this position’.”<\/p>\n

She currently has a one-shot lead over her playing partner, the in-form South Korean Hyo Joo Kim, with the majority of the field to complete their rounds.<\/p>\n

Starting on the tenth, Ko birdied her first four holes and then another two before the turn. She then added another six birdies on her finishing nine.<\/p>\n

Ko has two top ten finishes so far this year.<\/p>\n

Her last win was at the HSBC Women’s World Championship in March 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The first major of the year, the Chevron Championship, is next month.<\/p>\n

Just one woman has broken 60 on the LPGA Tour, Annika Sorenstam recorded a 13-under par 59 in 2001.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Zealand golfer Dame Lydia Ko. Photo: Matthew Huang\/Icon Sportswire \/ PHOTOSPORT Dame Lydia Ko has shot her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349744,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45,213],"class_list":["post-349743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}