{"id":551328,"date":"2026-03-28T23:42:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T23:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/551328\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T23:42:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T23:42:13","slug":"lydia-ko-made-an-unusual-switch-then-she-nearly-made-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/551328\/","title":{"rendered":"Lydia Ko made an ‘unusual’ switch. Then she nearly made history"},"content":{"rendered":"

After Lydia Ko\u2019s opening birdie in the first round of the Ford Championship in Chandler, Ariz., her playing partner, Lottie Woad<\/a>, spotted a new addition to Ko\u2019s bag: a Scotty Cameron<\/a> T12 prototype putter. Ko\u2019s not one to swap out putters without extensive testing and deep deliberation so the newcomer was a conversation piece. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

When Load called it out, Ko said something along the lines of, \u201cI holed the first one, so it was a good start.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then Ko holed the second one, on her second hole of the day, the par-4 11th \u2026 and a third one on the par-5 12th \u2026 and a fourth one on the par-4 13th, a 40-footer that Ko called \u201cthe longest putt I\u2019ve holed in a while.\u201d Four birdies in her first four holes was something Ko \u2014\u00a0a 28-year-old with 23 LPGA wins and three major titles \u2014\u00a0said she\u2019d never done before.<\/p>\n

Then came two more birdies, on 16 and 17, and an opening 30 on the Cattail course at Whirlwind Golf Club<\/a>. And two more birdies, at 1 and 2, to open her second nine. And yet two more birdies, at 5 and 6, to move to 10 under for her round.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s when it hit Ko: 59 was within reach, a score that has been recorded just once in LPGA history, by Annika Sorenstam<\/a> a quarter century ago. <\/p>\n

Ko knew what closing with three more birdies would secure her, but she didn\u2019t let the gravity of the moment weigh on her. Instead, she said, \u201cIt was just more like, oh, it\u2019s really cool to be in this position.\u201d Ko added, \u201cI think like as every golfer, when things go well you also think about the things that could go terribly wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not much went wrong on this day, unless you count the par Ko made on the par-5 7th, which more or less derailed her hopes of signing for golf\u2019s most elusive number. From about 7 feet, Ko aimed her birdie try inside right. \u201cHonestly, I think I hit it a touch too soft and it broke a little bit more than I thought,\u201d she said. \u201cThat would\u2019ve been nice to hole that one, but who knows, maybe if I holed that one I might not have holed the other two.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those other two came on the par-4 8th and par-4 9th. A birdie-birdie finish for the lowest score of her lifetime.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt very calm,\u201d Ko said after her round, in which she hit nine fairways and 17 greens in regulation. \u201cI think when you\u2019re in the zone you\u2019re just focused and there is not as many external thoughts going in and out of your head. You\u2019re just focused on what shot you have in front of you and then \u2014\u00a0and not get too carried away about the outcome of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

A hot putter helps, too.<\/p>\n

Ko said it had been a while since she experimented with a new flatstick, but when she got her hands on the new Scotty, it was love at first roll.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very unusual for me to change out of my putter,\u201d she said. But change she did, out of her Scotty Cameron P5 GSS Tour CS prototype, a move that, she said, surprised her Scotty reps. According to GOLF\u2019s Jack Hirsh<\/a>, the T12 prototype first surfaced on the PGA Tour about a month ago and has been \u201cdrawing a lot of interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

After her banner round, Ko said of her putter, \u201cMaybe it\u2019s a honeymoon phase, who knows. But you take an easy day like this on any occasion.\u201d<\/p>\n

The second act of the honeymoon starts Friday, when Ko tees off at 12:39 p.m. local time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After Lydia Ko\u2019s opening birdie in the first round of the Ford Championship in Chandler, Ariz., her playing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551329,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-551328","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}