An LPGA Hall of Famer and a 22-year-old phenom shared the 36-hole lead at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions on Friday in Orlando, Fla.
Lydia Ko, the three-time major champion from New Zealand, fired a 5-under-par 67 at Lake Nona Golf & Country Club to move to 8 under for the tournament. Lottie Woad built on her opening-round 67 with a 69, moving the Englishwoman to 8 under as well.
They’re one stroke ahead of South Korea’s Amy Yang (69) and Japan’s Nasa Hataoka (71), the latter of whom was the first-round leader.
Thirty-nine players were invited to the season opener, a 72-hole event without a cut. They are playing alongside 44 amateurs contesting a separate competition with a Modified Stableford scoring format. Former Major League Baseball outfielder Aaron Hicks posted a round of 43 Friday to move past tennis player Mardy Fish for a two-point lead, with a two-day score of 78.
Ko is bogey-free through 36 holes at her “home course” in Orlando. She scrambled for five birdies and 13 pars Friday despite missing half the 14 fairways and six of 18 greens in regulation.
“I would never say this golf course is easy,” Ko said. “Obviously we play mixed tees. We tee off some of the black tees and the white tees and the blue tees.
“I think this golf course changes a lot depending on how the conditions are. In May, actually, it actually plays hard because it’s so soft because of that time of the year.
“The greens (are) the biggest change, I think, between a day-to-day time that I play out here and when it’s tournament-ready. The superintendents do an unbelievable job making the greens as pristine as possible and as fast as possible.”
Woad (four birdies, one bogey) felt she could have played better, but her position is buoyed by her first-round score.
“I looked at the leaderboard quite a lot today because I was getting annoyed,” Woad said. “Seemed like there weren’t that many low scores out there, so kind of knew I was still in it. The pins were probably a little trickier, so weren’t as many birdies as yesterday, so I just got to keep giving myself chances is all I could do.”
Woad won the Women’s Irish Open last July as an amateur, then captured the Women’s Scottish Open in her professional debut three weeks later.
Nelly Korda knows something about being a promising young talent. The current World No. 2 and former No. 1 is in the mix, three shots off the pace at 5 under following a 71.
Korda hasn’t won an event since November 2024.
“I think the weather is going to get a little worse, so I’m going to go to the putting green, go to the range because wasn’t hitting it the best today,” Korda said. “Just going to figure some things out ahead of the weekend.”
–Field Level Media
