Married life is certainly treating Lydia Ko well, after the former champion got her 2023 Aramco Saudi Ladies International campaign off to a flying start at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club.
The Kiwi got married in Korea just after Christmas and confessed to playing “a lot — maybe too much” golf on her honeymoon in her native New Zealand.
Ko won this title back in 2021, and now the she is right on target to reclaim the famous trophy after an opening eight-under gave here the joint lead alongside Pajaree Anannarukarn of Thailand.
The two-time major winner and world No. 1 was delighted to get a strong first round under her belt amid benign conditions after strong winds hit the course earlier in the week.
“I knew today was the day to take advantage of the calmer conditions,” she said after her opening 64.
“When I came last here, it was November and the wind picked up in the afternoon, and I think this time of the year and with the forecast, it’s only going to be stronger and probably some of the strongest winds I’ve seen out here. So I knew that today with some of the pin positions I needed to be a little bit more aggressive.
“All in all, I putted really well out there. Most of the opportunities I had I was able to take advantage of that, so it was that kind of a day and a nice start to the season.”
With her first campaign as a married woman now under way, she joked: “It’s cool to see I have an officially under-par round as a Mrs.
“There are plenty of holes, especially when the wind is calmer, that you can reach a couple of par-5s and be a little bit more aggressive to pin positions. The wind is such a big factor on this golf course, so when it’s playing to your advantage you kind of want to use that.”
That honeymoon, where Ko also admitted she made a hole-in-one during eight rounds in 12 days, has allowed the 25-year-old to hit the ground running this campaign.
“I had a few weeks to prepare for this one, but I played a lot of golf, maybe a bit too much golf, on my honeymoon,” she said. “But my husband loves golf and that’s something that we can mutually do together, so we took advantage of that. Actually thanks to him it made my transition into off-season practice a lot easier.
“If somebody said: ‘Hey, you’re going to play eight rounds of golf over two weeks on your honeymoon, I probably would’ve laughed at that person, but it became reality and I had so much fun.
“Honeymoon is only once in a lifetime, so we really enjoyed it. To say I had a hole-in-one, I’m not sure many people can say that.”
Anannarukarn was delighted with her performance, which mixed eight birdies with two bogeys and a sensational eagle on the par-5 fourth hole.
“I was actually really in the zone from the first hole,” she said, referring to her flying start, reeling off four straight birdies from the 10th. “I did not expect the first birdie, then I just kept the momentum going forward. To make four straight birdies, at was a really good start.”
