World No.1 Lydia Ko overcame an early spate of bogeys to equal an LPGA record by shooting her 29th successive round under par at the ANA Inspiration tournament in California. The 17-year-old New Zealander has tied the record set 11 years ago by women’s golfing great Annika Sorenstam.
The record-making round of 71, just one under par, gave Ko a share of 10th place on the leaderboard, four shots behind outright leader Morgan Pressel of the United States.
Pressel won the tournament in 2007 at the age of 18 to become the youngest women’s major winner – another record Ko, 17, can break if she emerges victorious at the Mission Hills tournament.
Ko had run into early problems, carding four bogeys in the space of six holes, having started her early round on the back nine.
Birdies on the second and eighth holes restored order, after Ko took time out at the midway point of her round to read a note written for her by coach David Leadbetter.
“I just took a step back and said ‘this is a whole new nine’,” she said.
“There are birdie opportunities there. I just tried to keep it simple but it wasn’t as simple as I would have liked.”
Ko’s streak, which began late last year, is actually 32 rounds for professional tournaments, having maintained the run when winning this year’s three-round New Zealand Open, which is sanctioned by the Ladies European Tour.
Ko denied that matching Sorenstam had been on her mind as she struggled with her long game on Thursday.
“I really wasn’t hitting my driver well and here the rough can get pretty thick so when you’re in that position, the record was the last thing I was thinking about,” she said.
Ten-time major champion Sorenstam congratulated Ko on equalling her record in a tweet.
Ko attracted questions about a remarkable recovery shot on the par-four seventh hole, when she unleashed a vicious low hook to get the ball around a tree and onto the green. She described it as one of the most difficult shots of her career.
“It was a pretty nasty place to be,” Ko said.
“I said, ‘I’m going to try to hit the biggest hook’. It would have probably looked really bad, that swing on camera, but it ended up being OK ... I had to hit it low enough and had to hit a slinging hook, so I didn’t end up in the bunker.”
The New Zealander two-putted for par, then hit a 6-iron to 18 inches on the eighth hole to set up the birdie she needed to get under par and match Sorenstam’s record.
Pressel leads by a shot from Japan’s Ai Miyazato, with four golfers sharing third place – Americans Juli Inkster and Alison Walshe, South Korea’s So Yeon Ryu andFrance’s Gwladys Nocera.
