There’s just something about Highland Meadows Golf Club for Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings No. 4 Lydia Ko. This is the seventh time the 25-year-old has teed it up in Sylvania, Ohio at the Dana Open presented by Marathon and in her six previous starts, she has two wins and three additional top-10s, never finishing worse than a tie for 20th. She’s off to a good start so far in the 2022 edition of the tournament, firing a 5-under 66 with seven birdies and one bogey on the card, and Ko is carrying plenty of good energy with her from her past successes at this venue.
“The course has changed a little bit with the layout, some of the holes becoming a lot longer than my rookie year and some extra bunkering. But it's always nice to come back to a place that you've played well at. I've had good finishes outside of winning, so it's nice to look back on those memories,” said Ko who hit 10 of 14 fairways and 14 of 18 greens. “(Today) was a solid day. In my back nine, which is the front nine, I couldn't really get anything going, but I made a really good birdie putt on 6 to get back to even for that nine. And then always nice to finish up with a birdie on the last.”
The Kiwi has been playing some stellar golf in 2022, especially over the last month. After finishing in a tie for 46th at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, Ko finished T3 at the Amundi Evian Championship, T5 in the Trust Golf Women's Scottish Open, T7 at the AIG Women’s Open and solo 4th at last week’s CP Women’s Open, an impressive stretch of golf that’s seen her come close to an 18th career victory on Tour. But one of the things that Ko has figured out during her tenure on the LPGA Tour is how to stay patient and that’s exactly what she plans to continue doing with 54 holes of golf left to play.
“It was like pretty steady all day, so I tried to keep patient and give myself good opportunities and go from there,” Ko said. “Just trying to play the best golf I can with how I'm playing right now. There is so much golf to be played, and just trying to focus on me and go from there.”
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