Lydia Ko is 18 holes away from a potential win in her own backyard. After Saturday at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, the Lake Nona resident grabbed hold of the solo lead heading into Sunday at -12 after a bogey-free 4-under 68. She’s on the precipice of earning her 20th career LPGA Tour victory, which would make the 15th player in Tour history to win at least 20 titles. The 26-year-old started the day tied with Ayaka Furue at the top of the leaderboard, but slowly pulled away after two birdies on Nos. 8 and 9. She added two more on the par-5 11th with her last of the day on 14 round out her two-stroke lead.
“I played solid these past few days. It's just great to kind of feel these nerves and excitement. I think because I am at home in ways maybe the nerves are a little less than if I was somewhere else. So great to see familiar faces and, yeah, I'm excited for tomorrow,” said Ko.
A win would give Ko an additional point towards LPGA Hall of Fame induction, which would make her one short of the 27-point threshold necessary to be enshrined. As she pushes the potentials to the back of her mind, Ko said she’ll keep to her usual routine, and enjoy the pleasure of staying at home during a week at work.
“I watched Mardy's (Fish) documentary yesterday so I don't know if I should watch another documentary tonight. My mom is here and I haven't seen my husband in a while, so he's going to be here. We're going to have dinner together at the house,” said Ko. “Have mom's home cooking and get physio as usual. Really nothing that different.”
Alexa Pano, making her first appearance in the season-opening champion event, is lurking as she looks to surpass Ko en route to her second-career win in her 30th total career start. Pano shot a 5-under 67, her first bogey-free round of her Tour career, and is tied with Gaby Lopez for the most birdies through 54 holes (15). She carded five birdies, including three-straight on Nos. 9-11 as she looks to earn another victory at the young age of 19.
“My dad and I were joking around on 18 because I felt like I played incredible yesterday and didn't really see the results on the back nine. Today I was struggling a bit more and fire 5-under,” said Pano. “The scoring was there today, which is good. Hopefully it's there tomorrow. But looking to just kind of improve on all the little things I saw today.”
A trio a champions are tied for fourth at -7: Gemma Dryburgh, Lopez and Furue, who ultimately fell from the lead after shooting a 73 on day three. Dryburgh and Lopez both recorded 71s and had four birdies and three bogeys each. If any were to find the winner’s circle on Sunday, it would be the biggest come-from-behind victory on Tour since Celine Boutier at the Maybank Championship, where she won in a playoff after entering the final round down five strokes.
“Played pretty well. Disappointed to do bogey the first. Had a three-putt there and another on 16 today. Apart from that, felt really solid. And few birdies in the first nine. Yeah, just felt solid again,” said Dryburgh. “Happy with how I'm playing considering it's the first tournament of the year. Yeah, just trying to get some of the rust off.”
Charley Hull, Rose Zhang and defending champion Brooke Henderson are tied for seventh at -6, with Americans Megan Khang, Marina Alex and Cheyenne Knight in a tie for 10th at -5. Reigning Olympic silver medalist Mone Inami made the most of Moving Day, with a 6-under 66 to get sit at T23 (E) with four players including Rolex Rankings No. 1 Lilia Vu. In the Celebrity Division, Jeremy Roenick took the solo lead with 107 total points after putting up 32 on Saturday, with LPGA and World Golf Hall of Fame member Annika Sorenstam and 2022 champion Derek Lowe close behind at 105 points each.
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