Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings No. 1 Lilia Vu is in the mix early at the HSBC Women’s World Championship, carding a bogey-free, 3-under 69 in the first round at the Tanjong Course at Sentosa Golf Club to sit in a tie for second and one shot back of the lead held by Sarah Schmelzel.
After kicking off her round with a pair of pars on holes one and two, Vu picked up her first birdie of the day on the par-4 3rd hole, striking again not long after with a birdie on the par-4 6th hole. She then made seven consecutive pars before snagging her third and final birdie of the day on the par-4 14th hole, parring out to post a 69, her lowest first-round score of the 2024 season.
It was a round that saw Vu make 122 feet of putts and gain more than 1.5 strokes on the field in putting, an impressive performance with the flat stick that helped her successfully battle the challenging conditions that plagued the 66-player field on day one in Singapore and an effort that the world No. 1 was pleased with at the end of the day.
“The course is playing way more difficult than last year, and I knew that coming into today,” said Vu, who hit 11 of 14 fairways and 14 of 18 greens on Thursday in Singapore. “Just trying to birdie where I can and take the par when you can. I think I was surprised that the scores were so high. I always expect at least 6-under to be the leader. But it shows how tough the course is playing, and it's a good challenge.”
This is Vu’s second start in the HSBC Women’s World Championship, and she finished in a tie for 14th in her tournament debut last year, carding four straight 70s in her four rounds in Singapore. This week marks the 26-year-old’s fourth start of the 2024 season, and in her three previous events, she has finished 18th at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, T55 at the LPGA Drive On Championship and T7 in her title defense at the Honda LPGA Thailand.
Vu learned a lot last week as she worked to defend her title for the very first time in her LPGA Tour career, recovering from 1-over 73 on Thursday with two 67s and a 65 in the final 54 holes at Siam Country Club’s Old Course. She’ll have three more chances to successfully defend this season as Vu won four times in 2023, two of which were major championships, but instead of thinking about what it would mean to repeat her success, she realized that she just needs to focus on winning the golf tournament, something Vu has proven she is quite good at after last year.
“I kind of felt a little bit of pressure the first round but glad that I got it over with and was more in the moment throughout the week and just playing that tournament than thinking about, oh, you're defending a tournament,” said Vu of her experience in Thailand. “I don't really know what it means because I'm just trying to win another tournament. I'm proud of how I performed last week, though.
“I think pressure isn't too real. The only pressure that I have is from my own self, so I’ll just be nice to myself and go out there and have fun.”
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