Two-time LPGA Tour winner Madelene Sagstrom didn’t need to pull her putter out of the bag on the last hole of her first round of the JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro, as the 32-year-old dunked her tee shot on the par-3 9th hole to record the first ace of the 2025 LPGA Tour season.

Sagstrom, who just won her second career title earlier this month at the T-Mobile Match Play presented by MGM Rewards, holed it from 127 yards with her 9-iron on the ninth hole at El Caballero Country Club to finish out her 7-under 65 in style on Thursday in Tarzana, Calif. It was the first time the Swede has made a hole-in-one in a tournament round, and Sagstrom was delighted to get to write a “1” on her day-one scorecard, something that professional golfers don’t often get to do in a competitive setting.

“(It was playing) 128 yards,” Sagstrom recounted. “It got really cold our last three holes, so I have this shot that I play. We call it a 2-2-2, and it's a little lower wind shot. I'm like, ‘I don't think I can reach with my pitching wedge right now. Let's hit a little 2-2-2 9 iron.’ It was perfect. I hit it really well. It would've been good anyway, but I was like, nope, it went in, and I was like, ‘Oh, did that just happen?’”

Her 65 is the lowest first-round score that she has recorded since she opened with a 65 at the Founders Cup presented by U.S. Virgin Islands last May, a tournament in which Sagstrom ultimately finished solo second. And it’s a Thursday effort that has put her in contention through 18 holes at the JM Eagle LA Championship, as Sagstrom finished just a couple of shots behind Ashleigh Buhai, who fired a 9-under 63 to take an early lead after morning play concluded, and People's Republic of China native Yan Liu, who matched the South African in the afternoon wave at El Cab.

With 54 holes remaining and a ton of momentum derived from both her performance in Las Vegas and her closing ace on day one in LA, Sagstrom has got to be feeling as confident as ever as she contends for a third career victory over the next three days at the JM Eagle LA Championship.

What’s even more promising is how well she dealt with this unfamiliar venue, as the 2025 playing marks the first edition of this championship to be contested at El Caballero Country Club while renovation work takes place at Wilshire Country Club, the tournament’s typical host. New courses are always a challenge to learn how to tackle, but Sagstrom seemingly took the difficult task in stride and had nothing except positive things to say about El Cab’s demanding layout.

“Great golf course. I got here Monday night, played nine Tuesday, walked and played the pro-am yesterday. It really demands the shots,” Sagstrom said. “I wasn't crazy accurate off the tee today, but I hit some really good iron shots. You have to be specific where you're trying to land the ball. It's a great golf course. I am still rolling my putter really well from the momentum from the last few weeks, so that helped me a lot. But if you're not in the right spots here, you can do some damage.”

While Sagstrom celebrated her hole-in-one with a champagne toast in the tournament’s media center and will likely continue the festivities this evening, CME Group will also be making a $20,000 donation to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital on her behalf as part of their CME Group Cares Challenge – Score 1 for St. Jude campaign. The Challenge is a season-long giving program that sees CME Group give $20,000 to St. Jude for every hole-in-one that is made in LPGA Tour competition throughout the year to assist with childhood cancer treatment and research.

Sagstrom’s ace is the first to be recorded this season and has put $20,000 on the board for St. Jude, with a minimum donation of $500,000 guaranteed to the hospital no matter how many holes-in-one are carded in 2025.

Madelene Sagstrom Posts First Ace of 2025 Season at JM Eagle LA Championship

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