Nelly Korda leads the 2019 Lotte Championship after the first round at 9 under par on Wednesday at Ko Olina. Korda is the 10th-ranked player in the world.
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CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARADVERTISER.COM
Nelly Korda teed off on the fi rst hole. It would be the beginning of a birdie-filled, bogey-free day as she shot a 9-under 63.
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CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARADVERTISER.COM
Defending champion Brooke Henderson waved before hitting off the10th hole. Henderson shot a 65 and is two shots back of first-round leader Nelly Korda.
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CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARADVERTISER.COM
Jin Young Ko, above, drove the ball off the first hole during the first round of the Lotte Championship at Ko Olina on Wednesday. Ko shot a 3-under 69.
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Considering this is her first trip to Hawaii, Nelly Korda made herself quite at home in her Lotte Championship debut.
Korda, the 10th-ranked player in the world, added the LPGA Tour’s stop in Hawaii for the first time since joining in 2017 and was taken aback by Ko Olina Golf Club’s windy welcome when she arrived last weekend.
“It was pumping on Saturday,” Korda said. “I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh. If this is what we’re playing in, holy heck.’ ”
By Wednesday, the 144-player field found the conditions far more hospitable.
Greeted by relatively benign winds and a forgiving rough, the pros overpowered the course as Korda threatened a tournament record with a round of 9-under-par 63.
Korda, 20, landed in Hawaii with five top-10 finishes in six starts this season — including a win at the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open in February — and maintained her hot start by playing the front nine in just 30 shots on her way to finishing one stroke shy of the eighth-year event’s 18-hole record.
Korda said she’s always wanted to come to Hawaii and the event fit nicely into her schedule this year. She might want to visit more often if she can sustain something close to the pace she set on Wednesday over the rest of the week.
“It kind of reminds me of Florida,” said Korda , whose sister, Jessica, made three Lotte appearances, the last in 2015. “Just being by the water. Obviously the breeze, too. Same type of grass. … Just reminds me of home.”
Korda closed a blistering front side by dropping a 30-foot putt across the ninth green for her sixth birdie of the afternoon. She held steady on the back and closed with a business-like birdie on 18.
“I didn’t finish too well at ANA,” Korda said of her 4-over total at the season’s first major two weeks ago. “So I kind of made sure I got back to my routines and really try to stay hole by hole.”
Even after matching her career-low round with a bogey-free tour of Ko Olina, Korda enters today’s play just one shot clear of Eun-Hee Ji and two ahead of defending champion Brooke Henderson and Hyejin Choi.
Henderson began her afternoon with a bogey, but erased the early miscue by chipping in for eagle from 45 yards out on No. 15. Her 7-under 65 marked her lowest score in 13 rounds at Ko Olina, passing her 66 in the second round last year on her way to the title.
“We took a look at the scores early and were like, ‘Wow, people are really going low,’ ” Henderson said. “I figured the wind was down a little bit. Just knew you had to maybe attack a little bit more. Play smart with the wind, but definitely be a little bit more aggressive.”
Ji had come to expect having to battle breezy conditions on a course where she’d broken 70 just three times in 24 rounds. She posted six birdies in her last eight holes and closed the morning wave alone atop the leaderboard at 8-under 64.
Her previous Lotte low was a 66 in 2014, and the absence of the wind was particularly conspicuous on the par-3 12th and tough closing hole.
When the breezes whip down the mountain, No. 12 forces players to hit straight into the wind toward Farrington Highway.
“I always hit a low shot because always coming into (the wind),” Ji said. “I think it’s a little bit harder for me because I have to hit it 5-iron or hybrid on that tee shot.”
This time she pulled a higher-lofted 6-iron and landed her shot about 7 feet from the pin to set up the second in a run of four straight birdies.
The 18th also changes character depending on the wind with water awaiting overly ambitious tee shots. But after a 3-wood left her about 140 yards out, Ji’s 7-iron settled inside of 10 feet and she dropped her final putt to take the lead into the clubhouse.
“On the tee I have to think about the downwind and I get a short club and sometimes I lay back too far,” Ji said, “and I hit a long iron and that’s why I couldn’t hold it (on the green) sometimes. That makes a lot of difference today.”
Choi, playing in the final group of the day, went into her last hole with a shot to catch Korda. But she bogeyed No. 9 just before sunset to finish at 7 under with Henderson, with former world No. 1 So Yeon Ryu and Hannah Green another shot back.
Like Korda, Jin Young Ko made her Lotte debut on Wednesday and ended the day tied for 29th at 3 under in her first appearance since winning the ANA Inspiration and rising to No. 1 in the world.
Michelle Wie will need to make a big move today to keep a Hawaii presence in the field. Wie, who continues her comeback from hand surgery in October, struggled to a 5-over 77 in a round in which 96 of 144 players shot even par or better.
