Lilia Vu Vaults Into Share of Second After Thursday 64 at Ford Championship presented by KCC

GILBERT, Ariz. — Four-time LPGA Tour winner Lilia Vu is in a share of second after carding a near-perfect, 8-under 64 on Thursday at the Ford Championship presented by KCC, a round that saw her make one bogey and nine birdies at Seville Golf and Country Club.

Vu raced out of the gate with a birdie on the par-4 1st hole, and after making three pars on her next three holes, the two-time major champion rattled off three consecutive birdies on holes five, six and seven. She dropped her only shot of the round on the par-3 8th hole, quickly recovering with a birdie on the par-4 9th hole to turn in 32 at 4-under overall.

She picked up another birdie on No. 11 to get to 5-under and then recorded back-to-back birdies on holes 14 and 15 to move to 7-under on the day. For good measure, Vu squeezed in one last birdie on the par-5 18th hole to post an 8-under 64, her third-lowest career round on the LPGA Tour and her first round of 64 or better since she fired a 62 on Moving Day at the 2023 ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican.

“Today, my only goal was to hit the ball solid,” said Vu, who hit 13 of 14 fairways and 14 of 18 greens on day one. “It's been rough the past couple of weeks with how my body is doing and struggling with a back injury. But I'm almost 100%, so it was really fun to play without pain today and focus on where I wanted to hit the ball instead of bracing for pain.”

Vu has been dealing with a lingering back injury in recent weeks, one that’s made competing on the LPGA Tour a bit difficult as of late. After recording two top-20 finishes in her first three starts of the year, including a T7 result in her first career title defense at the Honda LPGA Thailand, the 26-year-old withdrew from the HSBC Women’s World Championship due to illness and the Blue Bay LPGA due to the injury.

She struggled a bit last week at the FIR HILLS SERI PAK Championship, finishing in a tie for 37th just down the road from her alma mater. While she’s been trying as best she can to give herself some grace as she deals with these physical challenges, Vu admits it isn’t always the easiest to cut herself slack.

“I think my team does a good job of that,” said the UCLA alum. “I am very hard on myself, so definitely got in my own way last week and was really hard on myself even though I was still working through the pain. I did pretty well given that I was spazzing out the first two rounds. Got better during the weekend and I can't ask for anything else.”

Last season was a breakthrough year for Vu, who took home four Tour titles in 2023, two of which were major championships that came at The Chevron Championship and the AIG Women’s Open. She also won the Rolex ANNIKA Major Award, ascended to No. 1 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings for the first time in her career and earned Rolex Player of the Year honors after a solid performance at the CME Group Tour Championship.

That kind of success would be difficult for even the most storied of veterans to follow up, as expectations can sometimes swallow an athlete once they reach the pinnacle of their sport. But Vu recognizes that she’ll crumble under that kind of pressure and is instead focusing on what got her to the top in the first place.

“I think I struggled a little bit the last couple of months,” Vu said. “I was holding myself to too high of a standard, and I have to go back to my root of finding fun on the golf course and not letting my results define me. I think when I have a really simple goal for the day, the golf speaks for itself at the end of it.”