A two-time winner of the Canadian Pacific Women’s Open is in a familiar place atop the leaderboard.
Thursday, Lydia Ko fired a 5-under par, 67, including seven birdies and two bogeys to take a one-stroke lead midway through the first round.
The 18-year-old won this event in 2012 for her first victory on the LPGA Tour, capturing the title as an amateur and becoming the youngest winner on Tour at 15 years, 4 months and 2 days of age. Ko defended her title in 2013, again capturing the title as an amateur and notching her second win on Tour. She also held the lead in after 18 holes in 2013 but trailed entering the final round. She fired a final round 64 to win at 23-under par.
It has been an up and down season for the World No.2 who missed the first cut of her professional career in June at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and lost her top spot in the Rolex World Golf Rankings in the process. She has since bounced back with four top-12 finishes in four of her last starts but finished T-46 in Portland after failing to break 70 during the week.
Ko leads by one-stroke ahead of Danah Bordner and Pernilla Lindberg at 4-under par.
Brooke Henderson, now a rookie on the LPGA Tour following her victory at last week’s Cambia Portland Classic, tees of at 1:10pm PT. Defending champion So Yeon Ryu tees off at 1:32 PT.