Earlier this month, Lydia Ko had a tremendous opportunity to grace the cover of the Korean edition of VOGUE with a stunning photo spread.

Modeling is not in her future she said with a laugh this week. But as far as her real job is concerned? She’s very much back.

Ko, after a 5-under 67 Friday at the HSBC Women’s World Championship, is just one shot shy of the lead held by A Lim Kim through 36 holes in Singapore.

The LPGA Hall of Famer opened with a 71 Thursday but said she was able to take advantage of the conditions on Friday to scoot up the leaderboard.

“The wind was a little bit calmer today. I think you needed to, I guess, take advantage of those kind of situations. But yeah, you know, not a lot went wrong, and I just kept giving myself a lot of good looks,” Ko explained. “I think the real key to me for playing well is hitting a lot of greens, and I was able to do that a lot better today versus yesterday.”

Ko missed just one green in her second round and was bogey free. She had two birdies in her opening nine before adding three more on the back nine. On the par-5 13th she hit a nippy driver-off-the-deck approach which set her up for another circle on the scorecard. Ko said she had about 230 yards to the front of the green and even if she hit a solid 3-wood she was going to be short.

“I kind of duffed the driver off the deck to be honest, but I knew that regardless of me hitting a 3-wood and being short was going to be the same as if I kind of miss-hit a driver. So that's why I hit a driver off the deck, and I do that quite often,” Ko explained.

Ko admitted there was a “very marginal difference” between her first and second rounds but hitting just 10 greens Thursday left her scrambling.

“I hit my irons a lot better (on Friday), and I feel like my game has been trending in the right direction. To see a few putts drop here and there, yeah, it was good,” Ko explained.

It has been written and re-written how much of a spectacular 2024 campaign Ko had. With all that she accomplished, Ko said Thursday she is “definitely” having more fun. In ways, she explained, she’s in a position to go for things and try new things, like her first-time modeling effort.

“I was super proud and excited of the way it turned out and obviously very grateful to Vogue for giving me that opportunity. It's literally a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Ko said.

“I still have goals, and while I'm still playing, I want to play the best golf I can and contend as much as I can. There's no better feeling than being the person that's hoisting the trophy at the end of Sunday.”

Ko has put herself in prime position to do exactly that through two days at the HSBC Women’s World Championship.

She’s one of only five golfers to have played in Singapore 10 times previously. She has four top-10s in this event in her career, although just one in her last five trips.

Now, she’s eager for a picture-perfect finish to the week.

“I don't think I typically play really well on this golf course and I thought this year would be a good year to kind of turn that around,” Ko said. “The scores haven't really been that low these past couple days. I'm just trying to focus on me and hopefully just keep climbing up the leaderboard.”

Lydia Ko One Shot Shy of Lead After 36 Holes in Singapore

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