Ko Jin-young’s extraordinary run is over and it happened to end in the arena where she feared the brakes might slam most of all. After 34 consecutive under par rounds, the world No 1 shot a 74 on the first day of the Chevron Championship.
The naming might seem grimly appropriate but at Mission Hills, Ko now truly has a mountain to climb if she is to achieve her objective of winning a third major that would merely justify her dominance.
With six wins in her last 11 events, the 26-year-old arrived in Palm Springs, California as the overwhelming favourite to record her second victory in the season’s opening major after her 2019 breakthrough.
Except golf quite likes quickly transforming sure-fire things into a pile of ripped-up betting slips and although these are early days and the Korean has the talent to birdie a path back into the hunt, at two-over it is a prohibitive task.
Ko is eight behind American Jennifer Kupcho and Australian Minjee Lee, who both fired 66s, with England’s Georgia Hall flying high after a 68.
Ko’s primary objective must be to ensure she does not miss her second cut in almost four years. When told Ko’s score, one player replied: “Yeah right. April Fool’s Day is not until tomorrow.”
What made her highest round in nine months yet more difficult to fathom were the near perfect conditions.
“I was hitting lots of great shot but my putting wasn’t good,” Ko said. “I couldn’t see the break or [get the] speed. Everything was wrong. The greens seemed slower but I don’t know what happened. Now I will go and rest.”
Hall, the 2018 Women’s Open champion, played in the more difficult conditions of the afternoon and, in that wave, only defending champion Patty Tavatanakit, fared better, conjuring a 67 to lie third.
For Hall, her four-under was simply the continuation of her five-shot win on the Ladies European Tour two weeks ago.
McIlroy off the pace in Augusta warm-up
In the first round of the Valero Texas Open in San Antonio, Rory McIlroy’s preparations for next week’s Masters did not go to plan in an error-strewn 72 that left him seven off the early pace.
Six birdies, six pars, six bogeys… it looked neat enough on the scorecard but on the TPC itself it was a bit of a mess.
On the 17th, he hit his drive so far right his ball finished under a Lexus. In fairness, he recovered on that par five to make a birdie, although he did receive a break when his third clattered against the pin before resting at holeside.
