Defending champion Brooke Henderson remains in contention at Tournament of Champions

Outside of a great honeymoon to start 2023, Lydia Ko had a year she'd pretty much like to forget. She struggled mightily on the golf course after winning three times the previous season, and on several occasions left the 18th green at a tournament in tears.

Ko, a 19-time LPGA Tour winner, two-time major champion and still only 26, will have a great chance to bounce back this weekend at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions on the Lake Nona course she now calls home.

Ko played bogey-free for a 5-under 67 as temperatures began to cool in the LPGA's season opener, and she heads into the weekend alongside Japan's Ayaka Furue (71) in a share of the 36-hole lead.

They were at 8-under 136. Scotland's Gemma Dryburgh (68) and Mexico's Gaby Lopez, a former TOC champion who shot 71, are two shots back. Defending champion Brooke Henderson of Smiths Falls, Ont., and Alexa Pano — at 19, the youngest player in this week's field — will begin the weekend three shots out of the lead. Both shot 70 on Friday.

WATCH l Henderson sits at 5-under after shooting 70:

Ko tasted success elsewhere in 2023, winning an event on the Ladies European Tour (the Saudi Ladies International) and an unofficial mixed-team tournament alongside the PGA Tour's Jason Day late in the year. That gave her the confidence she was searching for.

Her results on the LPGA were a mess. After a tie for sixth to begin her season in Thailand last February, Ko teed it up in 19 other LPGA events, with only one other top-10 finish. She failed to qualify for the year-ending CME Group Tour Championship, which was something of a shock to her system.

Ko and her fellow LPGA pros will be tested this weekend with a cold front expected to drop temperatures into the low