Lydia Ko and Pajaree Anannarukarn share lead after Day 1 of Aramco Saudi Ladies International

KING ABDULLAH ECONOMIC CITY: World No. 1 Lydia Ko picked up right where she left off in 2022, blazing through her first round of professional golf in 2023 with an 8-under score on the first day of the Aramco Saudi Ladies International Presented by the Public Investment Fund.

Joining Ko at the top of the leaderboard is Thai golfer Pajaree Anannarukarn, who is competing in Saudi Arabia and the Royal Greens Golf & Country Club for the first time.

Sitting one stroke behind the leaders is a solid Asian contingent that features world No. 4 Atthaya Thitikul from Thailand, India’s Aditi Ashok and South Korean Jung Min Hong.

Ko took advantage of starting in the morning wave with less windy conditions, putting up a bogey-free round.

“All in all, I putted really well out there. Most of the opportunities I had, I was able to take advantage of,” Ko said, describing the round as “a nice start to the season.”

She added: “The wind is such a big factor on this golf course, so when it’s playing to your advantage, you kind of want to use that. I think I felt really confident with the putter today so that when I didn’t hit the green, I wasn’t too stressed about it and felt like I could make up and down.”

Ko, who recently got married, credits her ability to jump right back into the game to the amount of golf she played during her honeymoon.

She said: “I had a few weeks to prepare for this one, but I played a lot of golf, maybe a bit too much golf, on my honeymoon. But my husband loves golf, and that’s something that we can mutually do together, so we took advantage of that. And actually, thanks to him, it made my transition into off-season practice a lot easier.”

Anannarukarn was on form right from the get-go, sinking in four