Nelly Korda, Lydia Ko make equipment changes after one round, vault up leaderboard
ORLANDO, Fla. – One day after Nelly Korda put a new driver in the bag, she took it out. The same is true for Lydia Ko and her “new” putter. The top two players in the world were better off for it, with Korda’s 5-under 67 moving her into a share of third, and Ko’s 67 moving her to a share of seventh at the season-opening Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions.
Korda put the TaylorMade Qi35 in play for the first time this week, but ultimately switched back to the Qi10 she used last season. Korda, of course, won six times in 2024 while Ko won four times, including Olympic gold.
“It was just some things that I need to dial in a little bit more,” said Korda, “so just went back to my old trusty. … I think if you’re not confident in one part of your game it kind of leaks to everything else. Not saying that I’m not going to put it in for the rest of the year, but there is just a couple tweaks that I want to do to it before putting it in to actually play for my whole set to be confident.”
In Ko’s case, she’d put the putter she used in her terrific 2022 season back in play, a season in which she’d won LPGA Player of the Year. She quickly decided, however, that it was a mistake to switch from the putter that won her a major title at St. Andrews and Olympic gold last year. It helped that Ko, the defending champion this week, lives at Lake Nona and could send her mom back to the house to collect the Scotty Cameron prototype.
Ko said she actually took two putters with her to Europe last year and planned to switch after Paris but then naturally ended up sticking with the same one after she won.
