Daily Tribune‘It’s always great to shoot these really low numbers. I didn’t really know where the game was at going into the week. I was feeling sick last week so I couldn’t really practice that much, so just great to see a good number today.’
CHARLEY Hull of England lines up her putt on the ninth green during the first round of the Ford Championship presented by Wild Horse Pass 2025 at Whirlwind Golf Club in Wild Horse Pass on Thursday in Phoenix, Arizona.
Mike Mulholland/agence france-presse
England’s Charley Hull fired a nine-under par 63 to seize a one-stroke lead over Denmark’s Nanna Koerstz Madsen after Thursday’s first round of the LPGA Ford Championship.
Meanwhile, Yuka Saso hit only six of 14 fairways but still salvaged a three-under-par 69.
The two-time US Women’s Open champion made seven birdies to offset two bogeys and a double bogey.
Bianca Pagdanganan opened with a 78.
Hull’s bogey-free morning round at Whirlwind Golf Club came with a new driver after suffering a “tweaked” club early in the week.
“I really hit it well. I felt like that put me in a lot of good positions,” Hull said. “I putted pretty well. I chipped pretty well. I hit it pretty well with my iron shots.
“I don’t think I missed a green and didn’t really miss any fairways. I was hitting it good and just felt confident.”
Hull seeks her third career LPGA triumph and first since the 2022 Volunteers of America Classic. She is also a four-time Ladies European Tour winner, most recently taking a title at Riyadh last November.
The back-nine starter reeled off three birdies in a row at the first through third holes among her nine for the day.
“I feel like I left actually a good four shots out there,” she said. “Like the last I lipped on the left edge. The hole before I left it like an inch short. So I’m looking back thinking I could have done more.”
Madsen birdied the par-4 18th to close within a stroke but a lone bogey at the par-4 fifth kept her adrift of Hull.
“Stayed in fairways, so that made it a little easier,” Madsen said. “I made a couple good putts and some good, steady birdies.”
The 64 was her second-lowest round in an LPGA event.
“It’s a pretty scorable course,” she said. “There are a lot of birdie chances out there, but the greens are really firm, so that makes it a little trickier.
“It’s always great to shoot these really low numbers. I didn’t really know where the game was at going into the week. I was feeling sick last week so I couldn’t really practice that much, so just great to see a good number today.”
Yoon Ina, a 21-year-old LPGA rookie, shared third on 65 with compatriots Im Jin-hee, Lee Mi-hyang and Kim Sei-young plus Taiwan’s Chien Peiyun, American Amanda Doherty, Japan’s Minami Katsu and Canada’s Brooke Henderson.
Yoon eagled the par-5 12th and par-4 18th holes.
“On 12, I got the green by two shots and make a putt like three meters,” Yoon said. “And another eagle 18, second shot was 88 meters and I hit 54-degree and I hit great. I thought I can make birdie, but the gallery was cheering and yelling.”
