HAENAM, South Korea — Sei Young Kim matched the tournament record with a 10-under opening round at the BMW Ladies Championship in Haenam, South Korea.
The Korean star carded eight birdies and an eagle, hit 12 of 14 fairways and stuck 17 of 18 greens in regulation to finish with a 62 at Pine Beach Golf Links.
That matched the mark of 62 posted by Ashleigh Buhai in 2023 when it was played at Seowon Valley Country Club in Paju, South Korea.
After waiting out a one-hour weather delay, Kim bookended a brilliant round in front of friends and family with birdies at the first and 18th holes. She was 5-under from Nos. 6-9, including an eagle at the par-5 sixth.
“Yes, so this is near my hometown, so I have lots of family, my cousins, a lot of fans,” Kim said according to Reuters.
“I had a great start from the first hole and all the way through 18th, getting a lot of support. The course is absolutely wonderful. The layout and the conditions of the course were great.”
Rory McIlroy, meanwhile, left the driver out of his bag as he made his debut in India with a three-under 69, but it was his Ryder Cup partner Shane Lowry who led after a superb 64 in the first round at the DP World India Championship in Delhi.
Lowry got up-and-down at the par-five 18th hole, despite a stray dog delaying his final putt, to complete a flawless eight-under-par round which included five straight birdies from the 11th.
The Irishman led a packed leaderboard by one stroke from Keita Nakajima of Japan who, like Lowry, rolled in eight birdies but dropped a shot at the sixth in his seven-under 65.
Lowry missed the cut last week in Spain on his return to action after the Ryder Cup but it was McIlroy’s first outing since inspiring the European team to glory in New York, albeit on a vastly different course to Bethpage Black.
The stunning Lodhi course at the historic Delhi Golf Club is a par-72 layout that is short by modern standards, at less than 7,000 yards, but is studded with the ruins of ancient tombs dating back to the Mughal Empire.
Its narrow fairways are bordered by treacherous dense vegetation on a course that is a throwback to a bygone golfing era, rewarding accuracy rather than distance.
“I feel like this type of golf course suits me,” said Lowry, the 2019 British Open champion.
“I spend half the year moaning about golf courses that are too wide. So, when I get to somewhere like here, I need to take advantage and I did that,” Lowry added according to AFP.
“Hopefully I can keep doing that for the rest of the week.”
McIlroy, one of golf’s longest hitters, said Delhi Golf Club was not the place to unleash 350-yard drives with his “big dog” after finishing as one of 11 players lying five shots off Lowry’s lead.
“Dog was out of the bag,” said the five-time major champion of his driver.
“Probably asleep in the locker.
“I’m never going to hit driver (here). I just don’t see any hole out there to hit it more than say 260, 270 off the tee,” added the Northern Irishman.
McIlroy had six birdies but also three bogeys, falling foul of the thick rough on more than one occasion.
“You just have to get the ball in the fairway,” he said. “The rough is unpredictable. You get a lot of fliers.”
In third place on his own was South Africa’s Casey Jarvis after a six-under 66, ahead of a three-way tie for fourth on five-under par 67 and 10 players locked on 68.
The inaugural $4 million tournament has attracted a stellar field including Tommy Fleetwood, who was one of those to card 68, his Ryder Cup teammate Viktor Hovland who shot 71 and European team captain Luke Donald with another 68.
US PGA Tour stars have made the trip for the event on the former European Tour, including 2023 British Open champion Brian Harman and Ryder Cup rookie Ben Griffin who both also had 68s.
Luke Donald, meanwhile, has delivered and then some while serving as Team Europe’s captain for each of the last two Ryder Cups.
After leading Europe to a 16½ to 11½ win in his debut in Rome two years ago, Donald became the first captain to lead a road team to victory since 2012 with a 15-13 victory last month at Bethpage State Park in Farmingdale, New York.
Donald has drawn praise as being perhaps Europe’s greatest Ryder Cup captain of all time.
He’s just the second European captain to win multiple events and the first since Tony Jacklin won consecutive Ryder Cups in 1985 and 1987.
Before competing this week at the DP World India Championship in New Delhi, Donald was asked if he’s given any more consideration to captaining a third-consecutive Ryder Cup squad in the 46th event at Adare Manor in Ireland in 2027.
