Nelly Korda – Photo by Max Bechtoldt/Women’s Golf Daily News
Scores have been super low on the first two days of the Ford Championship, is there an opportunity for one of the LPGA Tour’s most impressive records to be shattered in Arizona?
The LPGA Tour’s current record for lowest score in a single event was set in 2018 at the Thornberry Creek LPGA Classic, a now defunct event held near Green Bay, Wisconsin. Each of Kim’s three rounds were 65 or better on the par 72 Thornberry Creek at Oneida Golf Club. For the week she shot -31 257 thanks largely to a first round 63. Kim still wears the number 31 on her hat in honor of the achievement.
Through two rounds at the 2026 Ford Championship, held at Whirlwind Golf Club near Phoenix, Nelly Korda is on pace to break that record, sitting at a career-best two-round score of -16. Korda has actually had the same two first round scores, 63, 65, as Kim did.
Not only is Korda on pace to break it, but Hyo Joo Kim, arguably the player in the world with the most momentum right now, sits at -14, but with another round similar to her incredible first round 61 can get her right back in the mix.
The case for the record being broken is how gentile Whirlwind Golf Club is playing. The conditions have been ideal for scoring and the wide open layout has made it a ball striker’s heaven. The cut line this week actually almost broke a record for lowest ever, sitting at -5.
Nelly Korda has the game to continue this rapid pace. The player with the second most active wins on the LPGA Tour has been in fantastic form this season, with just two rounds in the 70s out of nine played and six scores of 68 or lower. She’s battled the elements each week, from the extreme cold and win of the Tournament of Champions, to the extreme heat of the last two weeks. Korda leads the Tour in the early season in strokes gained total, strokes gained tee-to-green, strokes gained approach and strokes gained putting. She has been top six on the Tour in scoring average each full year since 2019.
She even left a should-be easy stroke on the course, missing a putt just outside of tap in range on hole 17 Friday.
The case against it happening is how the golf course has played relatively tougher in the afternoon. Thursday’s morning wave, where Korda played her first round, was the easiest the conditions have been all week. Korda’s -9 63 was the third best of the morning. Friday in general was a tougher day than Thursday, with In Gee Chun being the only player to shoot better than 65. Korda would need to average better than 65 to get to -32.
It is unlikely to see the record fall this week, maybe if Korda made that short putt on 17 Friday, that extra stroke would inspire more confidence, but it has been fun to watch the best players in the world show off a little bit.
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