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Tournament Report · LPGA Tour · March 29, 2026
Hyo Joo Kim Does It Again —
![Hyo Joo Kim wins 2026 Ford Championship at Wild Horse Pass]()
![Hyo Joo Kim and Nelly Korda at 2026 Ford Championship]()
![Lydia Ko Round 1 60 Ford Championship 2026]()
Hyo Joo Kim Does It Again —
Back-to-Back, and the Record Books Rewritten
Defending champion Hyo Joo Kim wins the 2026 Ford Championship at Wild Horse Pass, completing back-to-back victories after the Founders Cup and etching her name into LPGA history with a 54-hole scoring record along the way.
Hyo Joo Kim · 2026 Ford Championship Champion · img1
Hyo Joo Kim celebrates her second consecutive title at Wild Horse Pass, completing back-to-back wins across two LPGA events in the same week. | Photo: Getty Images / LPGA
Two weeks in a row. Two trophies. One dominant display that will be talked about long after the Arizona desert has cooled. Hyo Joo Kim successfully defended her Ford Championship title at Whirlwind Golf Club, completing back-to-back wins on the LPGA Tour and capping a week in which she rewrote the Tour's all-time 54-hole scoring record with a pair of 61s that made Nelly Korda — the world's No. 2 player — look on in something between admiration and disbelief.
2Straight wins
-2554-hole record
9Career LPGA titles
5Straight rounds vs Korda
The Win · Final Round
How Kim Sealed the Title
Kim entered the final round with a four-shot lead over Nelly Korda — a margin that felt comfortable on paper but precarious on a course that had produced a 60, two 61s and a 63 in the opening three days. Whirlwind's Cattail Course at Wild Horse Pass is birdie-friendly enough that any advantage can dissolve in a matter of holes. It didn't.
Kim was sharp from the first tee and never allowed Korda a serious opportunity to close the gap. The two players had shared the same group for all five rounds across back-to-back weeks — from the Founders Cup final round through to Sunday afternoon in Phoenix — making their rivalry the most compelling subplot of the early 2026 LPGA season. Kim won both Sundays.
Kim and Korda played five consecutive rounds together across two tournaments. Kim won both final rounds — by one shot at the Founders Cup and now again at Wild Horse Pass.
The Records · An Historic Week
Three LPGA Records in Four Days
Before the final round was even played, Kim's week had already entered the record books. Her opening 61 on Thursday matched the LPGA's 18-hole mark — a score that went largely unnoticed because Lydia Ko shot 60 in the same round, becoming just the eighth player in LPGA history to do so. By the time Kim fired another 61 in Saturday's third round, the 54-hole record was hers alone.
The 54-hole total of 25-under 191 broke the previous record — shared by four players — by a single stroke. Kim had seven consecutive one-putt greens in Round 3 and took just 25 putts total, carving through the Cattail Course with a birdie-birdie-eagle-birdie run on the back nine that put the tournament effectively beyond reach before the final 18 holes began. She used only 25 putts in Round 3 — a number that Korda, who watched it all happen from the same fairways, called simply "mesmerizing."
Kim & Korda at Wild Horse Pass · img2
Kim and Korda played in the same group for five consecutive rounds across two tournaments. Kim came out on top both Sundays. | Photo: AP / Getty Images
"Nelly is my favorite player. It's been great playing together, competing with her — it's just been fun overall."— Hyo Joo Kim, after Round 3
Final Leaderboard · Wild Horse Pass
How the Week Unfolded
| Pos | Player | Score | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hyo Joo Kim 🇰🇷 | -25+ | 61 | 69 | 61 | — |
| 2 | N. Korda 🇺🇸 | -21 | 63 | 65 | 67 | — |
| T3 | M. Rhodes 🏴 | -16 | — | — | 63 | — |
| T3 | C. Iwai 🇯🇵 | -16 | — | — | 67 | — |
| T3 | I. Yoon 🇰🇷 | -16 | — | — | 67 | — |
| T3 | M. Katsu 🇯🇵 | -16 | — | — | 69 | — |
| T3 | Lydia Ko 🇳🇿 | -16 | 60 | 71 | 69 | — |
R4 final scores are being updated. Kim entered the final round leading by four and successfully defended her title. Full 72-hole scorecards at www.lpga.com.
The Storylines
Lydia Ko's Rise and Fall — and Korda's Six-Shot Gap
Lydia Ko set the tone for the week on Thursday with a career-low 60 — only the eighth sub-61 round in LPGA history. The New Zealand star played 12 birdies without a bogey and flirted with becoming just the second player ever to break 60 on the Tour. She carried a one-shot lead into Friday. By Saturday night, she was tied for third, nine shots back, her week undone by rounds of 71 and 69 after that electric opening. The honeymoon phase, as Ko herself had cautioned, was brief.
Korda led after 36 holes, having posted a tournament record 128 (63-65) through two rounds. Her game was excellent — bogey-free rounds, crisp iron play, an eagle in Round 2. But Kim's Round 3 61, which featured a back-nine run that included birdie-birdie-eagle-birdie, left Korda four back and unable to catch up. "I shot 5-under," Korda said Saturday, "but it doesn't feel like I had a good round. She played an unbelievable round." That quote summarized the week's essential dynamic.
Lydia Ko R1 60 → T3 finish · img3
Lydia Ko's career-low 60 in Round 1 made history — and then faded just as quickly as the Arizona heat settled in. | Photo: Getty Images / LPGA
Context · Three in a Row for Korea
Korean Golf's Remarkable Run
Kim's win at Wild Horse Pass is her 9th LPGA Tour title and her second in as many weeks. It also completes a three-tournament winning streak for Korean players on the LPGA Tour — Mi Hyang Lee won the Blue Bay LPGA in China earlier in March, Kim won the Founders Cup the following week, and now the Ford Championship. The last time Korean players won three consecutive LPGA events was in 2019 — Yang Hee-young, Park Sung-hyun, and Ko Jin-young.
For Kim specifically, the back-to-back is her most emphatic statement yet of a player who has spent her career alternating between breakthrough moments and quiet spells. At 31, with nine Tour wins spread across 12 years of professional golf, she is playing the best golf of her life. The putting — always the foundation of her game — has been at a level that even rivals struggle to describe without reaching for words like "mesmerizing."
The Bottom Line
- Hyo Joo Kim wins the 2026 Ford Championship, successfully defending her title at Whirlwind Golf Club and completing back-to-back wins with the Founders Cup the week before.
- Kim's 54-hole total of -25 (191) set the LPGA all-time 54-hole scoring record, breaking the previous mark of -24 (shared by four players) by one shot.
- She shot 61 twice in the same week (R1 and R3) — only the third time in her career she has recorded that score, with the other instance coming at the 2014 Evian Championship.
- Nelly Korda finished 2nd for the second straight week, having played five consecutive final-group rounds against Kim across two tournaments.
- Lydia Ko's career-low 60 in R1 (only the 8th in LPGA history) gave way to rounds of 71 and 69 — a dramatic fade that left her T3 at week's end.
- Kim's win completes three consecutive LPGA victories by Korean players — Lee Mi-hyang (Blue Bay), Kim (Founders Cup), Kim (Ford Championship).
- Full coverage continues at www.thefittingroomgolf.com · Follow @THEFITTINGROOMGOLF
Ford Championship 2026
Hyo Joo Kim
Nelly Korda
Lydia Ko
LPGA Tour
LPGA Records
Wild Horse Pass
Women's Golf
Sources: Golf Channel, ESPN, AP, LPGA Tour · www.thefittingroomgolf.com · @THEFITTINGROOMGOLF