World number one and two-time major winner Lydia Ko is excited for her first taste of the Aramco Team Series this week, with the opening tournament of the series set to take place at Laguna National Golf Resort Club in Singapore.
Having started the season in scintillating form, including winning the history-making Aramco Saudi Ladies International at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club in February, the 25-year-old’s quartet will be made up of German star Aline Krauter, Swede Lisa Pettersson and amateur Andres Acosta Luque.
It will be a week of firsts for the world number one as she not only will tee it up in an Aramco Team Series event, but she will also play for the first time at Laguna National Golf Resort Club.
The Kiwi star is excited by the challenge ahead and commented: “Yeah, golf is an individual sport, so I haven’t had many chances since turning professional to be in kind of a team format. This one is a little bit more unique where this is still individual, every stroke counts, but at the same time, you’re in a team format for the first couple days.
“I’m really looking forward to it. I think it’s going to be a little bit strange to grasp tomorrow, but it should be a lot of fun. And I’ve never played this golf course, so it’s nice to come to and see something new and then just adjust to that.”
“The greens are very small,” she continued. “I think if you hit it on the green you have got a pretty good chance for birdies. I think the front nine there is a little bit more water in play, so especially with the forecast of the wind being a little bit breezier like the last couple days, I think it could definitely be a factor.
“But, yeah, if you drive it pretty well around here you can get a little bit aggressive with the pin positions, and I think if your iron play especially is good, I think that’s going to be the big key for this week.”
The Aramco Team Series will head to Florida, London, Hong Kong and Riyadh later in the year also with $1million purses, but eyes are firmly focused on Singapore this week.
Lydia Ko spoke glowingly on the investment from Aramco and other sponsors leading the charge aiming to grow women’s golf adding: “I think we’ve seen lots of momentum, more partners supporting and believing in the women’s game.
“We’ve seen that especially with big purse jumps. When the Aramco Saudi Ladies International chose to match the men’s purse, I thought that was a very exciting momentum and change and dynamic for women’s golf. I hope that more and more partners will get on this trend and we will see more of this equality.
“I get to play alongside the best female golfers’ week in, week out. Sometimes I get goosebumps seeing how good they are, so it’s great that we have these partners like Aramco who are stepping forward and believing in the women’s environment.”