Jin Young Ko is on a hot streak. In her last six starts, she’s won three times. It’s good timing, because she’s on the brink of breaking one of Annika Sorenstam’s records: most consecutive competitive rounds in the 60s.
En route to her win at the Cognizant Founders Cup two weeks ago, Ko shot a final-round 66 to tie the record of 14 consecutive rounds under 70 that was first set by Sorenstam in 2005 and was later matched by So Yeon Ryu in 2016-17. Ko is ranked No. 2 in the world and will attempt to break the record when she tees off in the first round of the BMW Ladies Championship in South Korea. The last time the event was held, in 2019 at LPGA International Busan, Ko shot rounds of 67-69-71-71.
The 26-year-old has broken a record previously held by one of the greatest to ever play the game: In 2019, Ko passed Tiger Woods’ record for longest streak without making a bogey. She went an incredible 114 tournament holes without making a bogey (or worse) to Tiger’s 110 holes.
Ko said she knew about the record when she played her final round at the Cognizant Founders Cup, and that it motivated her to play well enough to tie the record. Obviously, the prospect of now breaking the record is hard to ignore.
“The pressure is there, but I think that I can keep the pressure in check,” Ko said. “And I also think that having that ambition, I guess, to break records and that desire is also what drives players in general to be better.”