Ko can tie LPGA mark for consecutive rounds under par

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. -- How good is 28 consecutive rounds of golf under par?

"That's very good," said defending ANA Inspiration winner Lexi Thompson. "I wish I had that."

"That's pretty damn good," said reigning U.S. Women's Open champion Michelle Wie. "That's pretty impressive."

Thompson and Wie aren't the players with the hottest streak on the LPGA tour these days. It is 17-year-old Lydia Ko who has fired the 28 consecutive sub-par rounds during her climb to No. 1 in the Rolex World Golf Rankings.

And while Ko has a chance to match Annika Sorenstam's record of 29 consecutive under-par round in Thursday's first round of the ANA Inspiration, Ko appears slightly less impressed with the number than her fellow players.

"I wasn't really counting until Golf Channel told me that was going on, and yeah, I've been just trying to have fun out there," Ko said as she prepares for the LPGA's first major championship of the year. "David (Leadbetter, her coach) keeps telling me don't worry about the record, just think of it as how many sushis can you have, and he said, I've had 28 right now. Hopefully we can continue that on."

If Ko is to tie or pass Sorenstam's streak, she will have to do it on a tough Dinah Shore Tournament Course that is set up with thick, long rough for the major championship. Ko begins play Thursday on the back nine of the Shore Course in the morning flight of tee times.

Ko is one of 109 pros and six amateurs beginning play in the first major of the year at Mission Hills Country Club under a new name and with a new sponsor in All Nippon Airways. The tournament also has a new purse of $2 million, with $375,000 for the winner who will jump into Poppie's Pond in the traditional victory celebration for the event.

To win her first major and become the LPGA's youngest major championship winner, Ko will have to fend off top players like the No. 2 and 3 players in the rankings, Inbee Park and Stacy Lewis, who are both past champions of the ANA. Lexi Thompson, who won the tournament last year at 19, is also in the field, as are the other major championship winners from 2014, U.S. Women's Open champion Michelle Wie, Women's British Open winner Mo Martin and Evian Championship winner Hyo Joo Kim.

Ko, Park and Lewis have played so well in the last few years that they are being considered a new Big Three in women's golf. But it is the New Zealand star Ko, at 17 already with six LPGA wins, that is garnering much of the attention for women's golf these days. She is the LPGA's youngest-ever winner at 15 and became the youngest world No. 1 earlier this year. Weeks away from her 18th birthday, the focus is now on when Ko will win a major. And of course there is the chance to break an LPGA record for consecutive sub-par rounds. Ko admits she will think about the record because she is so close.

"It will be at the back of my mind because there's been so much talk about it. I'm sure that thought is going to come up within those 18 holes, but I'm just going to try and have fun," Ko said. "I'm going to be concentrating on that moment, and at the end of the day, my goal is to try and play well for this week. If I break the record or if I tie it or if I don't break it, I'm so happy that I can get so close to it even."

As much as fans and fellow players are marveling at Ko's play, they seem equally impressed by the 17-year-old's calm, even-keel attitude in the face of increasing media scrutiny over her rise to the top of the world ranking. Ko, who won the ISPS Handa Women's Australian Open in February for her sixth LPGA win, says she's just being herself.

"I don't know, sometimes it might be a little idiotic, but when I make a very stupid bogey, I tend to like laugh because it's like so funny that it's so dumb," Ko said. "So there's this weird part of me where I go, okay, it's part of it and I just go. Sometimes I get angry. But even when I get angry, maybe it's only my caddie and I that knows it."

Ko says she believes she is ready to win on the Shore Course, even though she is still learning the subtleties of the green and challenges of the rough. And she admits she has thought about the victory leap into Poppie's Pond.

"I kind of walked along the bridge yesterday when I was playing, and said, oh, they cleaned out all the moss and all that in the water, so it's very clean," Ko said. "So yeah, it's ready for somebody to jump in there."