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Winning early in 2024 set Dame Lydia Ko up for the most historic year of her career. Winning early in 2025 would set her well on the way to achieving the lofty goal she has set herself.

The 2025 season-opening LPGA Tournament of Champions sees Ko take to her Floridian home course at Lake Nona as defending champion – the newly minted dame hopes to repeat the hot start she had last year in her quest to complete the “grand slam” of LPGA major titles.

“After having a tough year in ‘23, to win the first tournament back last year gave me a lot more confidence and good momentum [going] into a year that was very important for me, with the Olympics and the majors.

“It helped a lot with confidence. It gave me the belief that I could be back in the winner’s circle and in the Hall of Fame – that was the year it happened to be.

“It all started here, and this being my home club, I got a lot of home crowd support,” Ko said ahead of the first round in Florida.

Ko has three of the five major titles in her cabinet already – her British Open victory at St Andrews last year followed the Evian Championship and Chevron Championship, leaving the the US Open and the Women’s PGA Championship still to be won.

“I would love to do the career grand slam,” Ko reiterated after revealing her new goal while speaking to media before her Damehood was announced.

“It’s hard winning one major championship, but to win five, and [they’d all be] different ones, it’s a very small group of players who have done it. If I could be [counted among] that small group, it would be pretty amazing.

“It doesn’t matter what happened last year. I still know I’ve got a lot more things to do and achieve and get better at.”

A new goal isn’t the only change for Ko in 2025 – she will no longer be the solo Kiwi on the LPGA tour, with Auckland’s Fiona Xu qualifying via the Epson Tour to join her Hall of Fame compatriot.

“It’s been me, myself and I these last few years on tour, but I’m excited as there’s an LPGA player now [who] came up from the Epsom Tour called Fiona Xu. I’m excited that, first off, I have another fellow Kiwi playing on tour.”

20-year-old Fiona Xu. Photo / Getty Images

Another change this season is the International Crown changing their rules to include players from outside the US, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Australia, Sweden and China, meaning Ko will be eligible to play in the team event for the first time under a world team.

“I love team play,” Ko said, “Unfortunately, I haven’t really been able to be in that kind of a format very much... so when I heard the announcement there was going to be a world team I was super-excited, and I’d love to be part of it.”

Early-season form was the driver for Ko’s historic 2024, but she says she now knows it is not the maker or breaker of a year in professional golf.

“Last year I won here, and then I played well the next week... it was a good kick-start to 2024. As much as it’s small differences [between] winning and not winning, there’s a huge confidence matter that goes on.

“Even if you play well and don’t win, I think, always, the doubt creeps into my mind. But I feel like now, after the year that I had last year, coming off from one of my worst years in ‘23, I have the belief that even if I don’t play well for a span of a few weeks, I don’t need to get too down on myself because I know what direction I’m going in.

“I just believe I can overcome my lulls, so I feel like I’m a much stronger player in that sense, and hopefully I do get off to a good start, but I’m not going to let that reflect on how I’m going to approach the rest of the season.”

Ko’s bid to defend her Tournament of Champions crown tees off overnight Thursday (NZT).

Will Toogood is an online sports editor and golf reporter for the NZ Herald. He enjoys watching people chase a ball around on a grass surface so much, he decided to make a living out of it.