Marquee Groups to Watch at Honda LPGA Thailand

View full pairings here (all times local to Thailand)

Brittany Lincicome, Jin Young Ko, Amy Yang (8:03 a.m.)

This is like a winner’s bracket pairing in the early season. Brittany Lincicome won in the Bahamas, Jin Young Ko introduced herself to the golf world by winning in Australia and Amy Yang is the defending Honda LPGA Thailand champion and has won the tournament twice. There is nothing more dangerous than a rested and relaxed Lincicome. She won in the Bahamas with a brilliant putter and has been fishing with her husband the last two weeks. She finished 13^th in Thailand last year, which is actually her best finish in Thailand. Still, throw that nugget out. Lincicome is definitely a factor. The new Ko on the block is here to stay. We shouldn’t be incredibly surprised by her success. She finished second in the Ricoh Women’s British Open in 2015 and won the LPGA KEB HanaBank Championship last year. It’ll be her first start in Thailand. Meantime, Yang has been consistently amazing in Thailand over the last three years. Here are her last 12 rounds in Thailand: 66-67-65-68-66-69-70-70-67-66-71-69. That’s simply not fair for the competition. Not that I’m a betting man, but I’d feel pretty comfortable putting my hard earned money on Yang.

Angel Yin, Georgia Hall (7:30 a.m.)

It has the feel of Sunday singles match in Des Moines at the Solheim Cup, but these two breakout stars will bat leadoff when the Honda LPGA Thailand begins on Thursday at 7:30 a.m. Thailand time. Yin is in her second season on the LPGA while Hall is in her first. Both proved their worth at the Solheim Cup and will likely be around and contending for a long time. Yin is just 19 while Hall is 21 and both have won on the Ladies European Tour already. Yin made first start last week in Australia and finished T78 while Hall showed why many believe she could contend for Rolex Rookie of the Year with a T13 in her debut as a member in Australia. Keep in mind that Hall made 14 starts as a non-member between 2013-2017. She has five top 10s during that stretch including a tie for third at the 2017 Ricoh Women’s British Open.

Sung Hyun Park, Lexi Thompson, Ariya Jutanugarn (8:25 a.m.)

Get your popcorn ready for this pairing as the No. 2 (Park), No. 4 (Thompson) and No. 8 (Jutanugarn) ranked players in the world will tee it up together. Park dominated like maybe no first-year player in the LPGA’s history last year. She tallied 11 top 10s and won twice to win rookie of the year and share player of the year honors. Park is making her first start of the 2017 and playing in Thailand for the first time. Her first event last year was Singapore. Lexi Thompson will look to pick up her tenth career victory in a location she’s had a great deal of success. She won in Thailand in 2016 and finished in a tie for fourth last year. Thompson is off to a predictably strong start this year with a tie for sixth in the Bahamas. She did not play last week in Australia. Meanwhile, Jutanugarn will garner a lot of attention this week looking to become the first from Thailand to win the LPGA event in Thailand. She picked up her first top 10 of the season last week with a T7 in Australia. Jutanugarn has won seven times in the last two years.

Moriya Jutanugarn, Shanshan Feng, Anna Nordqvist (8:36 a.m.)

There is certainly local intrigue with this group because of Moriya and then you mix in the No. 1 player in the world in Shanshan Feng and No. 5 ranked Anna Nordqvist. Most people in the golf world have extremely high expectations for Moriya this year because of her great 2017 and natural progression as a professional. She hasn’t started red hot, but certainly has posted two respectable results. She also generally plays well in front of her home country fans. She finished seventh in Thailand last year and has made the cut each of the last four years. Feng is making her second start of the season after skipping the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open. She finished T3 in the Bahamas. If Feng can pick up her tenth career win, she will cross ten million in career earnings. It would also be her 80^th career top 10 finish. Fans will also get a glimpse of Nordqvist for the first time this season.  She has generally fared pretty well in Thailand with her best finish in the last three years being a T13 in 2015. In just 20 starts last year, Nordqvist won twice and finished in the top 25 eleven times.

Cristie Kerr, So Yeon Ryu, Brooke Henderson (7:52 a.m.)

This group has 30 wins between them and is as exciting as any of them. Kerr, who has 20 of the 30 wins, could cross $20 million in career earnings with a big season. She’s less than $1 million shy. Kerr, who first tee’d it up on the LPGA in 1997 (the same year Brooke was born), made her first start last week and finished T13 in Australia. She finished T18 in Thailand last year. Ryu has some momentum brewing after two strong results to start the year: T7 in Australia and T11 in the Bahamas. She’s now No. 3 in the world and looking to get back to number one, which she ascended to in the fall of 2017. The co-Rolex Player of the Year from 2017 in looking to find her form early to try and defend her ANA Inspiration crown from a year ago. The first major of the season is about five weeks out. Meanwhile, Henderson is looking to rebound from a rare missed cut in Australia. She turned in a second round 76 to miss the weekend. She opened the season with a ninth place result in the Bahamas.