Featured Groups Honda LPGA Thailand

Featured Groups- Honda LPGA Thailand

Click for Groups and Tee Times for the Opening Rounds

*All tee times are local.

Ariya Jutanugarn, Jin Young Ko, Lexi Thompson- 9:50 A.M, 1^st tee

The 1^st, 5^th, and 8^th ranked players in the world lock and load in a star-studded group. While the Thai native nor the super sophomore has found the winners circle in Thailand, Thompson has in a strong performance in 2016. 

Ko enters the fray coming off a hot 8 birdie and bogey free final round performance in Australia. She’s got a track record of success following success. After her maiden win last year, she posted a 7^th place finish at the Honda LPGA Thailand. 

Jutanugarn is singing a different tune than we’re used to seeing from her early this year. She carded 3 under in the second round of the Australian Open to make the cut by a stroke, narrowly avoiding her first missed cut since the 2017 Evian Championship. The consistency of the event’s course may help Jutanugarn regain her footing: she’s finished in the top 10 the last two years at the Old Course. 

Thompson’s first event in the opening 2019 Asia swing, she returns just over a month after her T10 performance at the Diamond Resort Tournament of Champions. She’s dominated in her final rounds at this course, which will keep her in the hunt even if she’s not in the final groups on Sunday.  

Nelly Korda, Sung Hyun Park, Pornanong Phatlum – 9:39 A.M., 1^st tee

Looking to pick up her sister’s mantle, Nelly Korda enters looking to win back to back events and defend the Korda clan’s title, as Jessica Korda withdrew from this event due to a forearm injury last Friday. Nelly finished T14 last year in her first appearance at the Honda LPGA Thailand. 

Sung Hyun Park makes her season debut in the event she made her debut at last year, where she finished in a tie for 22^nd. Look to see if her momentum from the end of 2018 found its way to the 2019 calendar: she had 4 top 15 finishes in her final 5 events last season. The number 2 player in the world noted in her team’s press release that “(She) will soon reclaim the world number 1 spot.” That march begins this week. 

Pornanong Phatlum sits 51^st in the world, featuring a T7 place finish here last year. Her only top 10 since was a 2^nd place finish at the AIG Women’s British Women’s, where she held the 54-hole lead and lost to Georgia Hall’s final round 5 under effort. 

Brooke Henderson, Minjee Lee, Thidapa Suwannapura- 9:28 A.M., 1^st tee

Henderson tied with Phatlum here last year, as she enters her first event of the opening Asia swing of the season. The Canadian came out firing on all cylinders last year, turning in 3 T10's in her first 4 events. With a month off to build from her T6 finish at the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions, Henderson has a chance to build another top-10 streak with the smaller field of 70 players. This is her third appearance at the Honda LPGA Thailand, with a T45 in her first appearance in 2017.

Minjee Lee is playing in her third consecutive event, rebounding from a missed cut at the ISPS Handa Vic Open with a T15 finish at the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open. Tied for the 18-hole lead with Jessica Korda last year after an opening round 66, she slipped behind Korda’s torrid pace and posted 18 under par for the tournament, good enough for 4^th place.  In her three years in the field, she’s had two top ten finishes, including a T8 finish in her first appearance in 2016. 

Suwannapura has played in every event this season, making the cut in all three events she’s played. Her best finish in 2019 is T17 at the ISPS Handa Vic Open. This is her 7^th time teeing it up at the Honda LPGA Thailand, though her first appearance since 2016 when she posted her worst finish of her career at the event. She hasn’t seen success since the course switched to the Pattaaya Old Course, failing to finish inside the top 40 in her two appearances at the current course.