What a couple of weeks it was for Patty Tavatanakit, who earned two wins in back-to-back starts on the Ladies European and LPGA Tours. After winning the Aramco Saudi Ladies International on the LET, the Thailand native's talent was on full display in front of a home crowd last week at the Honda LPGA Thailand, and the 24-year-old became an LPGA Tour winner once again after firing four rounds in the 60s at Siam Country Club. As a result, she jumped 16 spots in the Rolex Women's World Golf Rankings to No. 27, the highest ranking of her career since November 2020.
Tavatanakit joins Ariya Jutanungarn as the second Thai champion to be crowned at the Honda LPGA Thailand, winning her first Tour event in 1,057 days since becoming a Rolex First-Time winner and major champion at the 2021 Chevron Championship.
The major champion admitted that her body is not feeling 100 percent this week at the HSBC Women’s World Championship, but said in her pre-tournament press conference on Sunday, "Everything is just between the ears. I feel like if I tell myself I'm not tired, then I'm not going to be as tired, in comparison to like, oh, my God, I'm just so tired. It's really how you talk to yourself. I am working on staying fresh. I kind of moved around, got my body going, and feeling a little bit more athletic throughout the week.
“Two weeks ago, it was amazing, something that happened to me, but it's also in the past now, and I have a lot more golf to look forward to for this week and the rest of the season. I feel like I'm back to work."
With last week's win, the 24-year-old became the third different winner on the LPGA Tour this season, joining Lydia Ko, who won the season-opening Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, and Nelly Korda, who won the Drive On LPGA Championship in late January.
Lilia Vu Maintains Top Spot in World Rankings
Lilia Vu is still holding onto the No. 1 position in the Rolex Rankings after firing a final-round 65 on Sunday at the Honda LPGA Thailand to capture her first top-10 result of the 2024 LPGA Tour season. Vu got off to a slow start in Chonburi, Thailand, posting a 1-over 73 in the opening round, but recovered nicely with three rounds in the 60s to finish at 16-under and in a tie for seventh place at the Old Course at Siam Country Club.
It’s a challenge to manage the pressure and the expectations of being the No. 1 player in the world, and that fact is not lost on the two-time major winner Vu as she’s revved up this season.
"That's definitely a new thing for me. I keep saying that the reason I got to this point was because I played each tournament trying to win the tournament and just one shot at a time," said Vu of the pressure that comes with maintaining the top spot. "I feel like at the beginning of the season, that was very quick for me to get frustrated whenever I didn't play perfect golf. But golf is not a game of perfect, and I try to keep telling myself that. I try to stick to my game plan of just having fun, and I think it's really fun to go to a golf course and try to birdie every single hole. And that's literally my goal, and if I don't birdie, I just move on to the next hole and try again."
Ko Holds Early Lead in Season-Long Awards
Lydia Ko sits atop the Race to the CME Globe and Rolex Player of the Year standings, coming out of the gates in blazing fashion with a victory at the season-opening Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions.
She then earned a runner-up result at the Drive On LPGA Championship, where she came up just short of her 21st career victory, falling to Nelly Korda in a two-hole playoff at Bradenton Country Club. She leads Korda and Patty Tavatanakit in those season-long races, holding a slim 268-point lead in the Race to the CME Globe and a 12-point lead in the Rolex Player of the Year race.
Korda is taking a few weeks off before the Tour's first event in the United States since January, the FIR HILLS SERI PAK Championship in Palos Verdes Estates, Calif. And this week, Tavatanakit will tee it up at the HSBC Women's World Championship alongside Minjee Lee and Ko at 10:20 a.m. local time.
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