How things have changed for Patty Tavatanakit.
She joined the LPGA Tour in 2020 and played in 14 events as a rookie, missing seven cuts and picking up one top-10 finish, a tie for ninth at the Dana Open. Not a bad performance in your first year on Tour.
But when the 2020 rookies were granted a second-chance season in 2021 after their inaugural year was derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Tavatanakit really hit her stride, going wire-to-wire in her fourth tournament of the season to win her first major title at The Chevron Championship, defeating Lydia Ko by two shots to take that famous leap into Poppie’s Pond at Mission Hills Country Club.
In addition to her victory in Rancho Mirage, Calif., the Thailand native collected nine other T7 or better results throughout the year, two of which came at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship (T5) and AIG Women’s Open (T7).
It was a solid 2021 resume that earned her Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year honors and the Rolex ANNIKA Major Award, two accolades that are highly coveted by all in the women’s game, and it seemed like Tavatanakit was well on her way to greatness, a well-oiled machine that was going to keep racking up accomplishment after accomplishment, much like her Thai counterpart Ariya Jutanugarn had just a few years prior.
But golf – as it’s wont to do – got hard.
The 2022 season saw Tavatanakit start strong, earning five top-20 finishes in her first six starts, including a tie for fourth in her title defense at The Chevron Championship. But then the wheels fell off over the summer as Tavatanakit missed seven cuts in eight starts from June through September and withdrew from the LPGA MEDIHEAL Championship in early October, playing just four events the rest of the season, recording a best finish of T59 at the CME Group Tour Championship.
It was a head-scratcher of a year for the young talent and the golf world questioned where Tavatanakit’s confidence had gone after such an impressive 2021. But excelling at golf for an extended period of time is difficult. The game is a fickle one, rewarding you with victory when you’re high and then kicking you in your teeth when you’re low, punching you in the gut when you’re down, just for good measure.
As the calendar flipped to 2023, many wondered how Tavatanakit would fare in her fourth season on the LPGA Tour, questioning whether she had figured it out over the offseason or if the struggles would continue for another year.
Ultimately, Tavatanakit showed just how gritty and resilient she is, collecting three top-15 results and only missing five cuts last year, righting the ship much faster than she did in 2022 when four of those missed cuts came consecutively from May to June. She even helped Thailand claim their first Hanwha LIFEPLUS International Crown in May as an integral part of the team that also featured the Jutanugarn sisters and Atthaya Thitikul.
So, when 2024 rolled around, it felt like things were finally back on track for Tavatanakit. Her first event of the year saw her record a ho-hum T42 finish at the LPGA Drive On Championship, but so what? It was a good way to knock the competitive rust off.
With a three-week break between LPGA Tour events, Tavatanakit then decided to tee it up last week on the Ladies European Tour in the Aramco Saudi Ladies International, just to keep things rolling before the LPGA season picked up speed in February. She didn’t come into the week at Riyadh Golf Club expecting to win for the first time since the 2021 Chevron Championship by seven shots over Esther Henseleit, but boy, was it a welcome relief for the 24-year-old.
“It's been a long time since I've played this good,” Tavatanakit said after the win. “I’m very emotional right now with how I have overcome that, and looking back, it was just one day at a time, keep working hard. I'm so grateful for the people I have around me. Without them, I wouldn't be here today. I'm soaking it all in right now. It's incredible. Just being here in Saudi and I was able to do that. It's unreal.”
Setting her sights on the Honda LPGA Thailand, Tavatanakit knew it would take a monumental mental and physical effort to win in back-to-back weeks, particularly in her home country. So, she put a premium on energy conservation at Siam Country Club, a gameplan that seemed to work well as she found herself with a three-shot lead through 54 holes after carding three straight rounds of 67 or better at the Old Course.
Historically, Sunday at the Honda LPGA Thailand has always produced drama, so Tavatanakit knew she’d have to hang tough no matter what the chasers were throwing at her. She did well on the front nine as few players were able to gain any ground on the Thailand native, who made three birdies to get to 19-under overall.
She birdied the 10th to get to 20-under with eight holes to go, but Albane Valenzuela started to make a late run in the group ahead, picking up four birdies in a five-hole stretch from 11 to 15 to move to 18-under, two back of Tavatanakit with three holes to play. Tavatanakit then faltered on the par-4 15th hole, making just her fourth bogey of the week to slide back to 19-under, and Valenzuela capitalized on her mistake, grabbing another birdie on the par-4 17th hole to share the lead with Tavatanakit at 19-under.
Undeterred, Tavatanakit recovered immediately with a birdie on 16, parring the next hole to sit at 20-under with just one hole to play. And after Valenzuela made one last birdie on the par-5 18th hole to post a 9-under 63 and hold the clubhouse lead, Tavatanakit knew what she had to do coming down the stretch.
Hitting her second shot short of the green on the par 5, Tavatanakit pitched her third to tap-in range as the crowds went wild for their beloved daughter.
It was then that the realization of what she had done started to sink in.
Tavatanakit tapped in her birdie putt to finish at 21-under and win by one shot, bursting into tears as she waved and bowed to the fans, overcome with emotion about what she had just done in her home country.
“It was a lot of emotions. It was joy. I felt so proud. I felt a little tired, too,” said Tavatanakit. “I had so much pressure on me today playing in front of the home crowd, and I was able to do that. It was just a dream come true. It was unbelievable. I still can’t believe I did that today.”
Not only was it her first time winning in Thailand as a professional, but it was also the first time that Tavatanakit’s parents had seen their daughter hoist a trophy, something that made this career-defining moment even more memorable for the 24-year-old. “It's very special,” she said. “A lot of pressure, too, because I want to make them proud. But I know regardless of how I play, they'll always be proud of me.”
Winning in your home country is a feat that few international players will ever accomplish in their time as professional golfers. Celine Boutier did it last year at the Amundi Evian Championship in France, and Ariya Jutanugarn won the Honda LPGA Thailand in 2021, making Tavatanakit just the second Thai player to win this event since its inception in 2006.
But it’s one of those rare accomplishments in golf that can make a non-major victory the highlight of a career. And while Tavatanakit has already reached the pinnacle of the women’s game after winning a major title in 2021, one could bet that her win at the 2024 Honda LPGA Thailand will go down in her personal record book as maybe her greatest victory of all time.
“It means the world,” Tavatanakit said. “It's a dream come true because I was once a spectator outside the ropes, and I had a chance to play (this event) as an amateur. I played well. I learned a lot from it. I grew from this event. This is the starting point for me in LPGA. To be able to win this tournament in my home country with everyone supporting, it's just a dream come true.”
A lot has changed for Tavatanakit over the years. But a lot – her resiliency, her tenacity, her fearlessness in the face of adversity – has remained the same.
And that’s really all that matters.
Winning at home 🏆@Patty_MPT | @hondalpgath pic.twitter.com/5Q96XEWgpx
— LPGA (@LPGA) February 25, 2024
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