With one win apiece this year, both Jutanugarn sisters are finally LPGA winners. Moriya Jutanugarn (HUGEL-JTBC LA Open) and Ariya Jutanugarn (Kingsmill Championship presented by GEICO) are also now in the top 10 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings, ranked fifth and 10th, respectively.
“Golf is competitive. To have your sister and best friend competitive with you and do pretty much everything actually is mean a lot and it actually make golf fun, like more fun,” said Moriya, who took her first career win in Los Angeles with Ariya waiting in tears just off the 18th green.
With two LPGA winners living under the same roof and sharing their golf careers, the winning sisters remain to be supportive of each other.
“We not really talk about golf, but if we talk about golf, we always talk about like something good, like positive,” added Ariya. “Good shots, I have some good shots, she has some good shots. We don’t talk about how we hit like bad or if we have like bad day.”
The Jutanugarns are the second set of sisters to win on the LPGA Tour, joining Annika and Charlotta Sorenstam, who also won in the same year in 2000. Thailand’s top players are also looking forward to representing their national flag at UL International Crown later this year.
“It’s probably the only time that we play as a team and represent Thailand as well,” said Moriya. “Also, you know, it probably the only time, we are not trying to beat each other. It’s going to be fun.”
LAST FIVE TICKETS UP FOR GRABS TO BIRMINGHAM AND THE U.S. WOMEN’S OPEN
This week’s LPGA Volvik Championship marks the final chance for LPGA players to earn a spot in the season’s second major, the U.S. Women’s Open Championship, conducted by the United States Golf Association. Five spots remain open in the 156-player field, with a full exemption held for the winner this week in Ann Arbor. Additionally, any players who reach the top 50 of the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings as of May 28 will receive full exemptions, provided they had not declined a previous exemption.
If those five spots are not filled via a victory in Ann Arbor and the Rolex Rankings update, spots will be filled out by alternates from the 25 sectional qualifiers held over the last three weeks.
Seventy-six players in the LPGA Volvik Championship field are not currently in the U.S. Women’s Open, including 1987 champion Laura Davies, 2005 runner-upMorgan Pressel and five-time major champion Yani Tseng.
Last year, winning magic came true for Katherine Kirk, who won the 2017 Thornberry Creek LPGA Classic as a non-exempt Women’s Open competitor and received that final golden ticket to compete for the $5 million purse, the largest purse on the LPGA Tour.
The 2018 U.S. Women’s Open will be held in Birmingham, Alabama, at Shoal Creek, a course that has hosted two PGA Championships and five Regions Traditions, a major on the PGA Tour Champions.
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