EVIAN-LES-BAINS, France | Patty Tavatanakit is off to a strong start through 36 holes at The Amundi Evian Championship, recording back-to-back rounds in the 60s to sit at 6-under ahead of the weekend at the year’s fourth major championship. After opening with a 2-under 69 on Thursday, the Thailand native backed that solid round up with a 4-under 67 on Friday, making one bogey and five birdies to sit near the top of the leaderboard.
Starting her day on the back nine, the 23-year-old tripped up early with a bogey on the par-4 11th hole but recovered quickly with a birdie on the next. Tavatanakit rattled off back-to-back birdies on holes 15 and 16 to turn in 34 and holed out from the bunker on the par-3 5th hole to grab another birdie and move to 5-under overall. She closed with a birdie on the par-5 9th hole to fire her first round of 67 or better since day two of The Chevron Championship in April and her sixth 67 or better of the 2023 season. Tavatanakit was pleased with her second-round effort and is looking forward to a weekend in contention, a place she hasn’t found herself in quite some time.
“I think the overall pace of my game, the way I was walking, I feel like the overall energy, momentum was really good. Not too fast, not too slow. Just in a good zone,” said the 2021 Chevron Championship winner. “I didn't really let any confidence down. I just kept it going, keep it light, and really trust in everything and it worked. It wasn't perfect to start, but I kept hanging in there, and then that putt dropped on 12 really helped and changed a lot of things.”
Tavatanakit has struggled a bit on the LPGA Tour since capturing her first and only LPGA Tour title at The Chevron Championship two years ago. She recorded eight more top-10 finishes after becoming a Rolex First-Time Winner during the 2021 season, and after playing well in her first eight starts of 2022, had one withdrawal and seven missed cuts in a nine-tournament stretch from June to October last season.
This year, Tavatanakit had another steady start, making the cut in her first seven tournaments of the season, but faltered again, missing four consecutive cuts from mid-May to late June. She’s righted the ship as of late though, finishing T27 at the U.S. Women’s Open at Pebble Beach Golf Links and T57 at the Dana Open. That top-30 result in California especially did wonders for Tavatanakit’s confidence and helped to shift her mindset ahead of the Amundi Evian Championship. And it’s those positives that have propelled her to this position at Evian Resort Golf Club.
“(The U.S. Women’s Open) was a really good week. My dad came, a lot of things changed,” said Tavatanakit. “But I feel like I learned a lot from that week and I just kind of picked out the goods of that week and keep it going. I had a good week; just putts didn't drop. So a lot of positives, a lot of things to be confident about. A lot of it was commitment, processing, self-talk, a little bit of the swing stuff. But overall, you keep adding things to your recipe and it's pretty good right now. Like the soup tastes good right now.”
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