Thailand Native Moriya Jutanugarn showed up and out in front of a home-country crowd on Thursday in the first round of the Honda LPGA Thailand.

The 30-year-old carded a 6-under 66 to kick off the week at Siam Country Club’s Old Course, a day-one effort that saw her make one bogey and seven birdies, three of which came in a four-hole stretch on Nos. 2, 3 and 5. It was a solid performance from the LPGA Tour veteran and has quickly put her in contention early in front of local fans, supporters that Jutanugarn was incredibly happy to see turn out to watch round-one action at the Honda LPGA Thailand.

“Every time coming back here, we always had really, really good support from Thai fans,” said Jutanugarn. “Now we even have more international. I saw a lot of Japanese, Koreans. That's mean they love LPGA to always coming back here.”

Jutanugarn is making her third start of the 2025 season this week in Thailand, having teed it up in the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, where she tied for 30th, and the Founders Cup presented by U.S. Virgin Islands, where she tied for 48th, before making the long trip back to her homeland. This is her 15th start in the Honda LPGA Thailand, and in her 14 previous appearances, Jutanugarn has collected three top-10 finishes, the best of which is a tie for second that came in 2018, a year that also saw her open with a 66 at the Old Course.

Her Thursday 66 is the first round of 66 or better that Jutanugarn has posted on the LPGA Tour since the Portland Classic when she went 64-66 on Saturday and Sunday, respectively, to claim her first victory since winning the Dow Championship with her sister and playing partner Ariya Jutanugarn in 2021 and her first individual win since she the 2018 HUGEL-JTBC LA Open.

The 2024 season was fairly solid for the three-time LPGA Tour winner, who made 18 cuts in 27 starts and picked up one other top-10 result along with her win in Oregon, a tie for fifth that came at the T-Mobile Match Play presented by MGM Rewards. She also had five additional top-25 finishes on her resume, the best of which were three T21s that she recorded at the Blue Bay LPGA, the Ford Championship presented by Wild Horse Pass and the Mizuho Americas Open.

But despite the solidity of her year-long performance, Jutanugarn was just enjoying the grind of trying to get better last season, taking pleasure in the process of constant improvement, something that isn’t always easy to do as an athlete’s career progresses.

“Last year is another year like working on lots of things,” said Jutanugarn. “Sometimes, works come out well, and sometimes, it's not quite. But I think it's just part of the game, and you just kind of have to deal with it. Actually keep me excited to just go out and working on something every day.”

Jutanugarn will have plenty to build on over the next three days at the Honda LPGA Thailand after such a strong start and will need to continue making a lot of hay if she wants to keep up with Japanese rookie Akie Iwai, who tied the 18-hole tournament scoring record with her 10-under 62 in the first round on Thursday to sit three strokes ahead of the field early in her third tournament appearance.

But Jutanugarn gleaned a lot of positives from her performance on day one, and considering how much experience she has with this golf course and these conditions, it shouldn’t be too tall of an order to keep this momentum rolling into the 54 holes that are remaining at the 2025 edition of the Honda LPGA Thailand.

“This course is always one of the very, very good golf courses we play the whole year, and the green is rolling very nice this week. It's quite tricky, a lot of slope, but sometimes, you just have to be out there and be patient,” said Jutanugarn. “It's been fun. Of course, when you starting to make putts and see balls go in, it's even more fun. But if anything, I try to focus on what I want to do, what I'm working on.

“All I have to do this week just enjoying everything because we don't really play at home in our country as much as we want to, so just want to enjoy everything.”

Thailand Native Moriya Jutanugarn in Solo Third After Opening 66

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