Over a month after the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, the second LPGA Tour event of the year is finally upon us with the Honda LPGA Thailand at Siam Country Club.
Considering the strength of the field, there’s little doubt it will be worth the wait. World No.1 Lydia Ko competes the week after her victory in the Aramco Ladies Saudi International, hoping to build on that by claiming her first win in the tournament. There’s every chance she will considering her recent form, which has seen her win in three of last four starts.
To say she will face stiff competition is an understatement. In truth, any number of high-profile players could claim victory this week. Aside from Ko, eight other members of the world’s top 10 are in the field, with only Lexi Thompson from it missing this week. World No.2 Nelly Korda finished fourth in the first tournament of the year last month and will be encouraged that she picked up the way she ended last season, with three top 10 finishes to wrap up 2022.
World No.3 Minjee Lee has split with her caddie of five years, Jason Gilroyed, and this will be her first tournament since. Lee’s best finish in the tournament was runner-up four years ago, and she’ll be hoping her new partnership with Rance De Grussa will have an immediate pay-off.
Former World No.1 Atthaya Thitikul was runner-up two years ago in her homeland and is looking for her third LPGA Tour win. She lost to another local player, Ariya Jutanugarn in 2021, who also plays. World No.5 Jin Young Ko goes in search of her first win since last March’s HSBC Women’s World Championship, while Canadian Brooke Henderson is also in the field hoping to capitalise on the momentum built from her victory in Orlando, Florida, in the opening tournament of the year.
In Gee Chun, Hyo-Joo Kim and Nasa Hataoka complete the list of names from the world’s top 10 in the field.
All those big-name players, and that’s before we even get to last year’s winner, Nanna Koerstz Madsen. The Dane beat Xiyu Lin in a playoff in 2022 to claim her maiden LPGA Tour title. The defeated World No.13 also plays, hoping to put the disappointment of just missing out last year behind her.
One player with plenty of experience of victory in the tournament is Amy Yang. She has won three times, most recently in 2019. Considering that was her most recent win on the LPGA Tour, it may be asking a lot for her to claim the title for a fourth time in such a strong field, but it’s clearly a…
..
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Golf Monthly RSS Feed…