LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – The Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions will always hold a special place for Jasmine Suwannapura. It’s where Michael David Thomas got down on one knee by the 18th green and proposed on Friday, putting the ultimate sparkle in her season-opening event on the LPGA.
“I actually picked the ring myself,” said Suwannapura, “but he didn’t say when it’s going to happen or how.”
The couple met two years ago on the dating app Bumble, but they didn’t actually see each other in person for almost two months. Suwannapura, a native of Bangkok who lives in Ashburn, Virginia, kept her real name and occupation under wraps too, telling him she was an event coordinator who traveled the world. The two-time LPGA winner didn’t include any photos of herself in golf clothes, either.
“That’s what I put on there until I find someone decent,” she said. “OK, we’ve been talking for a while, alright, this is my name. Here you go.”
Thomas, an IT engineer who works for Dominion Electric in Virginia, mostly played tennis growing up. Suwannapura had to brush up his golf skills after they started dating.
“I think he almost play like total of 20 rounds of golf,” she said. “So, yeah, it’s getting better. His short game is pretty good though. He can putt.”
Suwannapura, 28, said it’s not uncommon for her female friends who play golf to also keep their identities quiet at first. But for male golfers, she said, it’s different.
“I see the guys say that I’m professional golfer,” she said. “But for the women I feel like it’s safe for us not to say that, because people can Google that real quick.”
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