Patty Tavatanakit played steady in the final round of the ANA Inspiration as Lydia Ko surged. The 21-year-old is now an LPGA major champion.
The first major on the LPGA calendar ended with plenty of drama. In the end Lydia Ko couldn’t quite chase down Patty Tavatanakit at the ANA Inspiration despite firing a final-round 62.
Tavatankit did some scoring herself on the final day at Mission Hills in Rancho Mirage, California, stringing together 15 pars along with an eagle and two birdies for a final-round 68. At 18 under, Tavatanakit was two shots ahead of Ko in second. She put together four rounds in the 60s.
This is not only Tavatanakit’s first major title, it’s her first LPGA title. The 21-year-old’s previous best finish on the LPGA was a share of fifth.
Had Ko managed to pull it off, it would have been her first LPGA title since 2018. Ko, 23, won this championship in 2016. The former World No. 1 has 15 career titles.
“I don’t think there was an exact moment where I felt like, ‘OK, this is going to be a good one,’” Ko said on Golf Channel of her final-round 62, the lowest final round in a major in LPGA history. “Especially around a course like this you just have to focus until that last putt drops in the last hole.”
.@Patty_MPT’s short game has been stellar all week! 👌
Ko felt like she gave as good a chase as she could have.
“Maybe Patty was just a bit too far away,” she said.
Tavatanakit said she never focused on what Ko was doing ahead of her.
“Just kept hitting good shots, my putting, I rolled well, just didn’t read it well today,” she told Golf Channel. “Overall I really feel like I did stick to my game plan and I overcame he adversity out there. It was tough mentally and I just feel like it was a lot going on and I handled it well.”
Life will now be different as a major winner.
“I’m like, so pumped!” she could be heard saying as she walked off the green after being doused in champagne.
Stacy Lewis rallied to make the ANA Inspiration cut Friday at the Dinah Shore Course and then kept the momentum going on Saturday.
Stacy Lewis rallied to make the ANA Inspiration cut Friday when she shot 5-under 31 on the front nine at the Dinah Shore Course, her closing nine of the day. That allowed her to make the cut on the number of 1-over 145.
Lewis then opened her third round on the front nine and rolled out a 6-under 30, just the fourth nine-hole score of 30 in the history of the tournament.
That means Lewis had played her last 18 holes in 61. She added birdies on the 12th and 13th holes to reach 8-under for the day and had Lorena Ochoa’s course record of 62 in her sights.
But Lewis, who won the ANA Inspiration in 2011, triple-bogeyed the par 3 14th and finished with a 67.
“I don’t know. I hit a lot of fairways I think is the key, but just hit a lot of really good iron shots, and I really didn’t miss a golf shot until 14,” Lewis said. “So just hit it really solid and got the putter going late yesterday, so kind of found something there. But pretty crazy. I mean, you add those two nines I shoot 61, so pretty sweet.”
She is tied for 17th at 4-under heading into Sunday.
Gabriela Ruffels tees off on the 7th hole during the ANA Inspiration at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, April 1, 2021.
Ana Thursday 13
Ruffels using ‘home’ course edge
Gabriela Ruffels battled for low amateur at the 2020 ANA Inspiration, finishing second to Rose Zhang. Zhang played in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur this week, missing a playoff for the title by one shot, but Ruffels is back in the ANA Inspiration as a professional because of her 15th-place finish last September.
She credits some home connections for a good week. She is tied for 11th at 5-under entering Sunday.
“It’s really cool firstly staying at home, especially for a major,” said Ruffels, whose parents live at Toscana Country Club in Indian Wells. “I feel like you don’t get that that much, sleeping in your own bed and going home and seeing my dog. It just makes it that much more relaxing and comfortable.”
The desert connections mean Ruffels is not thrown off by desert conditions.
“I practice at Toscana Country Club and playing out here and playing in these conditions I don’t think it can hurt you,” she said. “So, yeah, definitely feeling more comfortable.”
Tavatanakit jumped out to a big lead with three birdies in her first three holes on the Dinah Shore Tournament Course at Mission Hills Country Club.
RANCHO MIRAGE, California — At times Saturday, it was as if Patty Tavatanakit was playing a different tournament than the rest of the field at the ANA Inspiration.
Tavatanakit jumped out to a big lead with three birdies in her first three holes on the Dinah Shore Tournament Course at Mission Hills Country Club, then worked her massive drives and her hot putter into a third-round 5-under 67.
While it wasn’t even the lowest round of the day, the performance felt like Tavatanakit was blowing away the field like the warm desert breeze that blew across the course in the afternoon. She extended her 36-hole lead from one shot to five shots entering Sunday’s final round.
“If I am going to pull it out, it is going to be tough,” said the 21-year-old Tavatanakit from Thailand.
Patty Tavatanakit putts on the 1st green during the ANA Inspiration at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, Calif., on Saturday, April 3, 2021.
It’s possible that the conditions down the stretch made Tavatanakit think that Sunday might be a difficult final round. With temperatures reaching 100 degrees in the desert and the prevailing winds starting to blow harder, Tavatanakit made two bogeys and two birdies in her final seven holes and barely missed spinning her third shot on the par-5 18th hole into the lake in front of the island green.
But as a tired Tavatanakit finished the round, she knew she had played well and put the rest of the field behind her. And the player who has been chasing Tavatanakit all week continued to be impressed with the young budding star.
“She’s an amazing player,” China’s Shanshan Feng said after finishing 18 holes with Tavatanakit with an even-par 72 to drop into a tie for fourth. “I actually learned a lot from her.”
Feng said Tavatanakit is an example of the new generation of players on the LPGA, capable of not only hitting 300-yard drives but having a deft short game as well.
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Feng will begin the final round of the major championship one shot behind American Ally Ewing and defending ANA Inspiration champion Mirim Lee from South Korea. As she did last year, Lee has quietly stayed on the leader board with consistent play, shooting 69 Saturday for her 9-under total. Ewing fired the round of the day, a 6-under 66.
Inbee Park, struggling uncharacteristically on the greens, and Charley Hull are tied for fifth at 7-under going into the final 18 holes Sunday.
Still technically a rookie on the LPGA after the truncated 2020 season when she debuted on the tour, Tavatanakit is doing more than padding her lead in the rookie of the year race with her performances this week. She’s looking for her first LPGA victory and looking to become just the second UCLA Bruin to win a major on the LPGA, joining Mo Martin.
Her 14-under 202 score ties the tournament record for 54-hole scoring set by Pernilla Lindberg in 2018. Like Lindberg, who went on to win in a playoff over Park in 2018, Tavatanakit has now held the lead at the end of all three rounds. And she has a chance to reach 19-under, the 72-hole scoring record for the event set in 1999 by Dottie Pepper.
Tavatanakit started the day at 9-under with a one-shot lead over Feng. But with a characteristic powerful drive 33 yards past Feng and just 88 yards to the front edge of the green on the 385-yard first hole, the leader set up an opening birdie. She easily reached the par-5 second hole with an iron for a two-putt birdie, then rolled in a 15-foot birdie on the third hole to reach 12-under and stretch her lead to three shots.
“It’s always nice to have a good start,” Tavatanakit said. “It makes you feel a little bit more comfortable throughout the day.
After that, it was a matter of who could make a run at the Thai star as she continued to make birdies. Tavatanakit birdied the ninth hole for a 32 on the front nine, then added birdies on the 11th, 13th and 15th holes.
Mirim Lee hits onto the 11th green during round three of the ANA Inspiration at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, Calif., on April 3, 2021.
Other players like Feng and Park reached 9-under for the day at some point in their rounds, but Ewing’s 66 was the big move of the day. Lee, the defending champion, put together a string of three consecutive birdies on the back nine for her 68 to make a late move to tie Ewing at 9-under.
While Tavatankit thinks about playing the same way she has played the first three days in chasing her inaugural win on the tour, Feng, a 10-year veteran who didn’t play on the LPGA last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, said she would also just go about her day trying to be happy and playing well.
“I can enjoy the whole process again, enjoy the four or five hours on the course,” Feng said. “My goal this week was just to make the cut and shoot maybe red numbers. I’ve done pretty well so far.”
RANCHO MIRAGE, California – A round of golf can mean different things to different people. It can be a place to have fun with friends, a way to get fresh air and exercise and sometimes the golf course can be a place of refuge from the negativity …
RANCHO MIRAGE, California — A round of golf can mean different things to different people. It can be a place to have fun with friends, a way to get fresh air and exercise and sometimes the golf course can be a place of refuge from the negativity that can inhabit our daily lives.
That was the case Saturday for Ally Ewing.
Ewing told The Golf Channel that she had “kind of a weird morning, I’ll just leave it at that” which led to a shorter warmup period. She didn’t want to go deeper into what made her morning strange, but added that she has “a lot of family that is supporting me through whatever it was.”
Because of whatever of life’s curveballs was thrown her way, Ewing didn’t have high expectations heading to the course Saturday.
“Yeah, well, like I said, the expectations were kind of not there, and I was just looking for some really positive energy on the first tee,” Ewing said.
Well, she found it.
Ewing birdied her first three holes and added three more birdies on the back nine for a bogey-free 6-under 66. It was the best round of the day and also her best round ever at this event. She jumped from 20th at the start of the day to a tie for second. She is five strokes behind leader Patty Tavatanakit, and she is the only American player inside the top 10 on the leader board.
“I just took it one hole at a time and was able to get off to a really good start with three birdies to start the day, then I just kept giving myself a lot of looks, which I think is so important on this golf course,” she said.
Ally Ewing hits out of the sand onto the 11th green during round three of the ANA Inspiration at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, Calif., on April 3, 2021.
Ally Ewing 11th Green
The 28-year-old from Mississippi is coming off a successful and eventful 2020.
On the golf course she made 13 of 14 cuts, finishing 11th on the money list and grabbed her first LPGA win in October at the LPGA Drive On Championship Reynolds Lake Oconee in Georgia, which was a new event created because of the cancellation of several Asian events due to COVID-19.
Off the course, she got married in May to Charlie Ewing. LPGA fans may recognize Ally by her maiden name of Ally McDonald. In November, Charlie was named the head coach for the Mississippi State women’s golf team.
Ewing is the No. 34-ranked player in the world. This is only her fourth time playing the ANA Inspiration, but she has had success here, finishing in a tie for sixth in 2019. She tied for 24th here in September.
That tie for sixth in 2019 marks her best finish in 21 attempts at majors. She is in position to better that Sunday. If she were to rally for the title, she would be the first American to win this event since Brittany Lincicome won it for a second time in 2015.
“I hit a lot of fairways, greens, which is crucial in a major, especially out here,” she said. “And even if I look back on my day I missed several putts inside 10 feet, but, I mean, a 66 on moving day, certainly all you can ask for to put yourself in a good position for tomorrow.”
Shad Powers is a columnist at The Palm Springs (California) Desert Sun, part of the USA Today Network. Reach him at shad.powers@desertsun.com.
Patty Tavatanakit defied the course conditions, strengthening winds in the afternoon and temperatures in the mid-90s, at the ANA Inspiration.
RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. — Officials at Mission Hills Country Club thought the Dinah Shore Tournament Course might play so tough for the ANA Inspiration this week that a winning score in single digits under par for 72 holes would be a reasonable expectation.
Patty Tavatanakit needed just 31 holes to surpass that mark.
Tavatanakit, the 21-year-old Thai golfer who played her college golf at UCLA, defied the course conditions, strengthening winds in the afternoon and temperatures in the mid-90s that caused her to feel tired in the middle of the round to maintain the lead in the LPGA’s first major championship of the year Friday.
She shot a 3-under 69 while other golfers were fighting to stay at or near even par on the day, putting Tavatanakit at 9-under 135, one shot ahead of Sanshan Feng.
The key, Tavatanakit said, was to not think about the magnitude of the event.
“I didn’t want to take it like, oh, I’m leading a major championship,” she said. “I just want to look at it like it’s another round, it’s another tournament. Even though it is a big tournament, I don’t want to put emphasis on it like it’s a major.”
Feng, playing in the afternoon, also shot 69 despite three bogeys in her round. Despite playing on what is considered a long hitter’s paradise, where the LPGA’s biggest hitters take advantage of the par-5s, Moriya Jutanugarn managed a 69 in the morning wave of tee times to get to 7-under, alone in third.
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Jutanugarn, ranked 131st on the LPGA average driving distance stats at a fraction under 240 yards, fired a 3-under 69 on Friday to move to 7-under for the tournament. She took sole possession of the lead at the first major championship of the year as the morning wave of tee times finished their round. Jutanugarn had four birdies in the round, but just one on a par-5, that being the second hole on the Shore Course.
“It’s just about patient out there,” Jutanugarn said. “I mean, I’m not a long hitter so I just have to take what I can and just trying to play smart and put myself into, you know, like places I can have a good chance.”
Sophia Popov is finally in the desert for the first of her five guaranteed starts in the first major of the year.
RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. — Sophia Popov was part of two of the biggest stories on the LPGA last year. First, she won her first major title at the AIG Women’s Open in Britain in August. Then she didn’t get to play in the ANA Inspiration despite the major victory.
The issue was that the ANA Inspiration, originally scheduled for April, froze its field to what would have been the April players, even though the tournament was delayed until September by the coronavirus pandemic. But when Popov won the Open, normally earning an automatic berth to the next playing of the ANA Inspiration, the German star who played college golf at USC found herself on the outside of the field.
That situation caused a change in the rules for the LPGA, but Popov is finally in the desert this week for the first of her five guaranteed starts in the first major of the year.
“You know, with good play you’re actually having fun, so, so far it’s been awesome,” Popov said after a second-round 3-under 69 put her among the second-day leaders. “It’s kind of what I hoped for. I watched this tournament so many times. Been here, watched my former teammates play.
“Yeah, it’s an amazing course, obviously in really good condition and I’m playing I guess up to my expectations, so that’s good,” Popov added.
Bad news for the field?
Here’s some unsettling news for the rest of the field in the ANA Inspiration this week: Inbee Park thinks her putting is getting better.
Long known as one of the best putters on the LPGA—if not the best–Park cruised to victory last week at the Kia Classic in Carlsbad. But she believes so far her week at the ANA Inspiration is showing improvement in her putting.
“I have been rolling it much better this week definitely, because, I mean, the green conditions are so much better and my speed is a lot better this week,” Park said. “It’s probably the same condition for everybody. I had some good putts last week, but I also missed a lot of short ones last week, which everybody probably does. This week, I feel like I’m holing them much better.”
Sticking around this year
Dani Holmqvist of Sweden knew that some day she would love to tee it up in the ANA. When she finally had her first chance last year, it ended in a disappointing withdrawal because of a back injury.
“This has been the major I was looking forward to the most just watching on TV growing up,” Holmqvist said. “Last year was tough and I played (with) one of my better friends on tour, and she walked up to me after 12 holes and said, ‘Dani, I see that you really want to do this, but you can’t do this to yourself.’
“So it was tough memories,” Holmqvist said. “It was nice walking past her (Thursday), hitting a drive past the place I withdrew.”
Unkind cut
Michelle Wie West, making her return to the ANA this week for the first time since 2019, might be the best-known golfer to miss the cut in the major championship this week. Wie fired a 2-under 70 in Thursday’s opening round, but stumbled out of the gate with three bogeys on her first three holes on the way to a 79 on Friday. That left the former U.S. Women’s Open champion at 7-over 151, missing the cut by four shots.
Wie West said it wasn’t just her golf game that needs work.
“Making the right decision takes practice, too,” she said. “That’s something that is hard to practice when you aren’t playing, and that’s probably where the rust really showed. That being said, I had some really good up and downs today that I’m definitely proud of.”
Other players missing the cut included past ANA champions Yani Tseng and Morgan Pressel.
Larry Bohannan is The Desert Sun golf writer. He can be reached at (760) 778-4633 or larry.bohannan@desertsun.com. Follow him on Facebook or on Twitter at @Larry_Bohannan. Support local journalism: Subscribe to the Desert Sun.
Moriya Jutanugarn, ranked 131st in LPGA average driving distance, fired an 3-under 69 Friday to move to 7-under for the tournament.
RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. — The ANA Inspiration is supposed to be a long hitter’s paradise, with the LPGA’s biggest hitters taking advantage of the par-5s on the Dinah Shore Tournament Course at Mission Hills Country Club.
Which doesn’t explain how Thailand’s Moriya Jutanugarn, one of the tour’s shortest hitters, found her way to the top of the leaderboard midway through Friday’s second round.
Jutanugarn, ranked 131st on the LPGA average driving distance stats at a fraction under 204 yards, fired an 3-under 69 Friday to move to 7-under for the tournament. She took sole possession of the lead at the first major championship of the year as the morning wave of tee times finished their round. Jutanugarn had four birdies in the round, but just one on a par-5, that being the second hole on the Shore Course.
“It’s just about patient out there,” Jutanugarn said. “I mean, I’m not a long hitter so I just have to take what I can and just trying to play smart and put myself into, you know, like places I can have a good chance.”
Jutanugarn reached 8-under for the tournament before a bogey on the par-4 15th, but kept the round going with a clutch eight-foot par putt on the 16th hole.
She ended her round moments before overnight leader Patty Tavatanakit began her second round. Jutanugarn was 6-under entering the round, but two other players, Shanshan Feng and Anna Nordqvist, were also at 6 under.
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Nordqvist’s round of 70 came when winds were gusty in the morning. The breeze calmed down during the mid-morning. Feng birdied her first two holes in the afternoon to reach 7-under but then lost a shot on the third hole.
“I feel like we are always going to play in the wind here,” Jutanugarn said. “You know, like every time, every year we come it’s always going to be kind of windy.”
Major champions moving up the board
Other major champions near the lead midway through the day included 2020 ANA Inspiration champion Mirim Lee, 2019 ANA champion Jin Young Ko and 2020 AIG Women’s Open Sophia Popov, making her first start in the Coachella Valley, all at 5-under.
“Obviously, so far so good,” said Popov, whose absence from the tournament last year after she had won the AIG Women’s Open spurred the LPGA to change its rules about major winners automatically getting into tournaments. “You know, with good play you’re actually having fun, so, so far it’s been awesome. It’s kind of what I hoped for. I watched this tournament so many times. Been here, watched my former teammates (from USC) play.”
Popov wasn’t in the field because the tournament and LPGA had frozen the ANA Inspiration field at its April status, even though thee tournament was postponed to September, after the AIG Women’s open, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jutaqnugarn, the older sister of Ariya, is looking for her second LPGA win and her first major championship. Her sister has 10 wins, including two majors.
A new approach to the setup of the 18th hole on the Dinah Shore Tournament Course is causing a stir at the LPGA major championship.
Green light or red light?
That’s been the question for golfers on the par-5 18th hole on the Dinah Shore Tournament Course at the ANA Inspiration this week. The 18th hole, always a focal point on the course for the LPGA pros, has suddenly become almost the singular talking point for the tournament.
Locked in at 485 yards for all four days of the tournament and with a green as firm as a lane at your neighborhood bowling alley, the hole now poses a difficult question to the best women golfers in the world. Is going for the island green in two to set up a potential eagle worth the risk of skipping through the green, over the island and into the lake behind the island green?
It all dates back to the Big Blue Wall, the tournament’s attempt to recreate the grandstand backstop on the island last year when a grandstand wasn’t needed because no fans were allowed at the event because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Big Blue Wall stopped some balls from going into the water behind the green last September, and that caught a lot of people’s attention. So did the idea that from 531 yards, the hole is unreachable for all put a handful of players, but at 485 yards, more than half of the field might take a run at the island in two.
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So now the hole is 485 yards for each round, putting players’ minds and hearts to the test as much as their games.
The answer to the question go for it in two or lay up depends on the player, as some first-round quotes point out.
“I talked to my caddie, Mercer. We decided not to go for it because the greens are pretty hard,” said Shanshan Feng. “They’re pretty firm. So like even though I can get it there, the thing is it’s not going to stop. So I would just take it as a three-shot.”
“I had the perfect distance today but didn’t like my lie, and before I would’ve just blown it back past the back into the grandstand,” Michelle Wie West said. “But it makes you think. It makes you think, because that water comes up pretty quickly behind the green.”
“I just wanted to hit the green. I don’t care about anything else,” said first-round leader Patty Tavatanakit. “It’s a pretty wide green and (I hit) a 6-iron, so it’s always nice to have a higher ball flight into that green, and I was able to stop it just pin high.”
What started as a naked island on the 18th hole of the Shore Course when the ANA Inspiration was first played in 1972 is, well, now a naked little island. No grandstands, no Big Blue Wall, no structures of any kind on perhaps the most famous island in the desert.
The 18th hole at the Dinah Shore Tournament Course, host of the ANA Inspiration. (Desert Sun photo)
This might be the future of the hole
But in the crazy pandemic world where we are all looking to get back to normal, an unadorned island green at the ANA Inspiration might well be the new normal. With no backstop, a firm putting surface and shaved slopes surrounding the green, the 18th has taken on a new life. Take, for example, the first nine golfers who played the hole Thursday morning.
On a rare desert day without the hint of a breeze, three players went for the green in two shots, six players laid up. Of the three who went for the green, all three held the green. One, Yuka Saso, had a great look for eagle but missed a 10-foot putt. Brooke Henderson missed the green long and left but stayed on the island in the short rough. Henderson eventually made par on the hole.
By Friday morning, with a stiff breeze in the players’ faces, Mother Nature had taken the decision out of the hands of the golfers, making the par-5 a true three-shot hole.
The idea of balls trickling down the slope behind the green and into the water– think about the front of the 15th hole at Augusta National in the Masters — is just the latest evolution of the most famous closing hole in women’s golf.
In the 1970s and even into the 1980s, no players really tried to reach the green in two. With everyone laying up and hitting wedges into the green, there was some debate that rather than moving the tees up to 485 yards, the tees should be moved back to about 570 yards. That would force players to hit 7-irons into the green rather than wedges.
But when the LPGA experimented with the short tees, players started making eagles, fans were excited and the idea of longer tees quietly went away. Now even the 531-yard tees seem obsolete.
One thing seems certain. The firm green, the water and the shorter tees have brought a new level of interest to the hole and the tournament. Whether there is a grandstand built behind the green next year or not, the concept of balls finding the water behind the green is here to stay. The tournament surely still wants a hospitality grandstand behind the green, but maybe the grandstand will be moved a few feet back into the water to open a gap into the water.
For more than 30 years, the question at the ANA Inspiration has been who will jump into the water next to the 18th green. Now maybe the question is changing slightly to who will hit a golf ball into the water.
Larry Bohannan is The Desert Sun golf writer. He can be reached at (760) 778-4633 or larry.bohannan@desertsun.com. Follow him on Facebook or on Twitter at @Larry_Bohannan. Support local journalism: Subscribe to the Desert Sun.
Patty Tavatanakit may still be learning about what it takes to win on the LPGA, but the 21-year-old seems like a fast learner.
RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. – Patty Tavatanakit may still be learning about what it takes to win on the LPGA, but the 21-year-old from Thailand seems like a fast learner.
Saying this season feels like an extension of her rookie year, Tavatanakit fired a stellar 6-under 66 on the Dinah Shore Tournament Course at Mission Hills Country Club on Thursday to take the first-round lead in the ANA Inspiration, the first major championship on the LPGA this season.
The round continued what has been a hot start to 2021 for Tavatanakit, who was a rookie in the truncated 2020 season. The former UCLA Bruin will enter the second round with a one-shot lead over Shanshan Feng, who didn’t play on the LPGA in 2020, and Leona Maguire, who finished her round hours after Tavatanakit and Feng completed their rounds.
Anna Nordqvist and Ariya Jutanugarn each fired first-round 68s on a day that saw little wind and some cloud cover. Among a group at 69 are the last two winners of the ANA Inspiration, Mirim Lee and Jin Young Ko.
Also on the leader board at 70, tied with names such as Lexi Thompson, is Michelle Wie West. Wie West last played in the major championship in 2019 and has been married and had a baby since then. Thursday was her third round on the LPGA this year after missing the cut at the Kia Classic in Carlsbad last week. It has been 18 years since Wie West debuted in the event as a 13-year-old.
“You know, looking back, I was a kid,” said Wie West, now 31, of her debut in the event. “I still feel like a kid. Having a baby definitely puts a different perspective on everything. I’m more excited to go home and see her than I was about my round, to be honest.”
Tavatanakit struggled at times in her rookie season, missing cuts in seven of 14 starts with just one top-10 finish. But already in 2021 she has a tie for fifth in the Gainbridge LPGA and a tie for 14th at the LPGA Drive On Championship in Florida. She comes to the ANA Inspiration, her fourth start in the event, off a missed cut at the Kia Classic in Carlsbad last week.
“It takes a lot out here to play well week after week, day after day. It’s a really tough job, tough sport,” Tavatanakit said. “Not every day is gonna go your way.
“Today, even though it’s a 6-under, it was not a perfect golf,” she added. “It was, I mean, a lot out there, but I would take that any day. Golf is not a perfect sport.”
Closing in on a win
With another appearance on the leader board in 2021, Tavatanakit said she certainly feels like she is learning each week.
“I feel like just growth into being in contention and just keep learning, keep being in it,” she said. “Eventually like I’ll be able to finish it out. It doesn’t have to be this week. I have a long career ahead of me, and I’m just going to keep playing the way I’m playing.”
Part of Tavatanakit’s success Thursday was taking the advantage of the par-5s on the Shore Course, hitting all four in two shots including the island green on the 18th hole that set up a closing birdie. Handling the par-5s shows the progress in Tavatanakit’s already impressive game.
“It helped playing the course at a really young age (as an amateur), seeing it differently. I feel like I’m hitting it the furthest I’m hitting,” she said. “I could never reach the green on 9 for the three times I played here, and I was able to do it today. I was telling my caddie, man, I’ve got a little bit of a different game here. I’m hitting it a little further, and if anything a little straighter.”
“Last year was a difficult year for everybody, and I just made a decision at the middle of the year to go back to China and maybe take some time off with my friends and family at home,” Feng said. “And I really enjoyed the whole time over there, but of course I missed playing. So I started to practice like maybe a few months ago. Tried to come back little earlier but I couldn’t because of the visa.”
Feng’s round included five birdies and no bogeys, showing she hasn’t lost much from her game after a year on the sidelines.
“I’m saying that I’m an old rookie, but it’s not like I’ve never been in tournaments before,” Feng said. “So I know what it takes to play well in the tournament, and I really did work on like, to get my distance back because I did lose some distance.”
Maguire birdied two of her final four holes to crawl into the chase at 5-under, while other golfers had chances on the par-5 18th to make a move but made just pars or even bogeys on the demanding hole.
A book could be written on Michelle Wie West’s golf career just at the ANA Inspiration.
RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. – A book could be written on Michelle Wie West’s golf career just at the ANA Inspiration, where she first played as a 13-year-old in 2003. In Thursday’s opening round, Wie West added a new chapter to that book.
In her first start in the LPGA major championship since 2019 and in just her third round of the 2021 season, Wie West rolled in some key putts for unexpected birdies on the way to a 2-under 70 on the Dinah Shore Tournament Course at Mission Hills Country Club.
While that leaves Wie West three shots off the early lead of Shanshan Feng midway through the first round, it was Wie West and her memories at the course that were the talk of the ANA inspiration.
“I always think the tradition here, just knowing the legends that have jumped into Poppie’s Pond,” Wie West said after her round. “Honestly, it’s the volunteers that make it special to me. I recognize a lot of faces over the years. Just being able to see them year after year and just the vibe here is great.”
Wie West’s career at the ANA Inspiration includes playing in the final threesome on Sunday in her debut at 13, threatening to win the title when she was 14, missing a playoff by one shot when she was 16 and falling just short in a final-round duel with Lexi Thompson in 2014. Somehow, Wie West has never won the tournament to make the champion’s leap into Poppie’s Pond.
She is now back in the event as a 31-year-old married woman with a child, and it is, in her words, weird.
“You know, looking back, I was a kid,” Wie West said of her debut in the event 18 years ago. “I still feel like a kid. Having a baby definitely puts a different perspective on everything. I’m more excited to go home and see her than I was about my round, to be honest.”
A hot putter pays off
Playing the back nine first, Wie West made the turn at even par. But she rolled in a 40-foot birdie putt on the first hole, birdied the short par-5 second hole and rolled in another long birdie putt on the tough par-4 third hole. She shared the lead at 3-under at one point, but a bogey on the sixth hole dropped her down the leader board.
Wie West said as she planned her return to the LPGA after getting married and having her first daughter that the ANA Inspiration was the target for her return. She played in the Kia Classic last week in Carlsbad, missing the cut with rounds of 81 and 74.
”Oh, 100 percent something that I really want to play,” Wie West said. “This place is, as you all know, really a special place to me, and to be back here, especially with a baby here as well, it’s a really special place. That was definitely a goal that I had.”
The early first-round leader also has an interesting story. Feng, from China, didn’t play at all in 2020, sitting at home during the pandemic, trying to figure out what to have for her next meal three times a day, she laughed.
But there was no evidence of rust on Feng’s game on Thursday, with five birdies and no bogeys.
Yuka Saso of Japan managed a 3-under 69 in her first trip to the Dinah Shore Tournament Course and was alone in the lead for much of the day before falling back with a late bogey. Other early finishers included Lexi Thompson at 70, Nelly Korda at 71 and Brooke Henderson at 75. Korda and Henderson were in a three-way playoff with eventual winner Mirim Lee when the 2020 tournament was played five months delayed last September.
Larry Bohannan is The Desert Sun golf writer. He can be reached at (760) 778-4633 or larry.bohannan@desertsun.com. Follow him on Facebook or on Twitter at @Larry_Bohannan. Support local journalism: Subscribe to the Desert Sun.
